Big Stuff Quotes

The older I get, the less I know. By that I mean the less I am sure of. I view people with strong opinions on the big stuff with distrust. I don't think we should have certain certainties on faith and politics; I think we should be open-minded. ~ Pam Ferris

This is exactly the point Jesus reiterates in Matthew 23:23, where he exhorts the people to keep "the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness," without neglecting the responsibility they have to tithe their mint, dill, and cumin. Clearly, Jesus doesn't want us to keep the little commandments in Scripture and miss the big stuff, but neither does he allow us to overlook the smallest parts so long as we get the big picture right. He expects obedience to the spirit of the law and to the letter. Our Messiah sees himself as an expositor of Scripture, but never a corrector of Scripture. He fulfills it, but never falsifies it. He turns away wrong interpretations of Scripture, but insists there is nothing wrong with Scripture, down to the crossing of t's and dotting of i's. ~ Kevin DeYoung

As if fixing the little errors would made the big stuff manageable. ~ Melissa Marr

Maybe I had a 'secret identity,' but then when you think about it, don't we all? A part of ourselves very few people ever get to see. The part we think of as 'me.' The part that deals with the big stuff. Makes the real choices. The part everything else is a reflection of. ~ Kurt Busiek

If you want to see the big stuff that God has, you've got to take some risk and trust only in the Gospel. ~ Francis Chan

I could see he didn't understand that knowing a person is about more than knowing whom they fantasize about. That's the small stuff, actually. Not the big stuff. The big stuff is lying next to a guy on the floor and locking eyes and having deep conversations about philosophy. The big stuff is letting a friend know your hopes and your fears and not having to make a joke about it. That's what matters. ~ Bill Konigsberg

When you're a kid, you don't think about big stuff that could change your life. You think about small things that might terrify you –like a bad report card or missing a goal in front of all your friends or your friends no longer wanting to play with you. Because that's the biggest stuff you know. The biggest disappointments are all tied to this small little universe of yours, because bigger things cannot fit into a small universe. If you wanted bigger things in there you needed to have more room –or make more room. Perhaps you thought about your parents or your pets dying, which was rare. But all you knew was you would be terribly sad and lonely. And on those occasions when people or pets actually died, someone usually came along and distracted you from feeling too much of your actual feelings. Grownups did that –they never left you alone to feel alone or think alone too much. They tended to think you are too small to know how to think and feel in big heaps, so they took parts of your heap onto themselves. To help – but in the long run –it doesn't help at all. Because if you do not see, or feel or think, or taste the bitter things in life, you don't know they exist. You have not seen enough of the world to know how terrible it could be. And unfortunately for Sam, this inability to process change persisted into adulthood. ~ Adelheid Manefeldt

What I try to encourage individuals to do is don't sweat the small stuff, sweat the big stuff. ~ Chip Giller

Basketball is big stuff in New York. If you're good in it, everybody respects you. Nobody would want to ruin your shooting eye or your shooting arm. ~ Bob Beamon

I don't really need new stuff anyway. I like to make big stuff, and it's too expensive to travel with. So I have my refined set that works well, and I'm pretty much set with that. ~ Z'EV

I took Advanced PowerPoint last semester. You guys are always misunderestimating me. I'm totally ready to handle the big stuff. ~ Libba Bray

All he knew was that you couldn't hope to try for the big stuff, like world peace and happiness, but you might just about be able to achieve some tiny deed that'd make the world, in a small way, a better place. Like shooting someone. ~ Terry Pratchett

Aristotle said a bunch of stuff that was wrong. Galileo and Newton fixed things up. Then Einstein broke everything again. Now, we've basically got it all worked out, except for small stuff, big stuff, hot stuff, cold stuff, fast stuff, heavy stuff, dark stuff, turbulence, and the concept of time ~ Zach Weinersmith

One of the reasons I admire David Lindsay-Abaire's work is that he, like the Greeks I've spent so much of my professional life contemplating, is not afraid of taking on the big stuff - huge, human, moral issues - what do we owe to those we love? ~ Ellen McLaughlin

When I'm old I shall give up writing the big stuff and shall wander round the park thinking of songs. ~ George Lloyd

When a girl uses six derogatory adjectives in her attempt to paint the portrait of the loved one, it means something. One may indicate a merely temporary tiff. Six is big stuff. ~ P.G. Wodehouse

My plea to you is to start sweating the small stuff at the expense of some of the big stuff. Washington isn't the land of vast, radical changes, it's a battleship waiting to be nudged in the right direction. Let the legions of information-obese fight on the front lines, and join me in nudging the small nuts and bolts that hold the ship together. ~ Clay A. Johnson

Everyone can get a little sloppy with cash and it's smart to notice. But what's squeezing you is the big stuff you ladle onto your credit cards. ~ Jane Bryant Quinn

