Hard To Keep Quotes

Your grandma is a magician. Remember that time when you fell off your bicycle and she lifted you up onto the kitchen counter? She cleaned your bloody knees, washed the tears and snot off your face, told you funny stories and tickled your stomach until you giggled so hard it made you hiccup. The tears, the blood, the pain, your mum's closed bedroom door - all vanished, as if your grandma had waved a wand - sim sala bim! Hard to keep your smile off your face now, no? She did such things. Still does. A trickster, she is. Always full of pranks and laughter. Like now, looking so wrinkled and pale in her bed, not responding. Bet she opens her eyes any moment now with that mischievous grin of hers, pleased she fooled you. You'll both double over in laughing fits. Any moment now.
From: "Grandma's Tricks", In-flight literary magazine issue 4 2015 ~ Margrét Helgadóttir

The world was changing so fast it was hard to keep up. Grigori had never been inside ~ Ken Follett

The best things in life are not free. They are given freely, but you have to work hard to keep them. ~ Shane K.P. O'Neill

It's hard to keep harping on Liberty's intolerance, though, because just as my aunts are nothing like the demonized stereotypes of gay people that are tossed around at Liberty (they're both psychologically balanced, with stable jobs, healthy family lives, and a long-term, monogamous relationship), the majority of my friends at Liberty aren't the intolerant demagogues Tina and Teresa picture when they think of Liberty students. In Tina's latest e-mail, she mentioned that she and Teresa had run into a group of fundamentalist Christians at an equality rally in Spokane. She described them as "negative and hateful," and reported that they were toting signs with messages like "You deserve Hell" and "God is angry with the wicked every day." Maybe I'm deluded, but that just doesn't sound like my hallmates. Most of them believe homosexuality is a sin, yes, but they're not going to picket pride parades on the weekend. ~ Kevin Roose

No force is strong enough to break you from the outside.
I found out sometimes ago that men are first broken within before they are overwhelmed on the outside.
Once you are bankrupt on Joy, it will be hard to keep yourself together. Life will do its best to wear you thin but you must not let it wear you out.
The fruit of joy is right there in you, let it blossom. ~ Paul Bamikole

Far to our left I could see a commercial airliner on final approach to Soekarno-Hatta. Far to our right I could see the outline of tall city buildings. The imagery was hard to ignore. In the midst was an impoverished world filled with dangerous radicals. Some believed it was God's will to crash airplanes into buildings. Some recruited children to self-detonate on buses and in coffee shops. It must be incredibly difficult to hold fast to hope when you live in such a world. It's also hard to keep faith with humanity when religious ideology is used as an impetus for war. But I also believe that for every war there is a hero ... and for me, Jakarta will always be Indira's city. ~ Tucker Elliot

Don't get seduced by your own stuff; work hard to keep a blank slate state of mind each time you watch your film. ~ James Cameron

it is hard to keep your feet on the earth while your heart looks for the heavens. ~ Muriel Maufroy

Clover was on the verge of tears but fought hard to keep them back. Never let them see you cry. Any sign of weakness put them into a feeding frenzy. ~ Shaunta Grimes

You drive me insane June. You're the scariest, most clever, bravest person I know, and sometimes I can't catch my breath because I'm trying so hard to keep up. There will never be another like you. You realize that, don't you? Billions of people will come and go in this world, but there will never be another like you. ~ Marie Lu

With family dramas, it's hard to keep those stories alive. ~ Emily VanCamp

It may not be pretty, but sometimes justice has to be hard to keep the rest of us straight and safe. ~ Intisar Khanani

People always fancy that we must become old to become wise; but, in truth, as years advance, it is hard to keep ourselves as wise as we were. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

For example: never underestimate the formative power of the family supper table. This vanishing liturgy is a powerful site of formation. Most of the time it will be hard to keep the cathedral in view, especially when dinner is the primary occasion for sibling bickering. Yet even then, members of your little tribe are learning to love their neighbor. And your children are learning something about the faithful promises of a covenant-keeping Lord in the simple routine of that daily promise of dinner together. Then ~ James K.A. Smith

I get bored quickly. I kind of take my hat off to bands who have been around for a long time and still do the same thing, because it's hard to keep a band together for decades. But I couldn't do that. I couldn't play the same songs night after night or just trade on my past glories, because it wouldn't interest me as a person. ~ Paul Weller

I'd faced a lot of rejection from labels and the industry, and it was getting hard to keep believing in myself. But something wouldn't let me - inside - I had this voice that was relentlessly hopeful, and honestly, I just loved performing and writing too much to ever really quit. ~ Rachel Platten

It's hard to keep family life and workplace separated. ~ Monique Lhuillier

It's hard to keep a secret when it's written all over your body ... ~ Julia Hoban

People ask me why it is so hard to trust and I ask them why is it so hard to keep a promise. ~ Wiz Khalifa

I made it three days before the text messages started one afternoon while I was trying to finish warming up before our afternoon session. I had gotten to the LC later than usual and had gone straight to the training room, praising Jesus that I'd decided to change my clothes before leaving the diner once I'd seen what time it was and had remembered lunchtime traffic was a real thing. I was in the middle of stretching my hips when my phone beeped from where I'd left it on top of my bag. I took it out and snickered immediately at the message after taking my time with it.

Jojo: WHAT THE FUCK JASMINE

I didn't need to ask what my brother was what-the-fucking over. It had only been a matter of time. It was really hard to keep a secret in my family, and the only reason why my mom and Ben - who was the only person other than her who knew - had kept their mouths closed was because they had both agreed it would be more fun to piss off my siblings by not saying anything and letting them find out the hard way I was going to be competing again.

Life was all about the little things.

So, I'd slipped my phone back into my bag and kept stretching, not bothering to respond because it would just make him more mad.

Twenty minutes later, while I was still busy stretching, I pulled my phone out and wasn't surprised more messages appeared.

Jojo: WHY WOULD YOU NOT TELL ME

Jojo: HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME

Jojo: DI ~ Mariana Zapata

Amanda bit her lip. "You're not ... trying to be funny or something, are you?"
"I'm not trying to be anything!" I said.
"All right, kids," the photographer called. "On the count of three. One, two-" She broke off, straightening up from the camera with a frown. "Excuse me. You in the turquoise? I need you to face forward."
I rotated my body as best I could.
"All the way, please."
I turned so that my shoulders werre even with everybody else's, only now my head faced Gail instead of the lens.
Gail pressed her lips together. "Stop it!" she said.
"Winnie?" Mr. Hutchinson said. He walked to the end of our row. "What's going on?"
"I can't," I whispered.
"Can't what?"
"Can't move my neck, it's stuck." Tears burned in my eyes, and I blinked hard to keep them back.
"Mr. Hutchinson, she's faking," Gail said. "She's trying to be funny and she's ruining everything. ~ Lauren Myracle

Worried, I touched the jacket's sleeve. "You think it's too much?" I asked, working hard to keep my tone non-combative. I'd had this conversation with ex-roommates before. ~ Kim Harrison

I want him to look in the mirror and smile, not scowl. I need him to not think of himself as a monster. I need him to see the real him, because if he doesn't pull himself out of the villain role, it will destroy him, and I'll just be left with ashes. I just needed to get it all out because I feel like I'm drowning, and it's hard to keep myself above water,especially when I'm fighting against the current to save him rather than myself. ~ Anna Todd

When I look into your eyes I still get weak
And when Im this close to you I just cant speak
And its hard to keep my hands to myself
When I know I could never love anybody else ~ Gary Allan

But it was hard to keep his hands still. He could almost feel them twitching emphatically with his strong desire to reach out and stroke the dog's head. He had such a terrible yearning to love something again, and the dog was such a beautiful ugly dog. ~ Richard Matheson

The best things in life aren't free ... they're given freely, but you have to work hard to keep them - Shane KP O'Neill ~ Shane K.P. O'Neill

It was very hard to keep a straight face when I had seen a glimpse of her 'oh-so-propah' husband in pink women's underwear. There were few glimpses I'd ever regretted seeing, but that one was at the top of my list. ~ Tyra Lynn

Matt had to swallow hard to keep tears from forming. Fidelito had called him brother! ~ Nancy Farmer

It's hard to keep your balance standing tip-toe. ~ Laozi

Love is hard to find, hard to keep, and hard to forget. ~ Alysha Speer

This was a man who'd fought long and hard to keep me, even when I was bent on self-destructing us. This was a man who understood I could be difficult and stubborn and a little bit irrational (okay, maybe a freaking lot irrational), and still loved me. ~ Samantha Young

President Wallis was the president before the Chinese assault and continued leading the United States throughout the war," Silvia confirmed. I thought the name to myself. Wallis, Wallis, Wallis. I really wanted to remember this to tell May and Gerad when I went home, but we were learning so much, it was hard to keep it all straight. "What was their motivation for invading? Celeste?" She smiled. "Money. The Americans owed them a lot of money and couldn't pay them back." "Excellent, ~ Kiera Cass

I try very hard to keep my eyes from darting to Sean because I'm quite certain that no one will be able to miss how I look at him and how I find him looking back. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

I go to the gym five days a week and I have a personal trainer. I am on a strict diet, which is kind of hard to keep up with on the road, but I stick to it as well as I can. ~ Lou Gramm

I've had several moments in my career where it seemed like I might not age out of the bracket the world wants to put you in. It's hard to keep growing up inside the performing arts. It's very difficult, and presents a lot of unique challenges. ~ Ethan Hawke

I had a lot of great lakes of ignorance that I was up against, I would write what I knew in almost like islands that were rising up out of the oceans. Then I would take time off and read, sometimes for months, then I would write more of what I knew, and saw what I could see, as much as the story as I could see. And then at a certain point I had to write out what I thought was the plot because it was so hard to keep it all together in my head. And then I started to write in a more linear way. ~ Rebecca Miller

Fiction is about human beings, first and foremost. (It's not impossible to write fiction with no human protagonists, but it's very hard to keep the reader interested ... ) ~ Charles Stross

When you stand out there," John continues in a hoarse voice, "keep your chin up, all right? Don't let them get to you."
"I won't."
"Make them work for it. Punch someone if you have to." John gives me a sad, crooked smile. "You're a scary kid. So scare them. Okay? All the way until the end."
For the first time in a long time, I feel like a little brother. I have to swallow hard to keep my eyes dry. "Okay," I whisper. ~ Marie Lu

Fame is a funny thing, like a secret, both are hard to keep. ~ Richard Peck

It's hard to keep track of all your wisdom. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Something gets lost when you translate. It's hard to keep straight. Perspective is every thing. ~ Aimee Mann

Sometimes its hard to keep going when everything looks hopeless but its not. If you helped someone, anyone, in your life, your life is not hopeless therefore you are not hopeless ~ Brianna Breezy Taylor

There are a million things in this world that can end you, that can in one second obliterate the life you work so hard to keep alive. Our lives are structured around not dying. Eating, sleeping, looking both ways before you cross the street. It's all, all of it, to keep us safe from the thing that we know is going to get us anyway. It doesn't even make sense, if you think about it. It's the world's biggest joke. Our entire lives are set up around not dying, knowing all the while that it's the one thing we can't avoid. ~ Rebecca Serle

The wooden devil got a good laugh out of the ones who passed by, though. They were so funny she couldn't even feel sorry for them. They tried so hard to keep track of time. Whenever they were together they couldn't let sixty of their minutes pass without asking each other what time it was; as if time was a volatile currency that they either possessed or did not possess, when in fact time was more of a fog that rose inexorably over all their words and deeds so that they were either forgotten or misremembered. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

For me, it's hard to keep up with trends. I just go for the roles and movies that I feel I could add value to, or contribute to, that I feel I could portray. ~ Laura Harring

It was getting hard to keep all the things I didn't know inside me. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer

As soon as you start feeling like you can't trust the person and you need to check his phone or have his Facebook password or look through his messages - as soon as that trust barrier is broken - it's hard to keep a relationship going after that. ~ Austin Butler

Nothing in this world is more powerful, or more dangerous, than the truth. That's why some people go to such lengths to avoid hearing it. It may also be why others strive so hard to keep their conversations empty. They wouldn't want to find themselves accidentally saying something meaningful that might bring about a change. ~ Jonathan Cainer

Love yourself as yourself. Never work to be someone else. Its too hard to keep up. Life is easier when you love you just as you are. ~ Janae Marie

Pledge Allegiance was a pretty generic name back in the day. In the 80's I was the promoter for all the punk rock shows and I'd book Black Flag, Dead Kennedy's, Minor Threat etc and I'd hook them up with places to stay if needed so it's hard to keep track of it all. ~ Reed Mullin

The end result of all this consumption is a society running furiously to stay in place. The overwork by each member of society puts a burden (a negative externality) on others, who must also run hard to keep up. Consumers also run because others are running, with everybody finding themselves in a race they'd rather do without. The ~ Jeffrey D. Sachs

It's not hard to keep up the image we chose. It's not hard to stay yourselves. ~ Donnie Wahlberg

I did parallel entrepreneurship, which was very hard to do. It was hard to keep your head straight and know which ideas were with which company. ~ Jonah Peretti

I do not know why people here have taken upon themselves the duty of making attempts at speaking to me. I work hard to keep the 'don't speak to me' look on my face and yet it seems they read it as 'please speak to me'….It really is very inconsiderate. Sometimes one just wants to be alone with one's thoughts and not have to deal with bad breath and body odour so early in the morning. ~ Kopano Matlwa

I always separate myself from reviews, but tweets and Instagram comments, they go directly to my phone. It's hard to keep up. ~ Skylar Astin

I was on a 747 flight out of Denver with four flight attendants on the plane. One of the flight attendants got off the plane to go check someone's carry-on bag in the cargo hold, and while she was gone, the door closed and we began to taxi out. While we were giving the demo, we looked out the window of the airplane to see the flight attendant running alongside the plane in the snow, waving and yelling and trying to catch up to us. 'Did you notice that we're missing someone?' I said to the other flight attendant. 'Yes, but try to keep it low-key - there's a supervisor on board!' Well, it's hard to keep it low-key when someone is running alongside your plane, waving and screaming. The plane stopped and the air stairs went down so she could get on board, and my co-worker said, 'Tell her to try to be inconspicuous when she gets back on.' Well, she had to walk the entire length of the plane to get back to her station, and everybody on board broke into applause. ~ Betty N. Thesky

In the concert of nature it is hard to keep in tune with oneself if one is out of tune with everything else ~ George Santayana

It's hard to keep the energy and the emotion of the scene when they're installing a massive green screen behind you. ~ Meaghan Rath

I am never home, and it's hard to keep up with things that are good for you to have in life like relationships, whether they be romantic or friendship. I have to work twice as hard to make sure I don't just check out. That's what I mean by vulnerability. ~ Jen Kirkman

Instead of working hard to keep their share of a shrinking pie, or working even harder to make sure the industry stays as is, I think the most essential thing legacy book industry players can do is set up independent ventures with great people and little interference and work really hard to put themselves out of business by starting at the bottom, not by reinforcing the top. ~ Seth Godin

In the world of relationships, possibly the most complicated, uncommon, hard to find, hard to keep and most rewarding has got to be friendship. ~ Lauren Bacall

Another day of waiting to lose everything she'd fought so hard to keep. You ~ Chris Patchell

I think our love was all the better for being stretched out by our necessity to study hard to keep up with our work. To have all the time in the world to devote to love may be idyllic for a summer, but linked sweetness long drawn out is the greater luxury. [ ... ] During these summer absences, I longed for her, and wrote to her, and loved her more than ever, abstinence sharpening the appetite. ~ Robertson Davies

Degeneracy can be fun but it's hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation. ~ Robert M. Pirsig

Quadruple crap. Why couldn't I control myself? Why did he have this effect on me? "Are you compelling me right now?"
To my surprise, his smile held an edge of sadness. "That would give you a much needed excuse, but I am afraid I am not."
Curse my body for reacting to his. As long as I kept him out of my heart, I would be okay.
"I think it a bit too late for that, my dear."
"You're using old man speak again." I made a face. "It's creepy."
He chuckled. "I'll try to remember that, but I haven't been around humans much in the past hundred years. It's hard to keep up with the changes in common dialect."
"Let's keep on topic, Jett. You were going to teach me how to control my mind. ~ Christie Rich

So where are they now? Your friends, I mean? You're always telling me about your friends and how you would do anything for them because they are your friends and how in return, they would die for you. I didn't believe it then and I'm not believing it now. All of your friends have gone. The good people, YOUR people, that's what you would call them. It was hard to keep from laughing in your face when you talked like that. I always wondered if that's what you thought I was to you, if I was one of YOUR people. You're so full of shit and now it's even too deep for you to deal with. The truth is that you don't have any friends, not now, not ever. You think you're with someone and then you find that you're just alone in a room with a stranger. You spent so much time running away from yourself, fulfilling imaginary duties to your friends, that you don't even know who you are. When the shit comes down, you can't even count on yourself. Isn't that a shame. Get ready for one of the longest nights ever. ~ Henry Rollins

I didn't know what it meant to have a nervous breakdown. I'd heard people jokingly exaggerate that they'd had one. Until that moment on my bathroom floor, I had no concept.

Then the frayed strands of my sanity that I'd fought so hard to keep together snapped in two, and I started to free fall into chaos.

First, I screamed.

I screamed and I screamed until I was hoarse. Then my screams turned over to cries of agony. Pain, both physical and emotional, consumed me. Will tried to console me, but it was useless. He panicked and called my parents.

When they heard my sobs in the background, they told him to call the paramedics. So he did. By the time they arrived, I was spent of emotions.

Instead, I lay motionless on the floor. They were a hazy blur of blue uniforms and soft voices. I could hear them calling my name from far off - like I was under the surface of water. But I couldn't muster the strength to reply. I heard crying behind me. It must've been Will because one of the paramedics said,

"Don't worry, son, we're gonna take good care of her."

Then I felt myself floating upwards as they put me on a gurney. I rattled and shook as they pulled me out of the house. The flashing lights hurt my eyes. But then a needle pierced my vein, bringing liquid peace to my soul."--Melanie ~ Katie Ashley

Andrew holds my face in his hands and he pushes my hair away from my eyes and he kisses away the tears that I tried so hard to keep hidden for his sake, so he wouldn't have to waste any of his strength on me. But the heart has a mind of its own and it walways gets what it wants, espcially when it's dying. ~ J.A. Redmerski

Michael's a good cat but he tries so hard to keep it real that he can seem full of negativity, ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This Windows 95 hairball has become so big, so unmanageable, so hard to use, so hard to configure, so hard to keep up and running, so hard to keep secure. Windows 95 is a great gift to give your kid this Christmas because it will keep your kid fascinated for months trying to get it up and running and trying to figure out how to use it. ~ Scott McNealy

There may be something to the suggestion about the pace of technological change intimidating writers, though - it's been awfully hard to keep ahead of real developments. ~ Stanley Schmidt

It's getting hard to keep up with all of the news from Washington - witch hunts, conspiracy theories and Republicans tearing each other apart over who is ideologically pure and who is apostate. It's a real set of carnival sideshows. ~ Andrew Rosenthal

I know most of the time it's hard to keep in mind - from lessons learned comes better life. ~ Conditions

It's kind of hard to keep going sometimes but you just have to believe in what you are and what you can do and that's the way to success. ~ Buddy Guy

I'm a big fan of the American Tapes label. But that's very hard to keep a grip on that because you blink your eyes and they've released three records, all of which are limited edition, all sold at one show. So you have to follow in drips and drops on eBay, which I do. ~ Henry Rollins

Even people whose lives have been made various by learning sometimes find it hard to keep a fast hold on their habitual views of life, on their faith in the Invisible - nay, on the sense that their past joys and sorrows are a real experience, when they are suddenly transported to a new land, where the beings around them know nothing of their history, and share none of their ideas - where their mother earth shows another lap, and human life has other forms than those on which their souls have been nourished. Minds that have been unhinged from their old faith and love have perhaps sought this Lethean influence of exile in which the past becomes dreamy because its symbols have all vanished, and the present too is dreamy because it is linked with no memories. ~ George Eliot

Mom says the FCC is responsible for inventing cuss words just for media shock value. She says if everyone would just use them enough, they wouldn't be considered cuss words anymore, and no one would ever be offended by them." This kid is hard to keep up with! "Your mother encourages you to cuss?" Gavin says. Kiersten nods. "I don't see it that way. It's more like she's encouraging us to undermine a system flawed through overuse of words that are made out to be harmful, when in fact they're just letters, mixed together like every other word. That's all they are, mixed-up letters. ~ Colleen Hoover

