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Empty Quotes

“So all the rest is O.K., but fame is a hollow ground, isn't it? It's an empty kind of thing.”

Kind Fame Empty Hollow

Author:Richard O'Brien

“A new life is innocent, like an empty page, ready for the hard lessons ahead. GENNITA LOW, Facing Fear To vice, innocence must always seem only a superior kind of chicanery.”

Kind Hard Seems Life Is Ready Lessons Pages Lows Empty Vices Innocent Superiors Innocence New Life Facing Fear Hard Lessons Chicanery

Author:Ouida

“The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. The innocence of the first inquiry—what am I?—is needed throughout Zen practice. The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything.”

Mind Firsts Kind Nature Realizing Accepting Steps Practice Doubt Possibility Ready Needed Habit Empty Originals Innocence Experts Emptiness Flash Inquiry Beginners

Book:Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

“The art of decoration requires the most sophisticated and self-indulgent skills. Its aim has always been to sate the senses as gloriously as possible. ... ornament is not only a source of sensuous pleasure; it supplies a necessary kind of magic to people and places that lack it. More than just a dread of empty spaces has led to the urge to decorate; it is the fear of empty selves.”

People Kind Art Self Space Pleasure Magic Source Skills Empty Aim Senses Urges Dread Sophisticated Supplies Ornaments Decoration Empty Space Sensuous Self Indulgent

Book:ARCHITECTURE, ANYONE?

Source: ARCHITECTURE, ANYONE?

“I do not know What kind of my obedience I should tender. More than my all is nothing; nor my prayers Are not words holy hallowed, nor my wishes More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers and wishes Are all I can return.”

Knows Should Kind I Can Wish Prayer Return Holy Empty Vanity Obedience My Wish

Book:King John and King Henry VIII

Source: King John and King Henry VIII

“What kind of heart does one have to have in order to be able to get rid of these, without regret, as if they were empty beer cans?”

Ifs Heart Kind Doe Able Order Regret Empty Beer

Book:Casa Rossa

Source: Casa Rossa

“The devils enter uninvited when the house stands empty. For other kinds of guests, you have to first open the door.”

Firsts Kind House Doors Devil Empty Guests Uninvited

Author:Dag Hammarskjold

“It's very hard to be a screenwriter. I remember getting a couple of awards. I got a PEN West award a million years ago when I did Running on Empty, and I sat in the room with all these writers. They wrote everything from novels to non-fiction to children's books to journalism - any kind of writing - and I realized that there was no one in the room who would ever read anything I'd written.”

“Technique to me is a kind of a ... I'm reluctant to talk about it because it seems so obvious to me what good technique is. I mean, you sit down, you shut up, and you pay attention is basically the good technique. And then the footnotes add; on an empty stomach, in a dark room, feeling comfortable.”

Kind Mean Feelings Seems Dark Rooms Pay Attention Comfortable Empty Add Obvious Technique Pay Attention Stomach Shut Up Reluctant Dark Room Footnotes Empty Stomach

Author:Terence McKenna

“Yes, I know, we are merely empty forms of matter, but we are indeed sublime in having invented God and our soul. So sublime, my friend, that I want to gaze upon matter, fully conscious that it exists, and yet launching itself madly into Dream, despite its knowledge that Dream has no existence, extolling the Soul and all the divine impressions of that kind which have collected within us from the beginning of time and proclaiming, in the face of the Void which is truth, these glorious lies!”

Knows Want Kind Soul Matter Dream Faces Form Lying Existence Divine Conscious My Friends Empty Impression Despite Glorious Void Sublime Launching Proclaiming

Author:Stephane Mallarme

“I feel like this song [Yello, "Oh Yeah"] was probably done in a couple of minutes in a studio. There was probably no thought behind it; they were just playing with some samples and threw it together. I feel like there's no dream behind the song. Usually there's a dream or some kind of passion attached to a song. This song feels very empty. It made a lot of money for the songwriters but at the expense of culture.”

Feels Kind Made Done Dream Together Song Culture Passion Behinds Minutes Couple Empty Yeah Studios Expenses Lots Of Money Songwriters Sample

Author:Margaret Cho

“After having stopped the lower activities of the mind, it must be made receptive; and, instead of weaving all kinds of empty and idle thoughts, the mind should receive intuitions from above.”

Should Mind Kind Made Activity Empty Intuition All Kinds Idle Receptive Weaving

Author:Sri Aurobindo

“Get yourself empty in the Eastern sense. Not in the Western sense. In the Western sense when we feel empty we feel lonely, miserable, but in the Eastern sense - "I'm so empty, because I'm filled with everything, and I'm connected to everything." It's very energizing. You want that kind of emptiness, whatever you have to do to get yourself quiet.”

Want Feels Kind Quiet Lonely Empty Filled Western Connected Miserable Emptiness Eastern Feeling Lonely Energizing

Author:Sandra Cisneros

“It is true that one has to think first and then to act - but it's also true that if one has no possibility of acting, one's thinking kind of becomes empty and stupid.”

Ifs Thinking Firsts Kind Acting Stupid Possibility Empty

Author:Erich Fromm

“Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart. Even if he says things that are full of wrong perceptions, full of bitterness, you are still capable of continuing to listen with compassion. Because you know that listening like that, you give that person a chance to suffer less.”

Ifs Knows Giving Heart Kind Persons Stills Helping Purpose Suffering Chance Compassion Listening Perception Capable Empty Bitterness Compassionate Continuing Deep Listening

Author:Nhat Hanh

“I always wished I could go to confession. I was so full of things I couldn't name and had an instinct to hide. I felt burdened by the loneliness of my interior life. I wanted some container that I could empty myself into, some ear that would never be shocked, even if it offered me some kind of penance.”

Ifs Kind Wanted Names Felt Loneliness Empty Ears Instinct Confession Shocked Interiors Containers Penance

Author:Melissa Febos

“We live in a world of empty spectacle, the world of spectacle rock, songs you can't remember, it's all about the expression of money, power and kind of empty and fascistic. Where technology has changed society, where people are not using their brains as much, not seeing the bigger picture but constantly looking down at the cellphone and not seeing the bigger picture. Today's songwriter need to be on outside, find their own trip if you will and find a way to connect from a place that no one has heard before. It might be taken as weird but that is what makes it unique.”

People World Kind Remember Song Brain Technology Taken Changed Unique Empty Bigger Picture

Author:Don McLean

“But this cheap-thrill version, this sort of ease definition, the feel-good definition of happiness is an empty promise. Unless we get wiser as to how to carry the difficulties of life in a way that's self-compassionate and empowering, we can create this kind of world in which we'd rather sort of plug into the matrix with whatever pills or escapist tendencies we can think of instead of walking through a process of living that's going to include loss. It's going to include limitations on function. We need to learn and teach our children how to do that.”

Thinking World Kind Children Loss Teach Walking Promise Empty Difficulty Our Children Limitation Empowering Wiser

Author:Steven C. Hayes

“You don't just find an empty museum and say, "I should do something here." I was looking for another kind of venue or exhibition format. I was trying to find a site where something could happen over a long period of time - something that could slowly transform itself and the place as it went. And I was also trying to stand out of the art-world system. Strangely enough, I stumbled on vacant museum.”

Trying Kind Long Enough Empty Standing Out

Author:Pierre Huyghe

“I think in some ways people kind of hate it, but most models recognize that it's a pretty easy job to make a lot of money at in a relatively short time, and you get to travel the world and meet a lot of interesting people. There are extreme highs and extreme lows. I think if it were as clear-cut as "models hate it," then they wouldn't do it. I really enjoyed a lot of the actual aspects of it, but not enough to make it my primary job. It can be quite empty, which is why I pursued other things.”

People Thinking World Kind Enough Hate Easy Interesting Empty Travel The World

Author:Lily Cole

“I love to write when I feel like everybody else is asleep and when I feel like the world is kind of empty in some ways. I find, oddly enough, that I write about loneliness and isolation a lot.”

World Writing Kind Enough Loneliness Empty Isolation

Author:Dan Chaon

“All my day is spent dealing with other people. When I come home I like it to be empty. The presence of others in my house kind of annoys me. I love coming home and shutting the doors. I feel brain dead. I'm relatively available, but not to live with.”

People Feels Kind Home House Brain Doors Empty Available Coming Home Annoying Annoyed Brain Dead

Author:Graham Norton

“And talking about dark! You think dark is just one color, but it ain't. There're five or six kinds of black. Some silky, some woolly. Some just empty. Some like fingers. And it don't stay still, it moves and changes from one kind of black to another. Saying something is pitch black is like saying something is green. What kind of green? Green like my bottles? Green like a grasshopper? Green like a cucumber, lettuce, or green like the sky is just before it breaks loose to storm? Well, night black is the same way. May as well be a rainbow.”

Thinking Way Wells Kind May Stills Moving Night Black Dark Talking Break Five Sky Color Six Empty Green Fingers Storm Just One Bottles Rainbow Lettuce Cucumbers Grasshoppers Pitch Black

Author:Toni Morrison

“Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping... waiting... and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir... open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us. Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love... the clarity of hatred... the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we'd know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion, we'd be truly dead.”

“I believe in those whom I love and trust. All else is foolishness. This god is as empty as his church. His followers choose to attribute all of their good fortune to him, but when he ignores their pleas or leaves them to suffer, they say only that he ignores their pleas or leaves them to suffer, they say only that he is beyond their understanding and abandon themselves to his will. What kind of god is that?”

Believe Kind Suffering I Believe Understanding Church Empty Fortune I Believe In Abandon Followers Attributes Foolishness Good Fortune Love And Trust

Author:John Connolly

“We'd just shared the last beer and slung the empty can out the window at a stop sign and were just waiting back to get the feel of the day, swimming in that kind of tasty drowsiness that comes over you after a day of going hard at something you enjoy doing -- half sunburned and half drunk and keeping awake only because you wanted to savor the taste as long as you could.”

Feels Kind Long Hard Wanted Lasts Waiting Enjoy Half Taste Window Empty Drunk Beer Awake Over You Swimming Tasty Go Hard

Author:Ken Kesey

“If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that--warm things, kind things, sweet things--help and comfort and laughter--and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all.”

Ifs Giving Heart Kind May Made Sometimes Helping Hands Born Sweet Comfort Gay Laughter Empty Warm Princess Giver Sweet Things Little Princess

Book:A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“Traveling, I am finding, teaches you a lot of things about yourself. For instance, I never thought myself to be the kind of person who pees into a mostly empty bottle of Bluefin energy drink while driving through South Carolina at seventy-seven miles per hour - but in face I am that kind of person.”

Kind Persons Faces Energy Hours Teach Drink Findings Empty South Seven Driving Miles Instance Bottles About Yourself Seventies Carolina South Carolina Energy Drink Empty Bottles

Book:Paper Towns

Source: Paper Towns

“Murphy watched me thoughtfully for several empty seconds. Then she said, very gently, "You're a good man, Harry." I swallowed and bowed my head, made humble by the tone of her voice and the expression on her face, more than the words themselves. Not always rational," she said, smiling. "But you're the best kind of crazy.”

Men Kind Made Said Faces Voice Crazy Expression Empty Humble Rational Tone Good Man Seconds Murphy Dresden You Re The Best Karrin Murphy

Author:Jim Butcher

“I've got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don't want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I'd rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before 'thin'. And frankly, I'd rather they didn't give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls.”

“There's a kind of luck that's not much more than being in the right place at the right time, a kind of inspiration that's not much more than doing the right thing in the right way, and both only really happen to you when you empty your heart of ambition, purpose, and plan; when you give yourself, completely, to the golden, fate-filled moment.”

Way Giving Heart Kind Moments Inspiration Happens Purpose Fate Plans Ambition Empty Luck Filled Golden Right Thing Right Way Right Time Shantaram Right Place Doing The Right Thing

Book:Shantaram: A Novel

Source: Shantaram: A Novel

“I wished there was some kind of switch on my brain. That I could turn it off in the same way that I could turn off the television. Just click it off and immediately empty my mind of all these images and worrying thoughts. And simply leave a blank screen. Or if I could just remove my head and put it on the bedside table and forget about it until morning. And then attach it again when I needed it.”

Ifs Way Mind Kind Turns Forget Brain Morning Worry Television Needed Empty Tables Screens If I Could Remove Blank Clicks Turn Off

Author:Marian Keyes

“Abby must have been the one who found the safe house, because Townsend didn't like it. "The building across the street is under construction," he snarled as soon as we'd carried our bags inside. "The elevator has key card access, and I've hacked into the surveillance cameras from every system on the block," Abby argued. "We have a three-hundred-sixty-degree visual." "Excellent." Townsend dropped his bag. "Now the circle can see us from every angle." "Don't mind Agent Townsend, girls," Abby told us. "He's a glass-half-empty kind of spy." "Also known as the good kind," he countered. Abby huffed.”

“Reading a novel after reading semiotic theory was like jogging empty-handed after jogging with hand weights. What exquisite guilt she felt, wickedly enjoying narrative! Madeleine felt safe with a nineteenth century novel. There were going to be people in it. Something was going to happen to them in a place resembling the world. Then too there were lots of weddings in Wharton and Austen. There were all kinds of irresistible gloomy men.”

“Yes, there was something special about me, and I knew what it was. I was the kind of girl they found dead in a hall bedroom with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand.”

Kind Hands Girl Found Sleep Special Empty Suicide Halls Bottles Bedroom Pills Something Special Self Harm Kind Of Girl Sleeping Pills Empty Bottles Found Dead

Book:My Story

Source: My Story

“Then there was Nico di Angelo. Dang, that kid gave Leo the freaky-deakies. He sat back in his leather aviator jacket, his black T-shirt and jeans, that wicked silver skull ring on his finger, and the Stygian sword at his side. His tufts of black hair struck up in curls like baby bat wings. His eyes were sad and kind of empty, as if he’d stared into the depths of Tartarus—which he had.”

“What opposite discoveries we have seen! (Signs of true genius, and of empty pockets.) One makes new noses, one a guillotine, One breaks your bones, one sets them in their sockets; But vaccination certainly has been A kind antithesis to Congreve's rockets.”

Kind Has Beens Science Break Genius Discovery Empty Opposites Bones Noses Emptiness Pockets Rockets Antithesis Guillotine Vaccinations True Genius Empty Pockets

Book:DON JUAN

Source: DON JUAN

“When your witnessing is ninety percent, your mind is reduced to ten percent. And when your witnessing is one hundred percent - total, absolute - the screen is empty, the film has disappeared. This is the state of meditation: when there are no thoughts, no feelings - nothing moves, everything stops. There is tremendous serenity. Out of this serenity, silence, peace, a new kind of experience arises, new flowers blossom.”

Mind Kind States Feelings Film Moving Silence Meditation Flower Ten Percent Hundred Empty Absolutes Screens Arise Serenity Ninety Flower Blossom

Author:Rajneesh

“We’ll all say that. We’ll all go on and make the place safe. Roads, cities. New sky, new soil. Until it’s all some kind of Siberia or Northwest Territories, and Mars will be gone and we’ll be here, and we’ll wonder why we feel so empty. Why when we look at the land we can never see anything but our own faces.”

Feels Looks Kind Faces Cities Wonder Gone Sky Land Goes On Safe Empty Soil Territory Mars Siberia

Author:Kim Stanley

“Being kind to animals is not enough. Avoiding cruelty is not enough. Housing animals in more comfortable, larger cages is not enough. Whether we exploit animals to eat, to wear, to entertain us, or to learn, the truth of animal rights requires empty cages, not larger cages.”

Kind Enough Animal Learning Rights Comfortable Eating Empty Entertainment Cruelty Be Kind Animal Rights Avoiding Cages Housing Exploits Animal Liberation Animal Abuse

Author:Tom Regan

“Kindness is the visible expression of a feeling and merciful heart; it is the going forth of a tender and susceptible mind; it claims kindred with the human race; it is all ear to listen-all heart to feel-all eye to examine and to weep-all hand and foot to relieve; it invites the sufferer with kind words, and sends him not empty away.”

Source: Christian charity explained; or, The influence of religion upon temper stated; in an exposition of the thirteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians

“I think a person has to believe in something, or search out some kind of faith; otherwise life is empty, nothing. How can you live not knowing why the cranes fly, why children are born, why there are stars in the sky... Either you know why you live, or it's all small, unnecessary bits.”

Thinking Knows Believe Kind Children Persons Life Is Stars Bits Born Knowing Sky Empty Not Knowing Unnecessary Cranes Stars In The Sky

Author:Sarah Ruhl

“At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.”

Men Firsts Looks Kind May Mean Social Crime Empty Machines Slavery Painful Rhythm Confused Mechanism Typical Glances Anguish Gang Social Life Gaiety

Author:Federico Garcia Lorca

“Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart.”

Heart Kind Persons Helping Purpose Suffering Listening Empathy Empty Compassionate Deep Listening

Author:Nhat Hanh