It seemed cruelly unfair to me, even then, how fast your life can change before you have an opportunity to rethink your choices. We should get second chances on the big stuff. We should come equipped with erasers attached to the tops of our heads. Like pencils. We should be able to flip over and scribble away mistakes, at least once or twice during the duration of our existence, especially in matters of life and death. ~ Tiffanie DeBartolo

A lot of African wildlife is very big. If you're protecting the big stuff, you're usually protecting the small stuff, too. ~ Patrick Bergin

For the big stuff to work credibly, you've got to get the little stuff absolutely right. ~ Philip Gerard

[she used to say that] each of us has a veil between ourselves and the rest of the world – like a bride wears on her wedding day - except this kind of veil is invisible. we walk around happily with these invisible veils hanging down over our faces. the world is kind of blurry. we like it that way. but sometimes our veils are pushed away for a few moments – like there's a wind blowing it from our faces – and when the veil lifts, we can see the world as it really is, just for those few seconds before it settles down again. we see all the beauty and cruelty and sadness and love, but mostly we are happy not to. some people learn to lift the veils themselves. then they don't have to depend on the wind anymore. ...it's just her way of saying that most of the time people get distracted by little stuff, and ignore the big stuff. ~ Rebecca Stead

I often say that I don't worry about the meaning of life
I can't handle that big stuff. What concerns me is the meaning in life
day by day, hour by hour, while I'm doing whatever it is that I do. What counts is not what I do, but how I think about myself while I'm doing it. ~ Robert Fulghum

We've figured out our roles: I wanted someone to take care of the male roles - the big stuff - and Laird [Hamilton] does that very well. I'm here to be the mom and make it better for him, and that's my choice. ~ Gabrielle Reece

Filip was from San Jose, but his painfully good looks excused that. He was tall, six-foot-something-or-other, intensely blue eyes, chiseled features, massive package. Didn't have Prince Albert in a Can, but he did have a thick gauged one through his cock head. His name really wasn't Filip, it was Brent, an all-American moniker about as dark and mysterious as pastel-colored bobby socks. Initially, I joked about his choice of sobriquet, changing his name to go off to the big city, transform into Mr. Big Stuff, until it dawned on me I'd done the same damn thing with my 'Catalyst' surname. So I shut up.

He comported himself with rigid shoulders and stiff gestures, as if he had a secret. Turns out he did. Filip was married, had a wife for more than a year now, but they had some kind of crazy arrangement. Days they were a couple; evenings they were free to do as they pleased. Where'd they come up with that idea, Jerry Springer?



"If you wanted to go back to your place, we could," Filip suggested. "But only until dawn." Yeah, right. An affair is an affair, the way I see it. What difference is there between 5 and 7 a.m.? Was their marriage some sort of religious fasting thing, starve until the sun sets then binge and party down? I'd never sunk my teeth into married meat, but figured it was a logical progression from my I'm Not Gay But It's Different With You saga. And if I was going to sin, I was gonna sin good. That means no peeking to see whether it's still d ~ Clint Catalyst

When you have a big heart and big stuff, anything is possible. ~ Francisco Rodriguez

I used to say ... 'Don't sweat the small stuff
not even the big stuff.' At the end of the day, none of it matters but your own joy, your own spiritual journey that you go on, God, your loved ones, your friends, your animals. These are the things you've got to cherish and love and embrace. ~ Christina Applegate

You realize how small you are in the grand scheme of things. We're not really the rulers of this planet, we're just tenants, and it's the small stuff, the bacteria and insects and the plant matter that really runs it all. Even the big stuff, the nasty, scary stuff, it's all pretty small in the grand scheme of things, isn't it? ~ Wildbow

Instead of sweating the small stuff - and the big stuff - I shrug and say, "thank you. ~ Linda Gray

What's interesting to me about Moses isn't the big stuff that everybody knows. ~ Ridley Scott

Traditional feminism would tell you that we should concentrate on the big stuff like pay inequality, female circumcision in the Third World, and domestic abuse. And they are, obviously, pressing and disgusting and wrong, and the world cannot look itself squarely in the eye until they're stopped. But all those littler, stupider, more obvious day-to-day problems with being a woman are, in many ways, just as deleterious to women's peace of mind. It is the "Broken Windows" philosophy, transferred to female inequality. In the Broken Windows theory, if a single broken window on an empty building is ignored and not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may break into the building and light fires, or become squatters. Similarly, if we live in a climate where female pubic hair is considered distasteful, or famous and powerful women are constantly pilloried for being too fat or too thin, or badly dressed, then, eventually, people start breaking into women, and lighting fires in them. Women will get squatters. Clearly, this is not a welcome state of affairs. ~ Caitlin Moran

