Quote collection

Thinking Quotes — page 727 of 4756

Charlotte Bronte Novelist, Poet
Focus

“I smiled: I thought to myself Mr. Rochester is peculiar — he seems to forget that he pays me £30 per annum for receiving his orders. "The smile is very well," said he, catching instantly the passing expression; "but speak too." "I was thinking, sir, that very few masters would trouble themselves to inquire whether or not their paid subordinates were piqued and hurt by their orders.”

Charlotte Bronte Novelist, Poet
Success

“Jane, my little darling (so I will call you, for so you are), you don't know what you are talking about; you misjudge me again: it is not because she is mad I hate her. If you were mad, do you think I should hate you?”

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Charlotte Bronte Novelist, Poet
Lonely

“I know I must conceal my sentiments: I must smother hope; I must remember that he cannot care much for me. For when I say that I am of his kind, I do not mean that I have his force to influence, and his spell to attract: I mean only that I have certain tastes and feelings in common with him.I must, then, repeat continually that we are forever sundered: - and yet, while I breathe and think, I must love him.”

Charlotte Bronte Novelist, Poet
Philosophical

“As far as my experience of matrimony goes -- I think it tends to draw you out of, and away from yourself.”

Charlotte Bronte Novelist, Poet
Lonely

“I would not be you for a kingdom.' The remark was too naïve to rouse anger; I merely said - 'Very good.' 'And what would you give to be ME?' she inquired. 'Not a bad sixpence - strange as it may sound', I replied. 'You are but a poor creature.' 'You don't think so in your heart.' 'No; for in my heart you have not the outline of a place: I only occasionally turn you over in my brain.”

Charles Evans Hughes Politician, Lawyer
Philosophical

“I think that it is a fallacy to suppose that helpful cooperation in the future will be assured by the attempted compulsion of an inflexible rule. Rather will such cooperation depend upon the fostering of firm friendships springing from an appreciation of community ideals, interests, and purposes, and such friendships are more likely to be promoted by freedom of conference than by the effort to create hard and fast engagements.”

CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Thoughtful

“i dunno," i said, "but i have an idea that people who don't think too much tend to look younger longer”

CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Thoughtful

“How are his poems?" "He's not as good as he thinks he is, but then most of us feel that way.”

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CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Lonely

“They swallow God without thinking, they swallow country without thinking. Soon they forget how to think, they let others think for them.”

CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Spiritual

“I can never drive my car over a bridge without thinking of suicide. I can never look at a lake or an ocean without thinking of suicide.”

CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Lonely

“for a man of 55 who didn't get laid until he was 23 and not very often until he was 50 I think that I should stay listed via Pacific Telephone until I get as much as the average man has had”

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CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Spiritual

“if you think they didn't go crazy in tiny rooms just like you're doing now without women without food without hope then you're not ready.”

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CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Lonely

“I can't think of any poet-recluses outside of one dead Jeffers. [Robinson Jeffers] The rest of them want to slobber over each other and hug each other. It appears to me that I am the last of the poet-recluses.”

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CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Wise

“I should think that many of our poets, the honest ones, will confess to having no manifesto. It is a painful confession but the art of poetry carries its own powers without having to break them down into critical listings. I do not mean that poetry should be raffish and irresponsible clown tossing off words into the void. But the very feeling of a good poem carries its own reason for being... Art is its own excuse, and it’s either Art or it’s something else. It’s either a poem or a piece of cheese.”

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CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Lonely

“human relationships simply aren't durable. I think back to the women in my life. they seem non-existent.”

CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Nostalgic

“but isn't there always one good thing to look back on? think of how many cups of coffee we drank together.”

CB
Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Love

“I was only kidding about the hundred," she says. oh," I say, "what will it cost me?" she lights her cigarette with my lighter and looks at me through the flame: her eyes tell me. look," I say, "I don't think I can ever pay that price again.”

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