Best mystery & ifs Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“So unless we form some kind of adequate relationship to death, we're never going to live properly, and if we think of it purely as a medical thing, we have reduced life. We should think of it as some sort of mystery which we can participate in now, not something to be pushed off to one side till the last moments.”

Ifs Thinking Should Kind Moments Lasts Form Sides Mystery Medical Adequate

Author:Kevin Hart

“There's many things that I am. And all of those things come together at some point. If somebody wants to limit me, you know and they'll say, 'Well, this is Walter Mosley, the mystery writer.' I don't like that. Because I do many things.”

Ifs Knows Want Wells Together Mystery Limits

Author:Walter Mosley

“I believe that patterns tend to repeat themselves and there are connections between the past and the present. There is the old proverb that reads, You cant know where youre going if you dont know where youve been. For me, history is like that. When you take history and combine it with myth, then you get mystery.”

Ifs Knows Believe Past I Believe Mystery Connections Patterns Myth Repeats Cant Old Proverb

Author:Ashwin Sanghi

“I was extraordinarily lucky. I wrote a book because I wanted to see if I could write a mystery. Someone nagged me into sending it to a contest, which it won, after which I was offered a two-book contract, thus requiring the writing of a second book.”

Ifs Writing Two Book Wanted Mystery Lucky If I Could Contracts Contests

Author:Donna Leon

“Mr. Tulkinghorn, sitting in the twilight by the open window, enjoys his wine. As if it whispered to him of its fifty years of silence and seclusion, it shuts him up the closer. More impenetrable than ever, he sits, and drinks, and mellows as it were in secrecy, pondering at that twilight hour on all the mysteries he knows.”

Source: Bleak House ... With frontispiece by H. K. Browne

“Faith minus vulnerability and mystery equals extremism. If you've got all the answers, then don't call what you do 'faith.'”

Ifs Answers Mystery Vulnerability Extremism Minus

Author:Brené Brown

“Cruelty is a mystery, and the waste of pain. But if we describe a word to compass these things, a world that is a long, brute game, then we bump against another mystery: the inrush of power and delight, the canary that sings on the skull.”

Ifs World Long Pain Joy Suffering Games Mystery Waste Delight Cruelty Compass Brutes Skulls Bumps Canaries

Author:Annie Dillard

“If anything is evident about people who manage money, it is that the task attracts a very low level of talent, one that is protected in its highly imperfect profession by the mystery that is thought to enfold the subject of economics in general and of money in particular.”

People Ifs Levels Money Mystery Subjects Talent Particular Lows Economics Tasks Profession Manage Imperfect Protected Evident Low Level

Book:Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went

Source: Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went

“If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic....Authors arrive at text and subtext in thousands of ways, learning each time they begin anew how to recognize a valuable idea and how to reader the texture that accompanies, reveals or displays it to its best advantage.”

Ifs Thinking Way Writing Ideas Order Magic Mystery Reader Discovery Advantage Valuable Awe Reverence Display Selection Texture Accompany Subtext

Author:Toni Morrison

“Introduce your main characters and themes in the first third of your novel. If you are writing a plot-driven genre novel make sure all your major themes/plot elements are introduced in the first third, which you can call the introduction. Develop your themes and characters in your second third, the development. Resolve your themes, mysteries and so on in the final third, the resolution.”

Ifs Writing Firsts Character Novel Mystery Development Elements Majors Thirds Finals Driven Genre Theme Plot Resolve Resolution Introducing Introduction Main Characters

Author:Michael Moorcock

“In America the chief accusation seems to be one of "Eroticism." This is odd, rather puzzling to my mind. Which Eros? Eros of the jaunty "amours," or Eros of the sacred mysteries? And if the latter, why accuse, why not respect, even venerate?”

Ifs Love Mind Seems America Sex Mystery Worship Sacred Chiefs Odd Latter Why Not Amour Accusation Eros Puzzling

Book:Delphi Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)

“If by believing you mean praying to an anthropomorphic deity who created the world and half controls it and half observes it, then I am probably not a believer. But if you mean that it is not all accidental, that there is a mystery to existence, a deeper meaning, that I do believe in.”