It's hard to have anything isn't it? Rare to get it, hard to keep it. This is a damn slippery planet. ~ Thomas Harris

If you only knew all the love that I found, it's hard to keep my soul on the ground. ~ Bradley Nowell

It's never fifty-fifty in a marriage. Someone falls in love first. Someone puts someone else up on a pedestal. Someone works hard to keep things rolling smoothly, someone else sails along for the ride. Someone who would do anything to keep it the way it was in the beginning. ~ Jodi Picoult

Life is about your soul, not about your body and not about your mind. Most people work hard to keep the body happy. Then they seek to stimulate their mind. Then ... if there is time ... they look after their soul. Yet the most beneficial priority has it just the other way around ... When was the last time you paid attention to your soul? ~ Neale Donald Walsch

It was about everything. About life and death, and white and black and gray. It was about having to be tough when you weren't used to it. About having to grow when you'd thought you were done growing. In the back of my head, I knew what I'd said didn't make any damn sense. But how could I explain? How could I begin to tell him that I had lost a part of myself with my brother's death, and I was trying so hard to keep what I had left together with duct tape and paper clips? ~ Mariana Zapata

It's hard to keep the energy going sometimes, that's why I like to go with a group of people who are meditating. I love meditating in groups, it's fantastic. ~ Donna Karan

I, for one, am pretty exhausted since I started blogging almost a year ago. But I am blaming that on my two sons, aged 3 and 6, whose perpetual-motion-machine energy is hard to keep up with at my advanced age. ~ Kara Swisher

It's hard to keep your head when the ground's moving 'neath your feet ~ Jim Cuddy

It's hard to keep on being civil when they ask you such annoying questions. ~ Olivia De Havilland

At the end of the day, it's hard to keep relationships with people. I've got my family, my best friends and if a girl's gonna be a part of that then it's got to be good. If not, I'm out. ~ Miles Teller

I learned early in my career, where you get so wrapped up and so excited, that all of a sudden you don't think. So I worked very hard to keep myself suppressed. And that's one of the reasons I wasn't gregarious with the gallery. ~ Jack Nicklaus

She was swaying slightly from side to side, and he could see her shoulders rise and fall with each shuddering breath.

He knew that sort of breath. It was the one you drew when you were trying so hard to keep your feelings inside, but you just weren't strong enough. ~ Julia Quinn

It took me a moment. I blinked, and suddenly it swam into focus and I had to frown very hard to keep myself from giggling out loud like the schoolgirl Deb had accused me of being.
Because he had arranged the arms and legs in letters, and the letters spelled out a single small word: BOO.
The three torsos were carefully arranged below the BOO in a quarter-circle, making a cute little Halloween smile.
What a scamp. ~ Jeff Lindsay

Trust is easy to give but hard to keep also it's hard to achieve but easy to lose ~ Russ

I was a mother who worked ridiculously hard to keep catastrophe at bay. I didn't allow my kids to eat hamburgers for fear of E. coli. I didn't allow them to play with rope, string, balloons - anything that might strangle them. They had to bite grapes in half, avoid lollipops, eat only when I could watch them. ~ Ann Hood

I try to be cynical, but it's so hard to keep up. ~ Lily Tomlin

It's hard to keep track when you're looking into so many, isn't it? ~ Kasie West

I casually listen to mixes, but I don't know all the names of the tunes and the producers and stuff. It's hard to keep up with. ~ Jamie Woon

It's so hard to keep everything balanced in life. ~ Rosanna Arquette

-there was something in her, something that was ... pure horror. Everything you were supposed to watch out for. Heights, fire, shards of glass, snakes, Everything that his mom tried so hard to keep him safe from. ~ John Ajvide Lindqvist

Girls always told me..."Don't complicate things." I did my best. It was so hard to keep things simple. ~ Leos Carax

I've worked so hard to keep this family together. ~ Kourtney Kardashian

It must feel good to have someone trying so hard to keep you in any circumstances. I wish I have one too, at least I know how does it feels to have someone wanting you more than anything, other than making you cry alone in despair. ~ Lee NR