What If Quotes - Page 24

• What if the invasion forces will not leave our lands? What if the U.S. forces and others stay in our beloved lands? What if their companies and embassy headquarters will continue to exist with the American flags hoisted on them? Will you be silent? Will you overlook this?

  Muqtada al Sadr

  Land, Flags, Invasion

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• It's easy to dislike the few senior women out there. What if women were half the positions in power? It would be harder to dislike all of them.

  Sheryl Sandberg

  Senior, Would Be, Half

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• What if it's boring - or if it's not boring, it might be too revealing, or worse, it might be too revealing and still be boring.

  Lily Tomlin

  Might, Boring, Revealing

  Movie Magazine Interview, July 1983.

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• Don’t wallow in brainstorming. Time spent fiddling with a business plan or filling up whiteboards with ideas is time that you could spend actually launching your business and seeing if the idea floats. Launching gives you real, solid feedback, instead of the imaginary “what if” scenarios dreamed up in a conference room.

  Naveen Jain

  Real, Filling Up, Ideas

  "Dear Entrepreneur: Stop Dreaming And Launch That Business" by Naveen Jain, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 18, 2011.

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• No matter how bad things are, they can always be worse. So what if my stroke left me with a speech impediment? Moses had one, and he did all right.

  Kirk Douglas

  Optimism, Speech, Matter

  "Kirk Douglas: What I've Learned" by Mike Sager, www.esquire.com. January 29, 2007.

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• You know, parenting is so personal. And we're all afraid that we didn't quite get it right. And it feels like the stakes are so high. By we - what if we made a mistake?

  Amy Chua

  Mistake, Made, Stakes

  "TalkAsia" with Sara Sidner, www.cnn.com. February 3, 2012.

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• What if someone hurts you with a weapon? Wait. Think it over. You probably feel angry. That's normal. But wasn't it the stick striking your body that hurt you? Can you be angry at the stick? Of course not. Should you be angry at the wielder of the stick? Wouldn't it make more sense to be angry at the hatred in the mind of the stick wielder? If you think about it, isn't the end of hatred in the world what you want most of all? Why, then, would you add to it by giving energy to your anger? After all, it will pass on its own if left alone, especially if you respond to it with compassion.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Hurt, Thinking, Compassion

  Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (2007). “Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart--The Buddhist Path of Kindness”, p.96, Ballantine Books

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• Almost everything I do when I approach an operational problem comes from the time I've been in space. It's a way of organizing your thoughts. We use problem-solving; what we call "what-if-ing." What if this happened? What would we do? We go over plan B, C, D, E, F, and whatever else, depending on the criticality of what we're doing. This kind of thing can be applied almost everywhere, even at home.

  Julie Payette

  Home, Kind, Problem

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• It is too easy to say 'what if' and paint a picture of a perfect world.

  Darren Shan

  Ifs And, Perfect, World

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• All the time I was plowing through books on dyslexia, I found myself asking: what if, what if? What if you were a kid the 1950s with this condition, when there were no books on it, when there was no understanding of it. I remember kids in my class at school who just didn't seem to progress in their reading. There was no extra help. People just thought, "Oh, he or she isn't so bright, or they're obstinate."

  Maggie O'Farrell

  Book, Reading, School

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• They send a person who can never stay," she whispered. "Who can never accept my offer of companionship for more than a little while. They send me a hero I can't help ... just the sort of person I can't help falling in love with." ... As I sailed into the lake I realized the Fates really were cruel. They sent Calypso someone she couldn't help but love. But it worked both ways. For the rest of my life I would be thinking about her. She would always be my biggest what if.

  Rick Riordan

  Falling In Love, Hero, Fate

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• I got back in my car, starting the engine, then drove off. It wasn't until I pulled onto the highway that it all really sunk it, how temporary our friendship had been. We'd been on our breaks, after all, but it wasn't our relationships that were on pause: it was us. Now we were both in motion again, moving ahead. So what if there were questions left unanswered. Life went on. We knew that better than anyone.

  Sarah Dessen

  Moving, Car, Break

  Sarah Dessen (2006). “The Truth About Forever”, p.316, Penguin

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• What If Following Her Heart Means Rose Could Lose Her Best Friend Forever?

  Richelle Mead

  Heart, Mean, Rose

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• What if, when this fog scatters and flies upward, the whole rotten, slimey city goes with it, rises with the fog and vanishes like smoke.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Fog, Cities, Rotten

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• But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy’ll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway.” “And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?” “Throw it away and punch him on the nose,” Ron suggested.

  J. K. Rowling

  Real, People, Magic

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• What we can do, we must do: we must use what we are given, and we must use it the best we can, however much or little help we have for the task. What you have been given is a hard thing--a very hard thing... But my darling, what if there were no one who could do the difficult things?

  Robin McKinley

  Tasks, Use, Littles

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• Dear Complete and Utter Stranger, The first thing that I have to say is that I hate oatmeal. I really hate it. And you know what? If you like oatmeal at all? I mean even the tiniest bit? I mean, say you were lost in the Himalayas, right, and you hadn't eaten anything except a Mars Bar for about seven years, right, and you're really cold and your fingers are all dropping off, right, and you look behind this rock, and there's this bowl of oatmeal? Say you would even think about eating the oatmeal? Well, JUST DON'T BOTHER WRITING TO ME, OKAY?

  Jaclyn Moriarty

  Hate, Mean, Writing

  Jaclyn Moriarty (2014). “Feeling Sorry for Celia: A Novel”, p.10, St. Martin's Press

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• Whenever I start a novel, I'm always looking for two things: a bit of science that makes me go 'what if?' and a piece of history that ends in a question mark.

  James Rollins

  Ifs And, Two, Pieces

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• Women are always complaining about men's fascination with breasts. But what if men were absolutely indifferent to breasts? What would women do then with these things that serve one function once or twice in a lifetime, and the rest of the time are just in the way?

  Jonathan Carroll

  Men, Fascination, Complaining

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• What if Barack Obama established a Presidential Advisory Committee that would meet once every couple of months, bringing together the former presidents for a conference in order to seek their collective wisdom? There is a wealth of experience in former presidents that generally goes untapped.

  Tony Campolo

  Couple, Order, Presidential

  "The Making of a Better President" by Tony Campolo, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 31, 2011.

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• What if we all suddenly get carried away thinking - who will be left to act?

  Andrei Platonov

  Thinking, Carried Away, Left

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• Picasso said art is a lie that tells the truth. What if you just want to tell the truth and not lie about it?

  Nicolas Cage

  Art, Lying, Want

  "'You've got to be able to break the wall'". Interview with Dorian Lynskey, www.theguardian.com. February 16, 2007.

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• I personally battled with my own body image for years. I used to tell myself, You can't wear anything sleeveless or strapless. And all of a sudden I was like, What if I just didn't send such negative messages to my brain and said, wear it and enjoy it? And now I'm more comfortable in clothes than ever.

  Drew Barrymore

  Inspirational, Beauty, Clothes

  "Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page: Bosom Buddies". Interview with Jessica Henderson, www.marieclaire.com. September 9, 2009.

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• Science and fiction both begin with similar questions: What if? Why? How does it all work? But they focus on different areas of life on earth.

  Margaret Atwood

  Focus, Doe, Different

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• What if the one I choose to discount is one who has been truly hurt?

  Jodi Picoult

  Hurt, Perfect Match, Discounts

  Jodi Picoult (2012). “The Jodi Picoult Collection #2: Perfect Match, Second Glance, and My Sister's Keeper”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

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