Driven Quotes - Page 9

• I couldn't imagine anyone ever reading a book enough to make it look like that. It looked like it had been driven over by a school bus after someone had taken a bath with it.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Taken, Reading, Book

  Maggie Stiefvater (2011). “Shiver Trilogy (Shiver, Linger, Forever)”, p.442, Scholastic Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Driven by a wish to save Tomás from a life of penury and misunderstanding, Fermin had decided that he needed to develop my friend's latent conversational and social skills. Like the good ape he is, man is a social animal, characterized by cronyism, nepotism, corruption, and gossip. That's the intrinsic blueprint for our ethical behavior.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  Animal, Men, Skills

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2005). “The Shadow of the Wind”, p.96, Penguin

  40 Copy quote

  Show source

• Well, you have now, Sam, dear Sam,' said Frodo, and he lay back in Sam's gentle arms, closing his eyes, like a child at rest when night-fears are driven away by some loved voice or hand. Sam felt that he could sit like that in endless happiness.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Children, Eye, Night

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings”, p.116, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• At various points in our lives, or on a quest, and for reasons that often remain obscure, we are driven to make decisions which prove with hindsight to be loaded with meaning. (225)

  Swami Satchidananda

  Decision, Quests, Obscure

  21 Copy quote

• There is a physics to the world, which non-fiction has a contract to stand in awe of, otherwise it becomes completely self-centered and ego-driven, which is the death of a memoir.

  Nick Flynn

  Self, Ego, Fiction

  4 Copy quote

• They had battled and bloodied one another, they had kept secrets, broken hearts, lied, betrayed, exiled, they had walked away, said goodbye and sworn it was forever, and somehow, every time, they had mended, they had forgiven, they had survived. Some mistakes could never be fixed - some, but not all. Some people can't be driven away, no matter how hard you try. Some friendships won't break.

  Robin Wasserman

  Best Friend, Goodbye, Mistake

  6 Copy quote

• So in the sweltering heat of a July night, I sang a Christmas carol to a room full of fae, who had been driven out of their homelands by Christians and their cold-iron swords.

  Patricia Briggs

  Christian, Night, July

  Patricia Briggs (2011). “The Mercy Thompson Collection”, p.451, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The music defied classification. If I had been writing a review of the show, I would have labeled it progressive, guitar-driven rock ’n’ roll. But the guitars made sounds guitars didn’t always make. Symphonic sounds. Sacred sounds. The music dug in so deep you didn’t hear it so much as feel it, reminding me of a dream I used to have when I was a kid, where I would be standing on a street corner, I would jump into the air, flap my arms, and soar up into the sky. That’s the only way I could describe the music. It was the sonic equivalent of flight.

  Tiffanie DeBartolo

  Dream, Writing, Kids

  Tiffanie DeBartolo (2005). “How to Kill a Rock Star”, p.86, Sourcebooks, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When it came to hiding, even Gwin had nothing to teach Dustfinger. A strange sense of curiosity had always driven him to explore the hidden, forgotten corners of this and any other place, and all that knowledge had now come in useful.

  Cornelia Funke

  Curiosity, Strange, Forgotten

  Cornelia Funke (2011). “Inkheart”, p.462, Scholastic Inc.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• They loved each other, not driven by necessity, by the "blaze of passion" often falsely ascribed to love. They loved each other because everything around them willed it, the trees and the clouds and the sky over their heads and the earth under their feet.

  Boris Pasternak

  Passion, Clouds, Sky

  32 Copy quote

• We all play chess with Fate as partner. He makes a move, we make a move. He tries to checkmate us in three moves, we try to prevent it. We know we can't win, but we're driven to give him a good fight.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Moving, Fighting, Fate

  Isaac Bashevis Singer (1982). “The collected stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer”, Vintage

  40 Copy quote

  Show source

• A shrieking rise of power rushed into my pathways, rocking me against the wall. Ido's body slammed into mine. He was not going to let go. Not now. The Rat Dragon howled, his heavy blue force driven back by the onslaught of sinuous gold. Raw,rejoicing energy flooded my seven centers of power; opening,pushing, seeking. And behind it all, a presence exulting in the joy of release and reunion. I looked up and finally my mind-sight was clear. I could see the Mirror Dragon. My Dragon.

