Better Being Quotes

Yes, there is death in this business of whaling - a speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity. But what then? Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me. And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat and stove body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself cannot. CHAPTER ~ Herman Melville

I felt better being in the background. That's the way I like it. ~ Stefan Edberg

I suppose everyone tells little white lies. Quite often they're necessary to make someone feel better or prevent feelings from being hurt. Whoppers? No, that's dangerous and they'll boomerang. ~ Richard Chamberlain

It's better being lonely than having friends that secretly hate you. ~ Nina Ardianti

Which was better: being alive (if that was the right word) but not remembering anything, or being dead? ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

When we start letting people into our gated community, we lavish attention on them since they're one of the few. We go out of our way to make our newly minted friend feel special. But if we notice that they're not returning our attention with the same amount of care, we feel taken for granted.

Next comes the small conversations like, I know you didn't mean to do this on purpose, but you hurt my feelings doing these things and not doing these as stipulated in Addendum 1, 3, 4a and 666. Those small conversations become more frequent.

We feel better being so generous in our forgiveness of our friends' little foibles, but our friends are wondering how many more Addendums there are. Friends start treading lightly so the don't break another Rule that's part of our value system. They can only be themselves as long it doesn't break our rules. Is it any wonder our friends choose to move on to less restrictive relationships? ~ Corin

Isabelle. Simon's mouth moved to form the shape of her name, pressing it into his pillow. He'd told himself he wasn't going to think about her, not until he was really getting somewhere in the Acedemy. Not until he was on his way to being better, being the person she wanted him to be. ~ Cassandra Clare

Larry Fitzgerald is one of the hardest-working guys I've ever seen. We spent some time training in Minnesota last offseason, and to see what he does to get better, he has to be the best. ~ Kerry Rhodes

It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw at a man, to tell him he is at the end of his nature; or that there is no further state to come, unto which this seems progressional, and otherwise made in vain. Without this accomplishment, the natural expectation and desire of such a state, were but a fallacy in nature; unsatisfied considerators would quarrel the justice of their constitutions, and rest content that Adam had fallen lower; whereby, by knowing no other original, and deeper ignorance of themselves, they might have enjoyed the happiness of inferior creatures, who in tranquillity possess their constitutions, as having not the apprehension to deplore their own natures, and, being framed below the circumference of these hopes, or cognition of better being, the wisdom of God hath necessitated their contentment: but the superior ingredient and obscured part of ourselves, whereto all present felicities afford no resting contentment, will be able at last to tell us, we are more than our present selves, and evacuate such hopes in the fruition of their own accomplishments. ~ Thomas Browne

This is my depressed stance. When you're depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand. The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you'll start to feel better. If you're going to get any joy out of being depressed, you've got to stand like this. ~ Charles M. Schulz

I mulled on the tower-bound princess whose lover employed her hair as rope. My own curly locks – one of my better features, I will admit, better being a relative term – hung just past my shoulders, and barely draped over the windowsill. ~ Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Saunders writes like something of a saint. He seems in touch with some better being. He teaches us not only how to write but how to live. He sets the bar and also the example. He hopes we might see the possibility of our better selves and act on it. He seems sent - what other way to put it? - to teach us mercy and grace. ~ George Saunders

Most of us try to spend so much effort in being proven right that we get tired even before start working towards being better. Instead of looking at a logical solution to an issue the concentration shifts to proving our point, and in the process we end-up becoming an issue. ~ ShahenshahHK

Everywhere I've been, I've been the best player. I love being a leader, and I love being the best. I just want to get better. It's not about being cocky or selfish or anything like that. It's just how I am. ~ LeBron James

It was more that he did better being busy, keeping to a routine. It helped hold the black dogs of thought at bay. Also he had learned that a person could be happy with having done the best they could under the circumstances. It didn't always have to be bright and shiny and impressive to the outside observer. ~ Ellen Airgood

Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air. Me thinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me. ~ Herman Melville

It's better being completely ridiculous than unbelievably boring. ~ Marilyn Monroe

When you devote yourself to being an artist, you have to stay on your craft and always try to get better and better. ~ Raekwon

My body is but the lees of my better being. ~ Herman Melville

Now that I'm here, all I wanna do is get better. I wanna be the best I can be. ~ Jc Caylen

