Hollow Quotes

• Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.

  Abdul Kalam

  Congratulations, Heart, Half

  Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwari (1999). “Wings of Fire: An Autobiography”, p.45, Universities Press

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• Sometimes I feel like I'm not solid. I'm hollow. There's nothing behind my eyes. I'm a negative of a person. All I want is blackness, blackness and silence.

  Sylvia Plath

  Eye, Silence, Negative

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• Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.

  Hisham Matar

  Grief, Echoes, Want

  Hisham Matar (2007). “In the Country of Men”, p.167, Penguin UK

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• This is not the person I wanted to become: Hatred has carved a permanent place inside me, a hollow where things are so easily lost.

  Lauren Oliver

  Hatred, Lost, Wanted

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• I am the form and I am the hollow, the thrust and the contour

  Barbara Hepworth

  Form, Thrust

  Dame Barbara Hepworth (1970). “A Pictorial Autobiography”

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• Better than a thousand hollow words Is one word that brings peace. Better than a thousand hollow verses Is one verse that brings peace. Better than a hundred hollow lines Is one line of the dharma, bringing peace. It is better to conquer yourself Than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, Not by angels or by demons, Heaven or hell.

  Gautama Buddha

  Taken, Angel, Winning

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• Pleasure without joy is as hollow as passion without tenderness.

  Alan Jay Lerner

  Passion, Joy, Pleasure

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• Love can never grow old. Looks may lose their brown and gold. Cheeks may fade and hollow grow. But the hearts that love will know, never winter's frost and chill, summer's warmth is in them still.

  Leo Buscaglia

  Love, Summer, Heart

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• This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.

  T. S. Eliot

  Death, Poetry, Religion

  "The Hollow Men" l. 95 (1925)

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• There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La.

  George R. R. Martin

  Children, Night, Forever

  "The Faces of Fantasy". Book by Patti Perret, 1996.

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• Moonlight slipped in through the lace curtains, slicing everything with its sliver cracks. That's how I felt right now - cold and cracked and hollow and empty.

  Jennifer Estep

  Cracks, Lace, Cold

  Jennifer Estep (2011). “Spider's Revenge”, p.150, Simon and Schuster

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• It was hollow, my triumph, I could feel that, but I held on to it just the same.

  Jamaica Kincaid

  Triumph, Feels

  Jamaica Kincaid (2002). “Lucy: A Novel”, p.41, Macmillan

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• It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core.

  Joseph Conrad

  Darkness, Core

  Joseph Conrad (2016). “Heart of Darkness”, p.63, Xist Publishing

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• Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves.

  George Orwell

  Laughter, Integrity, Joy

  George Orwell (2016). “1984”, p.292, ENRICH CULTURE GROUP LIMITED

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• Earthly riches are like the reed. Its roots are sunk in the swamp, and its exterior is fair to behold; but inside it is hollow. If a man leans on such a reed, it will snap off and pierce his soul.

  Anthony of Padua

  Faith, Inspiration, Men

  209 Copy quote

• Success is as dangerous as failure.
  Hope is as hollow as fear.
  
  What does it mean that success is a dangerous as failure?
  Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
  you position is shaky.
  When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
  you will always keep your balance.
  
  What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
  Hope and fear are both phantoms
  that arise from thinking of the self.
  When we don't see the self as self,
  what do we have to fear?
  
  See the world as your self.
  Have faith in the way things are.
  Love the world as your self;
  then you can care for all things.

  Laozi

  Fear, Failure, Mean

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• It is not poverty so much as pretense that harasses a ruined man.

  Washington Irving

  Men, Poverty, Ruined

  Washington Irving (2006). “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories From the Sketch Book”, p.33, Penguin

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• Discipline is a difficult word for most of us. It conjures up images of somebody standing over you with a stick, telling you that you're wrong. But self-discipline is different. It's the skill of seeing through the hollow shouting of your own impulses and piercing their secret.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Self, Skills, Discipline

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.80, Simon and Schuster

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• Religion becomes a hollow shell of its former self when ritual remains and thoughtful reflection disappears.

  Nouman Ali Khan

  Reflection, Thoughtful, Self

  FaceBook post by Nouman Ali Khan from Aug 15, 2013

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• What's a victory when its hollow?

  Keshia Chante

  Victory

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• All life has emptiness at its core; it is the quiet hollow reed through which the wind of God blows and makes the music that is our life.

  Wayne Muller

  Blow, Wind, Reeds

  Wayne Muller (2013). “Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives”, p.46, Bantam

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• The hollow horn plays wasted words, proves to warn that he not busy being born is busy dying.

  Bob Dylan

  Play, Dying, Busy

  Song: It's Alright, Ma, Album: Bringing All Back Home, 1965

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• Fame is hollow. It amplifies what is there. If there is any self-doubt, or hatred, or lack of ability to connect with people, fame will magnify it.

  Alanis Morissette

  Self, People, Hatred

  "This much I know: Alanis Morissette" by Kerry Potter, www.theguardian.com. August 25, 2012.

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• When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book?

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Book, Writing, Sound

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook D 66, 1799.

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• So many bright futures consigned to the ashes of the past.So many dreams lost in the madness that had engulfed us.Except for a few widely scattered shouts of joy,the survivors of the abyss sat hollow-eyed and silent, trying to comprehend a world without war.

  Paul Fussell

  Dream, War, Past

  Paul Fussell (1990). “Thank God for the Atom Bomb, and Other Essays”

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