There is this unbounded, infinite, eternal, level, ocean, within every human being. Inner happiness comes with consciousness, bliss, intelligence comes with it. Creativity, love.
Human beings have a potential and it has names like enlightenment or fulfilment, or liberation.
True happiness is not out there, true happiness lies within.
They say beauty is only skin deep but it's this stuff coming from the inside, absolute vibrant consciousness, absolute bliss ~ David Lynch

It is well-known that there are many faces in the world over the finishing of which nature did not take much trouble, did not employ any fine tools such as files, gimlets, and so on, but simply hacked them out with round strokes: one chop-a nose appears; another chop-lips appear; eyes are scooped out with a big drill; and she lets it go into the world rough-hewn, saing: ALIVE! ~ Nikolai Gogol

The way to tell a really big story, I think, is to tell a really small story. ~ Bruce Feiler

My father was a jazz tenor sax player. He played in a lot of big bands. So I had that sound around me all the time. The first record that really caught my ear was Clifford Brown's 'Brownie Eyes.' I grew up listening to John Coltrane and Illinois Jacquet. This is where I come from ... I love improvisational music. ~ Meshell Ndegeocello

The Lord has given you two hands and a brain and a big world to use them in. Use them well, and you will be provided for; use them ill, and you will want, ~ Jean Webster

Follow what your head is telling you and work hard. That's the big secret. ~ Joel McHale

I love comedy, but it has to be hysterical and really amusing; I'm not really a big fan of romantic comedies, in fact I can't stand them. I'm really more of a fan of 'Team America' and 'Dodgeball.' ~ Rachel Hurd-Wood

Teddy Roosevelt spoke softly and carried a big stick; Donald Trump speaks loudly and carries a big shtick. ~ Michael R. Burch

The nice thing about 'Futurama' for me personally was that it was a way to honor some of the traditional ideas in literary science fiction, not so much movie or television science fiction - although we have that too, obviously. Our situation, a workplace comedy, led to all sorts of stuff. ~ Matt Groening

In a typical 401k plan, when you first become eligible you get a big pile of forms and you're told, fill out these forms if you want to join. Tell us how much amount you've saved and how you want to invest the money. In, under automatic enrollment you get that same pile of forms but the top page says, if you don't fill out these forms, we're going to enroll you anyway and we're going to enroll you at this saving rate and in these investments. ~ Richard Thaler

Learn to read history, get all the knowledge you can, do not frown on the anecdote, but do not draw any causal links, do not try to reverse engineer too much -- but if you do, do not make big scientific claims. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

You can admire people for sure, and they're worth admiring, but you need to find that special thing about yourself. It takes working hard, getting the technique, and learning to sing and all that stuff, but the master class is about bringing yourself to the role. ~ Susan Egan

We will learn that though we think big, we must act and live small in order to accomplish what we seek." Ryan Holliday, Ego is the Enemy, pg 22 ~ Ryan Holiday

My body felt like tangled rubber bands and dried-out pens and sticky paper clips, like the contents of a drawer where you put the things you don't have anywhere else to put, and I knew that the mind and body are connected, and that my bodily sensations were just messages from my mind, but I just wished there was a box or a drawer or a hole in the ground where I could put all this, all this mind and body stuff that I didn't know what else to do with. ~ Catherine Lacey

A little word can have a big impact. The difference between all and some. - Liz Sutton ~ Susan Mallery

I don't have anything Olympic in our house - no pictures, none of that stuff. Consciously I do that. With 10 children, I don't want to hold that over their heads. ~ Caitlyn Jenner

...Where does she get her supplies?"

Winston held his gaze. Blinked. Licked his lips. Opened his mouth. Hesitated. Swallowed. Coughed. Finally responded, "The hardware store?"

"The hardware store?"

"Yes." Winston's head bobbed. "That's where she gets her stuff."

"Is that code for something?"

"No? Just the hardware store."

... "Any specific hardware store?" Asked Adrian.

"Hmmm." Winston seemed to consider this. Then, "Nope. She likes them all. ~ Marissa Meyer

I try to sign for as many kids as possible. Kids come first, and I'll always sign for a kid before an adult. It's funny, because I was never big into autographs as a kid. The only player who I ever wanted an autograph from was Dave Winfield. ~ Derek Jeter

I know a lot of stuff, but to get some stuff near you need to get access, but the access isn't easy. Most cases I won't give it,... make me to give it!?! ~ Deyth Banger

There will always be nervousness wherever big money is at stake. And above everything else, Madison Avenue is big money. ~ Jerry Della Femina

Work groups and organization come into being because there is a task to be done that is too big for one person ~ John Adair

Sometimes I just like to listen to unknown people, that can be really, really cool. I like going on blogs and stuff. ~ Cher Lloyd