It is less about becoming a better person, and more of being better, as a person. ~ J.R. Rim

We're all the same, we all think its better somewhere else; its better being older if you're younger - or its better being younger when we're older. ~ Naomi Watts

You couldn't pay me enough money to go back to being 20. So many tears; what a nightmare it was. It's much better being older. ~ Robin Wright

I was an insurgent. I was, you know, an outsider. And I'm not sure that I'm not better being an outsider. ~ Donald Trump

I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench and watched the others play and they looked foolish to me. ~ Charles Bukowski

I've been doing stand-up longer than I've been doing anything. It's just learning how to act on camera, trying to get better at that, figuring out how to make my humor translate and bounce off other people. It's not a big challenge, but the main thing is just trying to be on point and be the best I can be on these shows. ~ Hannibal Buress

You always need younger guys if you're going to be successful in the long term. ~ Saku Koivu

When you are happy, be thankful and your happiness is greatly multiplied. When you are feeling down, be thankful and youll soon be feeling much better. ~ Ralph Marston

But with all their mocking they had only hardened his resolve. And the odd thing was, they took a perverse pleasure in it, as though they really didn't want him to recant. He could see the excitement in their faces, and he almost pitied them their devilish obsession. Their souls were in more peril than his. His body might burn, but their souls were being consumed by the fires of their hatred. (p. 365-366) ~ Brenda Rickman Vantrease

What is it, really, that we could lose if we handed ourselves over to the discernment of faith? Would we really lose anything except the illusion of control? This question suggests that there may be an idolatrous project underlying resistance to spiritual discernment: the desire for a decision-making process that we can predict and control.
But the obedience of faith offers no certainties, not even that of being certain of our our fidelity. We cannot know if the decision we make here and now are correct. We only know that they are the best we are able to make, and that in the future we might both regret them and need to change them. The reason has nothing to do with our sinfulness and everything to do with the fact that faith has to do with the Living God, who always moves ahead of us in surprising and sometimes shocking ways. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31). ~ Luke Timothy Johnson

We need in this generation, as we have had them in the past, men of conscience, driven, even against their wills, certainly against their own interest, to take a stand for principles. Men not afraid of facing unpleasant facts, not afraid of being different in their views from other people, men who cannot rest so long as opportunities remain to work for the really great human objectives–peace, justice, honesty and decency between men. ~ Sir James Darling

Well-being is not the goal; it is the starting point. this is yet another realization that could change everything dramatically. it might be a concept you'd like to remind yourself of every now and then. ~ Frederick Dodson

Unfortunately, every time the United States has tried to pursue a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians by beating back Iran and trying to isolate Iran, it has failed. And it has failed under much better circumstances. ~ Trita Parsi

My ultimate goal will be my being told in a Penthouse letter that I can frame. ~ Alice Cooper

I think acting is a fun thing because you get to have so many lifetimes in one lifetime, being all these different people. ~ Riley Keough

Whether it means having a show, or a movie, or just being on a stage, I need an avenue to say what I have to say. ~ Dave Chappelle

There's a similarity in both being young people who are not about the politics of respectability. ~ Stanley Nelson Jr.

Being a star doesn't last. That's not what life should be about. It's a complete illusion that really has nothing to do with you. For me, finding out about life is the most important thing. ~ Jake Gyllenhaal

Of all the frictional resistances, the one that most retards human movement is ignorance, what Buddha called 'the greatest evil in the world.' The friction which results from ignorance ... can be reduced only by the spread of knowledge and the unification of the heterogeneous elements of humanity. No effort could be better spent. ~ Nikola Tesla

The first real memory I have, is one of the first times I was old enough to remember being at your house. We must have been about three, maybe four. I came and sat down beside you while you were playing and it's like, even then, you knew I wasn't anything special because you just ignored the hell out of me. ~ Melyssa Winchester

The Japanese tend to communicate via nuance and euphemism, often leaving important things unsaid; whereas Americans tend to think they're being subtle when they refrain from grabbing the listener by the shirt. ~ Dave Barry

Clary, you're an artist, like your mother. That means you see the world in ways that other people don't. It's your gift, to see the beauty and the horror in ordinary things. It doesn't make you crazy - just different. There's nothing wrong with being different. ~ Cassandra Clare

Was it worth it? Feeling better for a minute or two, knowing that the cold would still be out there waiting? ~ Kami Garcia

It's better to get busy then to stay bitter. ~ Charles F. Glassman

Transfixed by the bright gaze of a lizard, I become calm. This stone on which the lizard lies was under the sea when lizards first came into being, and now the flood is wearing it away, to return it once again into the oceans. ~ Peter Matthiessen

Often, though, it was the man with the most promises who got the chits, not the one who made people better. ~ Hugh Howey

To bind one free man with love is better than to release a thousand slaves. ~ Idries Shah

To serve the public interest is not the same as being a servant of public opinion. ~ Sidney Hook

Having enough to eat, being able to educate your children, have reasonably stable employment, and being able to live in a society which isn't collapsing around you-all of these things have been generally eroded. ~ Susan George

Dogs, on the other hand... dogs have pure souls. Look at me." I grab her chin and look straight into her eyes. "Dogs are always good and full of selfless love. They are undiluted vessels of joy who never, ever deserve anything bad that happens to them. Especially you. Since the day I met you, you have done nothing but make my life better in every possible way. Do you understand? ~ Steven Rowley

He slept once again in the small tent by his side, even though he thought Temeraire was well over his distress, and was rewarded in the morning by being woken early, Temeraire peering into the tent with one great eye and inquiring if perhaps Laurence would like to go to Dover and arrange for the concert today.
"I would like to sleep until a civilized hour, but as that is evidently not to be, perhaps I will ask leave of Lenton to go," Laurence said, yawning as he crawled from the tent. "May I have my breakfast first?"
"Oh, certainly," Temeraire said, with an air of generosity. ~ Naomi Novik

The more I come to understand music, the more I feel like a numbskull because there is always more to learn. The more I do it, the more I'm humbled. I'm just always trying to get better at it. I pick up a few tricks along the way. ~ Cliff Martinez

It was a tragedy. A horrible tragedy. You can't imagine the physical pain and despair I went through. I'm a better man than I would have been, but I would have eagerly chosen a less agonizing route to my good fortune, ~ Chris Knopf

Love makes people beautiful, beautiful in the fact that those who are stricken by love become blind. Not being able to see the evils and pain in the world, that's the part that makes people beautiful on the inside. ~ Shannan Jacoby

Non-conformity is the only real passion worth being ruled by. ~ Julian Assange

He changed me. He helped me see who I really was and realize that I didn't like that person. He made me want to be different. He made me want to be better to myself and everyone else. ~ Ashley Uzzell

The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally desirous that others should think us still better than we think ourselves. To praise us for actions or dispositions which deserve praise is not to confer a benefit, but to pay a tribute. We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable, and which we are desirous to strengthen by a new suffrage; we have always hopes which we suspect to be fallacious, and of which we eagerly snatch at every confirmation. ~ Samuel Johnson

I have searched all night and day for new and better words that could express my feelings and fear for the people of this country. I found no new words. I only have no hope-filled insight to deliver. I only have this warning to all Americans: Whatever this country is willing to do to the least of us, it will one day do to us all. ~ Killer Mike

You do not want to live in a country ruled by people who never have any doubts. To have doubts is human. A horse has no doubts, a grasshopper has no doubts, an ant has no doubts. But a human being stops to think sometimes, and when he thinks, he hears a voice asking quietly, 'Are you certain that you are right? You must be certain before you pull that trigger. You must be certain before you put your knife to that man's throat.'
Would God have given us the power to question if he wanted us to behave like grasshoppers and ants? I am sure God takes pleasure in all the creatures of the world, but I am also sure that his greatest pleasure is a human being who puts his knife away because he is not sure, because a doubt has come into his mind. ~ Najaf Mazari

Men always want to be terribly influential, but I see that as somewhat external. Do I imagine myself being influential? No. I want to understand. And if others understand
in the same sense that I have understood
that gives me a sense of satisfaction, like feeling at home. ~ Hannah Arendt

Empathy for the people you're working with and being aware of their needs ... that's the "big kahuna" in managing people. ~ Barbara Corcoran