Quotessence
Home / Topics / Empty Quotes

Empty Quotes

Browse 2805 quotes about Empty.

Related topics

IfsSpacePeopleMindThinkingKnowsMenWorldEmpty SpaceHeartFeelsEmptinessWayRoomsNeedsHalfGlassesWantGivingMayHalf EmptyFilledLittlesShouldFirstsDoeLooksFeelingsMeanSoulHandsStillsHouseSaidHumansLongLeftLightSeemsWellsTryingHomeMadeSpiritIdeasStomachBookEnoughEyePersonsSkyKindSelfBodyLifeMatterNightWaitingWould BeBigsEndsFeltHalf FullWaterDreamI CanLife IsFacesMomentsRealSilenceWritingSometimesChildrenCupsSoundUseBottlesTwoBelieveEmpty StomachWholeFactsMightBeautifulEarthFallHas BeensVesselAirDarkDoorsFoundInspirationalJoyRealityArtBrainDesireEmpty Roomsmore

Empty Quotes

“Standing at the edge of our city, a man could feel that we had made this place of streets and dwellings in the stillness of the desert, and that we had done a brave thing... Or a man could feel that we had made this city in the desert and that it was a fake thing and that our lives were empty lives, and that we were the contemporaries of the jack rabbits.”

MenFeelsMadeDoneCitiesOur LivesStreetsStandingEmptyBraveEdgesDesertFakeStillnessRabbitsDwellingEmpty Life
Author:William Saroyan
Create image

“In railway halls, on pavements near the traffic, They beg, their eyes made big by empty staring And only measuring Time , like the blank clock. No, I shall weave no tracery of pen-ornament To make them birds upon my singing tree: Time merely drives these lives which do not live As tides push rotten stuff along the shore.”

MadeBigsEyeStuffTreeSingingBirdEmptyClockStaringHallsPensShoreTidesBlankTrafficRottenOrnamentsMeasuringPavementRailway
Book:New Collected Poems of Stephen Spender
Create image

“[On Christianity:] Its lip-service and its empty rites have made it the easiest of all tasks for the usurer to cloak his cruelties, the miser to hide his avarice, the lawyer to condone his lies, the sinner of all social sins to purchase the social immunity from them by outward deference to churches.”

MadeLyingReligionSocialChurchSinChristianityTasksEmptyLipsLawyerCrueltyMade ItHypocrisySinnerAvariceCloaksRiteMisersImmunityDeferenceLip Service
Book:Views and Opinions
Create image

“the explanation of the ebb and flow of the women's movement ... is partly psychological. During those early post-war years when successes came thick and fast and were almost thrust upon us, the nation was still under the influence of the reconstruction spirit, when everything seemed possible ... A few years later the nation had reached the stage which follows a drinking bout. It was feeling ruefully in its empty pockets. It did not want to part with anything to anybody. Its head ached. Noble sentiments made it feel sick. It wanted only to be left alone.”

WantFeelsYearsMadeStillsWarFeelingsWantedSpiritPoliticsLeftNationsFeminismInfluenceStageMovementFlowEmptySickDrinkingNoblePsychologicalMade ItPostsExplanationPocketsSentimentsThickThrustLeft AloneReconstructionEbb And FlowPost WarEmpty Pockets
Author:Eleanor Rathbone
Create image

“The first book by an African American I read was Carl T. Rowan's memoir, Go South to Sorrow. I found it on the bookshelf at the back of my fifth-grade classroom, an adult book. I can remember the quality of the morning on which I read. It was a sunlit morning in January, a Saturday morning, cold, high, empty. I sat in a rectangle of sunlight, near the grate of the floor heater in the yellow bedroom. And as I read, I became aware of warmth and comfort and optimism. I was made aware of my comfort by the knowledge that others were not, are not, comforted. Carl Rowan at my age was not comforted.”

FirstsMadeI CanBookAgeRememberFoundQualityMorningColdSorrowComfortAdultsEmptyOptimismSouthMemoirAfrican AmericanSatGradesWarmthYellowClassroomSunlightBedroomSaturdayFifthJanuaryBookshelvesFifth GradeSaturday MorningGrateRectangles
Author:Richard Rodriguez
Create image

“The zombie threat is made worse by the fact that their victims then turn into the creature that attacked them. This too is similar to other monsters (werewolves and vampires) and also similar to the sub-genre of infection/plague films. In the case of zombies, however, this may carry a greater sense of dread and revulsion: vampires and werewolves can be seen as desirable, potent, intelligent, virile creatures whom one might like -- in some way at least -- to become; a mindless ghoul condemned to wander aimlessly across an empty, ruined earth seems much less attractive.”

WayMayMadeFactsSeemsMightEarthFilmTurnsCasesGreaterCreaturesEmptyIntelligentVictimThreatMonstersWanderVampireGenreAttractiveDreadRuinedDesirableZombiePlagueWerewolfInfectionMindlessGhoulsRevulsion
Author:Kim Paffenroth
Create image

“But it's never just been the journals that have made the difference, I don't think. It's also the way the students are with one another . . . the way they talk about books and authors and themselves. Not just their problems, but their passions too. The way they form a little society and discuss whatever matters to them. Books light the fire-whether it's a book that's already written, or an empty journal that needs to be filled in.”

ThinkingWayNeedsLittlesMadeBookMatterProblemLightFormPassionDifferencesFireWrittenStudentsEmptyFilledJournalFilled In
Author:Meg Wolitzer
Create image

“The whole material world. It doesn't actually exist. Matter is not material. It's made up of atoms that are moving at lightning speeds around huge empty spaces. So as you go beyond the appearance of molecules, you end up with a subatomic world, and if you go beyond that you end up with nothing. Nothing is the source of everything.”

IfsWorldMadeEndsMatterWholeMovingSpaceMaterialsHugeSourceEmptyAppearanceSpeedAtomsLightningMoleculesEmpty SpaceMaterial World
Author:Deepak Chopra
Create image

“No child should be brought up to suppose that its food and clothes come down from heaven or are miraculously conjured from empty space by papa. Loathsome as we have made the idea of duty (like the idea of work) we must habituate children to a sense of repayable obligation to the community for what they consume and enjoy, and inculcate the repayment as a point of honor.”

ShouldChildrenMadeIdeasHeavenEnjoyCommunitySpaceDutyHonorClothesEmptyObligationEmpty SpacePapaRepayment
Book:George Bernard Shaw: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit
Create image

“Although the Christian is thus free from all works, he ought in this liberty to empty himself, take upon himself the form of a servant, be made in the likeness of men, be found in human form, and to serve, help and in every way deal with his neighbor as he sees that God through Christ has dealt and still deals with him.”

MenWayHumansMadeStillsHelpingChristianFormFoundChristDealsLibertyOughtEmptyNeighborServantHuman Form
Book:Martin Luther: Selections From His Writing
Create image

“The body is made up of atoms and subatomic particles that are moving at lightning speed around huge empty spaces and the body gives off fluctuations of energy and information in a huge void, so essentially your body is proportionately as void as intergalactic space, made out of nothing, but the nothing is actually the source of information and energy.”

GivingMadeBodyMovingEnergySpaceInformationHugeSourceEmptySpeedYour BodyAtomsVoidLightningParticlesEmpty SpaceFluctuationSubatomic Particles
Author:Deepak Chopra
Create image

“The commonest error made in relation to poetry is that it consists simply in verse-making. Many confound the casket of meter and rhyme with the jewel of thought which it encloses, and, perhaps, in some instances, after close investigation, they have found the casket empty and turned away with feelings of disappointment and disgust.”

MadeFeelingsFoundEmptyRelationErrorsDisappointmentInstancePoetry IsDisgustingInvestigationVersesRhymeJewelsMeterCaskets
Author:Orson F. Whitney
Create image

“I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.”

KnowsWantFeelsHeartMadeStillsSoulCountryEyeSpiritualSpeakWealthMoralAmbitionEmptyCaughtIllnessAcquireDecayCaught UpRuthlessVacuumsPrestigeDimesAmerican SocietyTumorsMoral Decay
Author:Lee Atwater
Create image

“In these respects we differ from the Christian world, for our religion will not clash with or contradict the facts of science in any particular... whether the Lord found the earth empty and void, whether he made it out of nothing or out of the rude elements; or whether he made it in six days or in as many millions of years, is and will remain a matter of speculation in the minds of men unless he give revelation on the subject. If we understood the process of creation there would be no mystery about it, it would be all reasonable and plain, for there is no mystery except to the ignorant.”

IfsMenWorldGivingYearsMindMadeMatterFactsWould BeEarthChristianFoundProcessLordMillionsMysterySubjectsCreationParticularElementsSixUnderstoodEmptyIgnorantMade ItRevelationsReasonableVoidRudeSpeculationClash
Author:Brigham Young
Create image

“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.”

FeelsKindMadeDoneDreamTogetherSongCulturePassionBehindsMinutesCoupleEmptyYeahStudiosExpensesLots Of MoneySongwritersSample
Author:Margaret Cho
Create image

“Men didn't like to empty bedpans, so we made women nurses. Then men didn't like to do the administrative stuff, so women were allowed to become secretaries. That's the way they entered the work force. Then we began to educate them because they had to be educated. But it wasn't until after World War II that most of the great universities of this country became coeducational.”

MenWorldWayMadeWarCountryForceStuffEmptyUniversityEducatedWar Of The WorldsEducateWorld War IiNurseWorld War ISecretaryAdministrative
Author:John Shelby Spong
Create image

“When I was a little kid and I heard a song I liked on TV, I would jump up and run to the piano to try and figure it out by ear. When I was 10 or 11, I built myself a drum kit in the garage made out of empty laundry detergent buckets, old lawn chairs, paint cans, and old trash cans. And around that time, my parents got me my first guitar. A baby acoustic. I jumped between all of these instruments constantly to satisfy the ideas I heard in my head. At this young age, I realized that music would play a huge part in my life.”

TryingFirstsLittlesMadeIdeasPlayRunningKidsAgeYoungSongParentHeardFiguresTvsHugeBabyBuiltEmptyEarsInstrumentsPaintGuitarI RealizedPianoChairsLittle KidTrashYoung AgeLawnsGarageBucketsLaundryAcousticsTrash CansLaundry Detergent
Author:Brendon Urie
Create image

“It was as if the empty nights were made for thinking of him. And sometimes I found myself so vividly aware of him it was as if he had only just left the room and the ring of his voice were still there. And somehow, there was a disturbing comfort in that, and, despite myself, I’d envision his face.”

IfsThinkingMadeStillsSometimesFacesNightFoundLeftVoiceRoomsComfortEmptyRingsDespiteDisturbingThinking Of Him
Book:Interview with the Vampire
Create image

“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.”

IfsGivingHeartKindMayMadeSometimesHelpingHandsBornSweetComfortGayLaughterEmptyWarmPrincessGiverSweet ThingsLittle Princess
Book:A Little Princess
Create image

“Cool is spent. Cool is empty. Cool is ex post facto. When advertisers and pundits hoard a word, you know it's time to retire from it. To move on. I want to suggest, therefore, that we begin to avoid cool now. Cool is a trick to get you to buy garments made by sweatshop laborers in Third World countries. Cool is the Triumph of the Will. Cool enables you to step over bodies. Cool enables you to look the other way. Cool makes you functional, eager for routine distraction, passive, doped, stupid.”

KnowsWorldWayWantLooksMadeCountryBodyMovingStepsStupidEmptyThirdsTricksPostsTriumphRoutineDistractionRetiringPassiveExesGarmentsThird WorldLaborersAdvertisersPunditsThird World CountriesSweatshops
Author:Rick Moody
Create image

“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.”

MenKindMadeSaidFacesVoiceCrazyExpressionEmptyHumbleRationalToneGood ManSecondsMurphyDresdenYou Re The BestKarrin Murphy
Author:Jim Butcher
Create image

“I didn’t know how much I could love until you were gone. Until your laughter no longer filled my home, your wicked high jinks no longer made me crazy. Until I stood in that damned club and knew, without you by side, my life was as empty as my bed was without you in it. I didn’t know what love was, until I saw my refusal to admit it drown all the sweet innocence in your eyes. I love you.”

KnowsMadeHomeEyeSidesKnow HowGoneSawsCrazyLove YouSweetBedLaughterEmptyFilledClubsInnocenceWickedWithout YouRefusal
Author:Lora Leigh
Create image

“He had never liked October. Ever since he had first lay in the autumn leaves before his grandmother's house many years ago and heard the wind and saw the empty trees. It had made him cry, without a reason. And a little of that sadness returned each year to him. It always went away with spring. But, it was a little different tonight. There was a feeling of autumn coming to last a million years. There would be no spring. ("The October Game")”

YearsFirstsLittlesMadeDifferentReasonFeelingsWould BeLastsGamesHouseMillionsSawsHeardTreeSadnessCryWindSpringYears AgoEmptyLaysTonightGrandmotherAutumnOctoberAutumn Leaves
Author:Ray Bradbury
Create image

“Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who condescended to come into this world of misery, struggle, and pain to touch men's hearts for good, to teach the way of eternal life, and to give Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. How different, how empty our lives would be without Him. How infinite is our opportunity for exaltation made possible through His redeeming love.”

MenWorldWayGivingHeartMadeDifferentWould BePainOpportunityJesusChristSinTeachStruggleOur LivesSacrificeMankindThis WorldSonEternalJesus ChristEmptyInfiniteMiseryEternal LifeExaltationRedeemingRedeeming Love
Author:Gordon B. Hinckley
Create image

“When a baby comes into the world, its hands are clenched, right? Like this?" He made a fist. "Why? Because a baby not knowing any better, wants to grab everything, to say the whole world is mine. But when an old person dies, how does he do so? With his hands open. Why? Because he has learned his lesson." "What lesson?" I asked. He stretched open his empty fingers. "We can take nothing with us.”