Ifs World Believe Mean Existence Half Mystery Praying Deeper Believer Deities Deeper Meaning

Author:Vaclav Havel

“I had wondered for a long time why God had preferences and why all souls did not receive an equal amount of grace [...] Jesus saw fit to enlighten me about this mystery. He set the book of nature before me and I saw that all the flowers He has created are lovely. The splendor of the rose and whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. I realized that if every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness and there would be no wild flowers to make the meadows gay.”

“Sometimes, a scene goes on too long and, with this being a suspense story and murder mystery that you're trying to discover through her heightened paranoia, you don't want scenes that take you on a tangent. Sometimes, you love those scenes, but you know that it's better not to be in the overall film. So, I'm not sad that they're not in the main movie, but I do think it's fun for people to get to watch them, if they want to.”

People Ifs Thinking Knows Want Trying Long Sometimes Stories Film Fun Watches Mystery Goes On Scene Murder Suspense Paranoia Murder Mysteries

Author:Catherine Hardwicke

“For better or worse we live in a very exposing [time] where, if you choose to, everyone can see everyone's business. You see what they're having for breakfast, where they are, what they're doing. Whereas I think that classic idea of mystery is very seductive. Not knowing every single thing about a person, what they're thinking, that's very powerful. And it would be a shame if we lost that totally.”

Ifs Thinking Persons Ideas Would Be Lost Powerful Knowing Mystery Shame Classic Breakfast You Choose Not Knowing Very Powerful Seductive Exposing

Author:Theo James

“Always without desire we must be found, If its deep mystery we would sound; But if desire always within us be, Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.”

Ifs Wisdom Desire Found Sound Wise Mystery Fringe

Book:The Daodejing of Laozi

Source: The Daodejing of Laozi

“There's no huge mystery. If you dig up huge amounts of carbon, huge amounts of ancient biology, hundreds of millions of year's worth of ancient biology, and flush it into the atmosphere in a matter of decades, then it stands to reason that we're going to have enormous effects, and now we can see those effects all around us.”

Ifs Years Matter Reason Millions Mystery Effects Huge Amount Ancient Decades Enormous Atmosphere Biology Carbon

Author:Bill McKibben

“I always say that, like a scientist or anyone, you always want to be the problem-solver. You feel like, if you solve the greatest mystery or the greatest problem, then that makes you brilliant. It's the same thing with an actress. You want to be able to really tackle a character and make it a fully-dimensional human being who is complicated, funny and all the things that a person could be.”

Ifs Want Feels Humans Persons Character Problem Able Human Beings Mystery Scientist Complicated Solve Actresses Brilliant Problem Solvers

Author:Viola Davis

“If I really knew how to do good storytelling, I would be a writer. Mystery is not a huge part of it. ... It's tension, it's relationships. I think it's a struggle.”

Ifs Thinking Would Be Struggle Mystery Huge Storytelling Tension Good Storytelling

Author:Scott Cohen

“Many years ago I had two small children, and I wanted to be able to be home when they got home from school. And I didn't like the direction journalism was taking. I thought if I could write books, I could work at home and have the best of both worlds. I wrote my first mystery while still working full time, and it didn't sell, but the next one did sell, so I quit my job for the world of fiction. Scary, but I've never regretted it for a single day.”

“The saints are like the Lord, but so are all people who keep the commandments of Christ; but those who live according to their own passions and do not repent are like the devil. I think that if this mystery were revealed to the world, then they would stop serving the devil, and every one would strive to serve the Lord with all his strength, and to be like Him.”

People Ifs Thinking World Inspirational Christian Passion Christ Religious Lord Mystery Devil Strive Saint Orthodox Serving Commandments Repent

Author:Silouan the Athonite

“If you want to attain salvation, learn and keep in your heart all that the holy Church teaches and, receiving heavenly power from the mysteries of the Church, walk the path of Christ's commandments, under the direction of lawful pastors, and you will undoubtedly attain the Heavenly Kingdom and be saved. All of this is naturally necessary in the matter of salvation, necessary in it entirety and for all. Whoever rejects or neglects any part of it has no salvation.”

“It's always a mystery to me, I have to confess. I've never been able to witness the birth of an idea. It seems as if one second, there's nothing particularly going on, and the next second, something is there.”

Ifs Ideas Seems Able Next Mystery Birth Witness

Author:Paul Auster

“...Which brings me to the Hubble Space Telescope's newest images. If it's wonder that you're looking for, and mystery, don't just scan the photographs. Stop and think about them. Try to imagine the scale. The Earth is just a speck of dust on one distant whirling tentacle of the Milky Way galaxy, which contains billions of stars. A 'collision' of galaxies seems unimaginably large - and yet it is something scientists long ago imagined... The imaginings of pseudoscience are feeble by comparison.”

“Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.”

Ifs Writing Firsts Book Ends Lasts Next Literature Mystery Middle Pages Sells Detective Fiction Letdowns

Author:Mickey Spillane

“If we stay aware and acknowledge the great mystery that is this life, we will see that we have been perfectly placed, in exactly the right position… to make all the difference in the world.”

Ifs World Has Beens Differences Mystery Position This Life Acknowledge

Book:Celestine Insights - Limited Edition of Celestine Prophecy and Tenth Insight

Source: Celestine Insights - Limited Edition of Celestine Prophecy and Tenth Insight

“The mystery lies in the irrationality by which you make appearance - if it is not irrational, you make illustration.”

Ifs Lying Mystery Appearance Irrational Illustration Irrationality

Author:Francis Bacon

“Death is, in some ways, unacceptable. It's just an astonishing fact of our being here that we die; but I think worse than that is if we live long enough, we lose everyone we love in this world. I mean people die and disappear, and we're left with this stark mystery: just the sheer not knowing of what happened to them.”

People Ifs Thinking World Way Mean Long Enough Facts Dies Left Loses Knowing Happened Mystery This World Disappear Not Knowing Sheer Astonishing Starks Mean People

Author:Sam Harris

“The writer is driven by his conviction that some truths aren't arrived at so easily, that life is still full of mystery, that it might be better for you, Dear Reader, if you went back to the Living section of your newspaper because this is the dying section and you don't really want to be here.”

Ifs Want Stills Might Life Is Mystery Dying Reader Dear Conviction Driven Newspapers Sections

Author:Don DeLillo

“If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all.”

Ifs Mystery Perceive Mystery Of God

Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky

“The whole point of marriage is to stop you getting anywhere near real life. You think it's a great struggle with the mystery of being. It's more like being smothered in warm cocoa. There's sex, but it's not what you think. Marvellous, for the first fortnight. Then every Wednesday. If there isn't a good late-night concert on the Third. Meanwhile you become a biological functionary. An agent of the great female womb, spawning away, dumping its goods in your lap for succour. Daddy, daddy, we're here, and we're expensive.”

“Meditation opens the mind to the greatest mystery that takes place daily and hourly; it widens the heart so that it may feel the eternity of time and infinity of space in every throb; it gives us a life within the world as if we were moving about in paradise.”

Ifs World Giving Feels Mind Heart May Moving Space Meditation Mystery Eternity Paradise Infinity

Author:Shunryu Suzuki

“If there is no mystery, for the artist, to solve inside of his art, then there's no point in it....for me, every act of the art of solving a mystery.”

Ifs Art Artist Mystery Solve No Point

Author:Truman Capote

“Yesterday is history, but if you don't learn from your past mistakes you will continue to make the same mistakes. Tomorrow isn't a mystery. Go after your goals with every breathe you take, and the future is far from being a mystery. Today isn't a gift. You have to earn it every day.”

Ifs Today Past Goal Mistake Mystery Tomorrow Breathe Yesterday Our Past Your Past Same Mistakes Past Mistakes Yesterday Is History

Author:Steve Kaufman

“I do not forgive myself for being born. It is as if creeping into this world, I had profaned a mystery, betrayed some momentous pledge, committed a fault of nameless gravity.”

Ifs World Born Mystery This World Forgiving Faults Committed Gravity Betrayed Pledge Nameless

Book:The Trouble with Being Born

Source: The Trouble with Being Born

“There are a lot days where I don't know if God exists. There are a lot of days where I think the leadership of the Church is wacky, a lot of days where I really doubt why I am a part of this thing. But, down deep, I know it to be true. Down deep, I know how much I love it and that's what sort of gets me through. The churches are the pope, and its priests and its mystery and everything. I just sort of like the whole thing.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Whole Church Know How Doubt Mystery Being True Priests Pope God Exists Wacky

Author:Lino Rulli

“Women, unlike most men, are able to accept mystery, accept whatever comes to them - even if it's not logical.”

