Should Have Been Quotes - Page 13

• Our suicidal poets (Plath, Berryman, Lowell, Jarrell, et al.) spent too much of their lives inside rooms and classrooms when they should have been trudging up mountains, slogging through swamps, rowing down rivers. The indoor life is the next best thing to premature burial.

  Edward Abbey

  Suicidal, Journey, Should Have

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.36, RosettaBooks

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden. No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Such a variety of subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, and instead of one harvest a continued one through the year.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Garden, Should Have, Years

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin”, p.6

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Never mind that the story had turned out to be lies and foolishness—there was always folks stupid enough to say, Where there's smoke there's fire, when the saying should have been, Where there's scandalous lies there's always malicious believers and spreaders-around, regardless of evidence.

  Orson Scott Card

  Lying, Stupid, Fire

  Orson Scott Card (1996). “Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.349, Macmillan

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The real wonder is that so many difficulties should have been surmounted [in the federal convention], and surmounted with a unanimity almost as unprecedented as it must have been unexpected. It is impossible for any man of candor to reflect on this circumstance without partaking of the astonishment. It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.

  James Madison

  Real, Reflection, Men

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2003). “The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus”, p.173, Cambridge University Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt with. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding and my dear one, you and I have been granted a mighty generous one.

  Cheryl Strayed

  Believe, Should Have, Play

  6 Copy quote

• Hollywood is the gold cap on a tooth that should have been pulled out years ago.

  W. C. Fields

  Should Have, Years, Gold

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I can see now that I should have been strong enough to conquer myself.

  Conrad Veidt

  Strength, Strong, Should Have

  7 Copy quote

• Lack of patience is probably the most common reason for losing a game, or drawing games that should have been won.

  Bent Larsen

  Games, Drawing, Should Have

  16 Copy quote

• If the poem can be improved by the author's explanations, it never should have been published.

  Archibald MacLeish

  Writing, Should Have, Explanation

  4 Copy quote

• I know that when I am dying, looking back, it will be women that I regret having argued with, women I sought to impress, to understand, was tortured by. Women I wish to see again, to see them smile and laugh and say, It was all as it should have been.

  Lena Dunham

  Regret, Should Have, Laughing

  Lena Dunham (2014). “Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"”, p.135, Random House

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Under most circumstances that would result in disqualification. If the rules of golf are upheld, I believe he should have been disqualified.

  Steve Williams

  Believe, Golf, Should Have

  4 Copy quote

• Anglo-Saxon barbarians. Arthur should have been made a Knight

  William W. Johnstone

  Knights, Should Have, Barbarians

  William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone (2014). “A Dangerous Man: A Novel of William "Wild Bill" Longley”, p.210, Pinnacle Books

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I write not only what I want to read...I write all the things I should have been able to read.

  Alice Walker

  Writing, Should Have, Want

  13 Copy quote

• I am no party man in this matter in any degree; and if I have any objection to the motion it is this, that whereas it is a motion to inquire into the manufacturing distress of the country, it should have been a motion to inquire into manufacturing and agricultural distress.

  Richard Cobden

  Country, Party, Men

  Richard Cobden (1870). “Speeches on Questions of Public Policy”, p.30

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I was too worried about the grades and I should have been more worried about learning.

  Michelle Obama

  Should Have, Worried, Grades

  102 Copy quote

• I can't for the life of me imagine that God would say, 'I will punish you because you are black; you should have been white. I will punish you because you are a woman; you should have been a man. I punish you because you are homosexual; you ought to have been heterosexual. I can't, I can't for the life of me believe that that is how God sees things.

  Desmond Tutu

  Believe, Men, Should Have

  13 Copy quote

• From '86 until the summer of last year, wherever I went, people would say, You would have made a great James Bond! Weren't you going to be James Bond? You should have been, you could have been, you may have been. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. It was like unfinished business in my life. I couldn't say no to it this time around.

  Pierce Brosnan

  Summer, Unfinished Business, Should Have

  4 Copy quote

• As a director, I've been able to combine with what I've learned as an actor and as a producer: it melds quite nicely into what I feel like I should have been doing all along.

  Griffin Dunne

  Should Have, Directors, Actors

  "Griffin Dunne is 'Famous'". IndieWire Interview, www.indiewire.com. August 21, 2001.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Today I arrived by train in New York City, which I'd never seen before, walked through the grandeur of Grand Central Terminal, stepped outside, got my first look at the city and instantly fell in love with it. Silently, inside myself, I yelled: I should have been born here!

  Edward Robb Ellis

  New York, Should Have, Cities

  Edward Robb Ellis, Pete Hamill (1996). “A Diary of the Century: Tales from America's Greatest Diarist”, Kodansha Amer Incorporated

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Today, I will try to remember to regret the past. I will think of how many mistakes I have made throughout my life. I will say to myself, "If only I could go back in time and make different choices, so that my life could be the way it should have been." Then I will remind myself that I cannot.

  John S. Hall

  Regret, Mistake, Past

  "Daily Negations". Book by John S. Hall, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I wrote as a kid, but I never wanted to be a writer particularly. I had been drawing and painting for years and loved that. And I meditate, and one time when I was meditating, I started thinking, "Gee Gail, you love stories -- you read all the time. How come you never tell yourself a story?" While I should have been saying my mantra to myself, I started telling myself a story. It turned out to be an art appreciation book for kids with reproductions of famous artworks and pencil drawings that I did. I tried to get it published and was rejected wholesale.

  Gail Carson Levine

  Appreciation, Art, Book

  5 Copy quote

• Someone once noted that Hugh Everett should have been declared a "national resource," and given all the time and resources he needed to develop new theories.

  Hugh Everett III

  Should Have, Resources, Theory

  4 Copy quote

• Many a man has failed because he had his wishbone where his backbone should have been.

  Ronald Reagan

  Men, Should Have, Backbone

  72 Copy quote

• Loyalty is a word which has worked vast harm; for it has been made to trick men into being "loyal" to a thousand iniquities, whereas the true loyalty should have been to themselves - in which case there would have ensured a rebellion, and the throwing off of that deceptive yoke.

  Mark Twain

  Loyalty, Men, Should Have

  11 Copy quote

• That Plato's Republic should have been admired, on its political side, by decent people, is perhaps the most astonishing example of literary snobbery in all history.

  Bertrand Russell

  Plato, Should Have, People

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.436, Routledge

  6 Copy quote

  Show source