WorldWantPersonsDoeMadeWholeHandsDiesKnowingMinesBabyLessonsEmptyFingersWhole WorldNot KnowingFistsOld Person
Book:Have a Little Faith: A True Story
Create image

“I nudged myself closer to the ledge and closed my eyes and thought 'Oh what a life this is, why do we have to be born in the first place, and only so we can have our poor gentle flesh laid out to such impossible horrors as huge mountains and rock and empty space,' and with horror I remembered the famous Zen saying, 'When you get to the top of a mountain, keep climbing.' The saying made my hair stand on end; it had been such cute poetry sitting on Alvah's straw mats.”

FirstsMadeEndsEyeBornSpacePoorImpossibleRocksHugeHairHorrorMountainSittingEmptyFleshGentleRememberedCuteClimbingStrawsEmpty SpaceLedges
Author:Jack Kerouac
Create image

“Oh, Black known and unknown poets, how often have your auctioned pains sustained us? Who will compute the lonely nights made less lonely by your songs, or by the empty pots made less tragic by your tales? If we were a people much given to revealing secrets, we might raise monuments and sacrifice to the memories of our poets, but slavery cured us of that weakness.”

PeopleIfsInspirationalMadeMightPainNightSongGivenBlackMemoriesSecretKnownSacrificePoetWeaknessLonelyEmptyRaisesSlaveryTalesTragicPotRevealingMonumentLonely Nights
Author:Maya Angelou
Create image

“From this distance, in the dimness, the model looked surreal, made up of parts filled with buildings, bordered by long stretches of empty space. It reminded me of the way cities and towns look when you are flying at night. You can't make out much. But the places where people have come together, and stayed, are collections of tiny lights, breaking up the darkness.”

PeopleWayLooksLongMadeLightTogetherNightSpaceCitiesDarknessBuildingModelsEmptyTownsFilledDistanceTinyFlyingCollectionsSurrealEmpty SpaceMake OutCities And Towns
Book:What Happened to Goodbye
Create image

“Sonnet XXV Before I loved you, love, nothing was my own: I wavered through the streets, among Objects: Nothing mattered or had a name: The world was made of air, which waited. I knew rooms full of ashes, Tunnels where the moon lived, Rough warehouses that growled 'get lost', Questions that insisted in the sand. Everything was empty, dead, mute, Fallen abandoned, and decayed: Inconceivably alien, it all Belonged to someone else - to no one: Till your beauty and your poverty Filled the autumn plentiful with gifts.”

WorldMadeNamesLostMy OwnRoomsPovertyAirStreetsObjectsMoonEmptyFilledAliensFallenSandAutumnRoughAbandonedAshesSonnetTunnelsMuteI Loved YouWarehousePlentiful
Author:Pablo Neruda
Create image

“Oh," he said, knocking a red ball into a hole. "It's you." "You were expecting someone else?" I asked. "Am I interrupting your social calender?" I made a big show of glancing around the empty room. "I don't want to keep you from the mob of fans beating down your door." "Hey, a guy can hope. I mean, it's not impossible that a car full of scantily clad sorority girls might break down outside and need my help.”

WantNeedsMeanMadeSaidHelpingShowsBigsMightGuyGirlSocialRoomsBreakImpossibleDoorsFansCarRedEmptyBallsHolesHeyExpectingBreaking DownKnockingInterruptingSororityEmpty Rooms
Book:Bloodlines
Create image

“I can't deceive myself out of the bare stark realization that no matter how enthusiastic you are, no matter how sure that character is fate, nothing is real, past or future, when you are alone in your room with the clock ticking loudly into the false cheerful brilliance of the electric light. And if you have no past or future which, after all, is all that the present is made of, why then you may as well dispose of the empty shell of present and commit suicide.”

IfsWellsMayMadeI CanRealMatterCharacterLightPastRoomsFateEmptySuicideCommitRealizationClockElectricDeceivingShellsCheerfulEnthusiasticBrillianceStarksYour RoomElectric LightClock TickingEmpty Shell
Author:Sylvia Plath
Create image

“It's too early for there to be any coffee. I stare dully at the empty pot in the common room, while Sam picks up a jar of instant grounds. "Don't," I warn him. He scoops up a heaping spoonful and, heedlessly, shovels it into his mouth. It crunches horribly. Then his eyes go wide. "Dry," he croaks. "Tongue...shriveling." I shake my head, picking up the jar. "It's dehydrated. You're supposed to add water. Good thing you're mostly made of water." He tries to say something. Brown powder dusts his shirt. "Also," I tell him, "that's decaf.”

TryingMadeEyeWaterRoomsCommonMouthsPicksEmptyAddGood ThingsWideTongueCoffeeDustStaringShirtsInstantHis EyesDryShakesBrownPotJarsPowderShovelsCrunch
Author:Holly Black
Create image