Ifs Men Able Accepting Mystery Logical

Author:Cher

“This Is Your Time, This Is Your Dance. Live Every Moment, Leave Nothing To Chance. Swim In The Sea. Drink Of The Deep, Embrace The Mystery Of All You Could Be. What if Tomorrow? And What If Today? Faced With The Question, Oh What Would You Say?”

Ifs Moments Today Chance Mystery Sea Tomorrow Drink Embrace What If Swim Live Every Moment

Book:This Is Your Time: Make Every Moment Count

Source: This Is Your Time: Make Every Moment Count

“Darkness, whether in mood or in night, is natural. So if we flow with the black bile of melancholia and endure the terrible darkness of depression, eventually we will break through into the light of joy. This is the Tao (the Way) of darkness or depression--this is the Mystery of its evolution.”

Ifs Way Light Joy Night Black Natural Break Darkness Mystery Evolution Terrible Flow Endure Mood Tao Break Through

Author:Arnold Mindell

“The human being of all times prays because he cannot fail to wonder about the meaning of his life, which remains obscure and discomforting of it is not put in relations to the mystery of God and if his plan for the world.”

Ifs World Humans Human Beings Wonder Plans Failing Mystery Praying Relation Remains All Time Obscure Mystery Of God

Book:A School of Prayer

Source: A School of Prayer

“There is a sort of mystery to kitsch. When did it begin? If it is just simply another name for faking emotions, it ought to have been a permanent part of the human condition.”

Ifs Humans Has Beens Names Emotion Mystery Conditions Ought Permanent Human Condition Kitsch

Author:Roger Scruton

“Never carry things on from the past. The past is gone. Every moment be rid of it, solved or unsolved. Drop it - and don't carry parts because those parts won't allow you to solve new problems that live in this moment. Live in this moment as totally as possible, and suddenly you will come to realized, that if you live it totally, it is solved. There is no need to solve it. Life is not a problem to be solved, it's a mystery to be lived.”

Ifs Needs Moments Problem Past Life Is Gone Mystery Solve

Author:Rajneesh

“We don't have an explanation for everything that happens. We don't control almost anything. And if we are not open to that mystery, life becomes so small.”

Ifs Happens Mystery Explanation

Author:Isabel Allende

“When we suffer, there will sometimes be mystery. Will there also be faith? Yes, if our attention is focused more on the cross, and on the God of the cross, than on the suffering itself.”

Ifs Sometimes Suffering Attention Mystery Crosses Focused

Author:D. A. Carson

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt is awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

“Nothing excites men's curiosity so much as Mystery, concealing things which they desire to know; and nothing so much increases curiosity as obstacles that interpose to prevent them from indulging in the gratification of their desires. Of this the Legislators and Hierophants took advantage, to attract the people to their sanctuaries, and to induce them to seek to obtain lessons from which they would perhaps have turned away with indifference if they had been pressed upon them.”

People Ifs Knows Men Desire Mystery Lessons Advantage Increase Curiosity Obstacles Indifference Gratification Sanctuary Legislators Concealing

Book:Morals and Dogma

Source: Morals and Dogma

“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.”

“I'm not interested in the director's commentary stuff. I think that stuff is really boring. And, if the director explains too much, it takes a certain mystery away from the interpretation that is very important for the audience to have. The audience should have their own interpretation.”

Ifs Thinking Should Important Certain Stuff Audience Too Much Mystery Directors Should Have Boring Interpretation Not Interested Commentary

Author:Joseph M. Kahn

“If you deny mystery-even in the guise of death-then you deny life, and you will walk like a ghost through your days, never knowing the secrets of the extremes. The deep sorrows, the absolute joys.”

Ifs Joy Walks Secret Knowing Mystery Sorrow Absolutes Extremes Deny Ghost Guise Deep Sorrow

Book:The Jaguar Hunter

Source: The Jaguar Hunter

“To do any important work in physics a very good mathematical ability and aptitude are required. Some work in applications can be done without this, but it will not be very inspired. If you must satisfy your "personal curiosity concerning the mysteries of nature" what will happen if these mysteries turn out to be laws expressed in mathematical terms (as they do turn out to be)? You cannot understand the physical world in any deep or satisfying way without using mathematical reasoning with facility.”

Source: Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman

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Mystery Quotes