  Alison Goodman

  Letting Go, Wall, Mirrors

  Alison Goodman (2010). “Eon”, p.310, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mom put dense cheddar bread into a bag for a man who said this was his wife's favorite - he'd driven all the way from New Jersey to buy it because today was their anniversary. Several women in the store jabbed their husbands on hearing this. I hung my head - Peter Terris wouldn't cross the street to buy me a Twinkie.

  Joan Bauer

  Mom, Husband, Men

  Joan Bauer (2005). “Thwonk”, p.17, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Envy, Want

  Adam Smith (1809). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.95

  109 Copy quote

  Show source

• I can't help but see myself in them. The Seelie are who I was before my sister died. Pink, pretty, frivolous Mac. The Unseelie are who I've become, carved by loss and despair. Black, grungy, driven Mac.

  Karen Marie Moning

  Loss, Black, Despair

  Karen Marie Moning (2016). “The Fever Series 7-Book Bundle: Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever, Iced, Burned”, p.1063, Dell

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There's an undeniable pleasure in stepping into an open-top sports car driven by a beautiful woman. It feels like you're climbing into a metaphor.

  Hugh Laurie

  Beautiful, Sports, Climbing

  Hugh Laurie (1998). “The Gun Seller”, p.133, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am like a machine being driven to excessive rotations: the bearings are incandescing and, in a minute, melted metal will begin to drip and everything will turn to nothing. Quick: get cold water, logic. I am pouring it over myself by the bucketload but the logic sizzles on the hot bearings and dissipates elusive white steam into the air.

  Yevgeny Zamyatin

  White, Air, Water

  Yevgeny Zamyatin (2007). “We”, p.119, Modern Library

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Support Group featured a rotating cast of characters in various states of tumor-driven unwellness. Why did the cast rotate? A side effect of dying.

  John Green

  Real, Character, Support

  John Green (2008). “Looking for Alaska”, p.169, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I turned and looked into the gas station, where Wes was now paying, as the man who'd driven us looked on. "That's too bad," I said. "It's okay, though," she assured me. "Someday I'll show you an extraordinary boy, Macy. They do exist. You just have to believe me." "Don't worry," I said. "I do.

  Sarah Dessen

  Believe, Boys, Men

  Sarah Dessen (2006). “The Truth About Forever”, p.131, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If there were no internal propensity to unite, even at a prodigiously rudimentary level - indeed in the molecule itself - it would be physically impossible for love to appear higher up, with us, in hominized form... Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come into being.

  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

  Love, Life, Molecules

  "The Phenomenon of Man". Book by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 1959.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• This forms the nub of a dilemna that every Everest climber eventually comes up against: in order to succeed you must be exceedingly driven, but if you're too driven you're likely to die.

  Jon Krakauer

  Order, Succeed, Form

  Jon Krakauer (2011). “Into Thin Air: A personal account of the Everest disaster”, p.133, Pan Macmillan

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• So, if people didn’t settle down to take up farming, why then did they embark on this entirely new way of living? We have no idea – or actually, we have lots of ideas, but we don’t know if any of them are right. According to Felipe Fernández-Armesto, at least thirty-eight theories have been put forward to explain why people took to living in communities: that they were driven to it by climatic change, or by a wish to stay near their dead, or by a powerful desire to brew and drink beer, which could only be indulged by staying in one place.

  Bill Bryson

  Powerful, Beer, Eight

  10 Copy quote

• If abuses are destroyed, man must destroy them. If slaves are freed, man must free them. If new truths are discovered, man must discover them. If the naked are clothed; if the hungry are fed; if justice is done; if labor is rewarded; if superstition is driven from the mind; if the defenseless are protected, and if the right finally triumphs, all must be the work of man. The grand victories of the future must be won by man, and by man alone.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  People, Justice, Humanity

  "Ingersollia: Gems of Thought".

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• What a fate: to be condemned to work for a firm where the slightest negligence at once gave rise to the gravest suspicion! Were all the employees nothing but a bunch of scoundrels, was there not among them one single loyal devoted man who, had he wasted only an hour or so of the firm's time in the morning, was so tormented by conscience as to be driven out of his mind and actually incapable of leaving his bed?

  Franz Kafka

  Morning, Fate, Men

  "The Metamorphosis". Book by Franz Kafka, 1915.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Science, like nothing else among the institutions of mankind, grows like a weed every year. Art is subject to arbitrary fashion, religion is inwardly focused and driven only to sustain itself, law shuttles between freeing us and enslaving us.

  Kary Mullis

  Weed, Fashion, Art

  20 Copy quote