It's important to marry someone, she said. Not because you need them to complete you or because you ought to be someone's wife by hook or by crook. It's just that worlds want to combine, they want to marry, and they use people to do it, the way you mix medicine in with something sweet, so it's easy to swallow. That's why we have to have all those silly things: a frilly dress and something blue and a bachelor party and a priest. Just so that a boy and a girl can live together and make babies? Posh. Because the big worlds inside us are mating, and they need the pomp. ~ Catherynne M Valente

The 1950s to me is darkness, hidden history, perversion behind most doors waiting to creep out. The 1950s to most people is kitsch and Mickey Mouse watches and all this intolerable stuff ... ~ James Ellroy

I felt expendable, throw-away, swallowed by a big biological project that I didn't initiate or choose, that produced me but would also chew me up and spit me out. I felt used. ~ Lionel Shriver

We have a civil rights photo collection in our house, a big, beautiful coffee table book with images so vivid they cause jaws to drop. When my daughters and their friends pick it up to look at the young Black boys and girls in the middle of a dangerous struggle, I remind them that our eyes are trained to look at the Black faces and their determination as they walk to school. But I tell them also to look at the white faces in the background: the young, jeering faces shouting slurs and throwing things. "All of those folks are now around your granddad's age," I tell my daughters. They're still with us, and those people now walk around, every day, living with what they did, and either trying to rectify it in their brains, through penance, or voting for Donald Trump and passing that hatred down to their children's children. That is this country. Them. We cannot afford to pretend they don't live among us. ~ Michael Bennett

I will say you've shown up what thin stuff clergymen were peddling, most of them. When I had a congregation before the war, I used to tell them that the life of their spirit in relation to God was the biggest thing in their lives, and that their part in the economy was nothing by comparison. Now, you people have engineered them out of their part in the economy, in the market place, and they're finding out--most of them--that what's left is just about zero. A good bit short of enough, anyway. ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I grew up in a family of Republicans. And when I was 18 and registering to vote, my mom's only instruction was 'You just go in and pull the big Republican lever.' That's my welcome to adulthood. She's like, 'No, don't even read it. Just pull the Republican lever. ~ Tina Fey

They say the Universe started with a big bang. I hope everybody stood well back. ~ Eddie Izzard

It's funny, but three of my early films were with Liam Neeson, before Liam Neeson was a big star. ~ Fred Melamed

Writing music obviously comes from being inspired by things, and big changes in your life, and relationships and growing older and being more independent. ~ Tristan Prettyman

I've always written stuff based on personal experience, but I've always disguised it by the use of characters. ~ Sune Rose Wagner

I had a jazz trio, a rock n' roll band, and I played drums in junior high, high school, college, big bands, and I played timpani in the symphony. I am a drummer. It's the one instrument I actually play pretty well. It's just hard to carry on your back. ~ J. D. Souther

The solid line throughout was my trying to make space to fly and forever smashing my wings against the bars of the cage. Granted, the cage grew bigger and very big, but I was always beyond the collective in my soul and always cut back by the collective in my body. ~ Marion Woodman

After all, the Beatitudes don't tend to look a lot like modern Christianity. We choose a political team. We select a denominational preference. We hitch our cart to a branch of philosophy. Anyone that disagrees is quickly and succinctly judged, and simultaneously disregarded as worthless. Big problem with that approach. We are supposed to be loving those who don't agree with us to Jesus - and you can't love those whom you deem worthless. ~ Mark Steele

Maybe, just maybe, when this is all over and we meet on the other side we'll just compare notes on how we did and have a big laugh. ~ Art Hochberg

I mean, movies are all geared to be basically under 25, and they're all tentpoles, explosions, excitement and all that - they take advantage of the big screen, which is great. ~ Joe Dante

However big an issue is, it will become a thing of the past with the passing of time. We must put the past behind us, then only we will have the confidence to live. ~ Master Jun Hong Lu

I am not a lady
I live in an elevator
in a big department store America.
"Your floor, lady?"
"I don't have a floor,
I live in the elevator."
"You can't just live in an elevator."
They all say that
except for the man from Time magazine
who acted very cool.
We stop and let people into
dresses, better dresses, beauty,
and on the top floor,
home furnishings and then
the credit office, suddenly stark
and no nonsense this is it.
At each floor I look out
at the ladies quietly becoming
ladies and I say "huh"
reflectively.
My hair is long and wild
full of little twigs and cockleburrs.
I visit the floors only for water.
I make my own food
from the berries and frightened rabbits -
I pray forgive me brother as I eat -
that grow wild in the elevator.
Once every three months,
solstice and equinox,
a cop comes and clubs me a little.
The man from Time says
I articulate my generation something
wobble squeegy squiggle pop pop
Yesterday pausing at childrens
I saw another lady
take off all her clothes
and go to live in #7.
We are waiting to fill
all thirteen. ~ Jean Tepperman