Quote collection
1.4K quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Sexuality is important, but it's certainly not the most interesting or important thing happening to you right now. We live in a world that tells us that there are only two important things. One is the acquisition of goods and the other is either the acquisition or avoidance of sex, but it turns out that the question of who's a virgin and who's a virgout is not the most interesting question."
"The United States Congress, like a lot of rich people, lives in two houses."
"I was thinking about the universe wanting to be noticed, and how I had to notice it as best I could. I felt that I owed a debt to the universe that only my attention could repay, and also that I owed a debt to everybody who didn’t get to be a person anymore and everyone who hadn’t gotten to be a person yet."
"When I was in college, I remember fearing that the dreary grind of adulthood would feature infinitely more existential dread than frat parties had, but the opposite has been true for me. I'm much less likely to feel that gnawing fear of aimlessness and nihilism than I used to be and that's partly because education gave me job opportunities, but it's mostly because education gave me perspective and context."
"It has been my experience that maximizing income is a helluva lot less important than maximizing passion and fulfillment in your both professionally and personally."
"That's the great thing about being in the third grade. If you've got one polysyllabic adjective, everyone thinks you're a genius."
"It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined."
""And we'll call you... hmmm. Pudge." "Huh?" "Pudge," the Colonel said. "Because you're skinny. It's called irony, Pudge. Heard of it? Now, let's go get some cigarettes and start this year off right.""
"As Alaska zipped through something obvious about linear equations, stoner/baller Hank Walsten said, "Wait, wait. I don't get it." "That's because you have eight functioning brain cells." "Studies show that Marijuana is better for your health than those cigarettes," Hank said. Alaska swallowed a mouthful of fries, took a drag on her cigarette, and blew a smoke at Hank. "I may die young," she said. "But at least I'll die smart. Now, back to tangents."
"...But there's always suffering, Pudge. Homework or malaria or having a boyfriend who lives far away when there's a good-looking boy lying next to you. Suffering is universal. It's the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about."
"To be human is to catch the falling person."
"Grief doesn't change you. It reveals you."
"Reading a good book helps us to feel un-alone."
"Me: "If you want me to be a teenager, don't send me to Support Group. Buy me a fake ID so I can go to clubs, drink vodka, and take pot." Mom: "You don't take pot, for starters." Me: "See, that's the kind of thing I'd know if you got me a fake ID."
"I will play out the string. I will not betray your trust. I will find you."
"When was the last good kiss you had?"
"Beware of that monster called 'self-loathing'."
"So we gave up. I'd finally had enough of chasing after a ghost who did not want to be seen. We'd failed, maybe, but some mysteries aren't meant to be solved."
"We're going to get gored to death by a feral fugging hog and your best strategy is to pretend it's a grizzly bear?"
"but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever."