Helen Quotes

If we take the capsulation of minorities within the nation-state as a given condition, the implication of the Holocaust is that the life and liberties of minorities depend primarily upon whether the dominant group includes them within its universe of obligation; these are the bonds that hold or the bonds that break. ~ Helen Fein

You didn't tell a lie, you just left a big hole in the truth. ~ Helen Thomas

I don't despise 'Don Quixote,' but it is a book I don't ... get. I'll have to come back it. Maybe there'll be a gateway story that opens it up for me; that happened for me with 'Paradise Lost' and the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

If you neglect those who are currently poor and stable, you may create more poor and unstable people. There has been a tremendous concentration of donor interest in countries that are seen as particularly fragile - but it becomes harder to mobilise money for sub-Saharan, plain poor countries. ~ Helen Clark

But the only things I knew were hawkish things, and the lines that drew me across the landscape were the lines that drew the hawk: hunger, desire, fascination, the need to find and fly and kill. ~ Helen Macdonald

You can't get it right, until you make it wrong. ~ Helen Van Wyk

Awh hell," muttered Drake, "do you do that to all the human women?"
"No, usually they've started taking their clothes off by now. She's beginning to hurt my feelings." (Logan)
"We need to get you a paper bag or a scar or something. (Drake)
"Yeah," he said in a dry tone. "I'll get right to work on that."
(Helen spellbound-meeting Logan the Vampire for the first time) ~ Shannon K. Butcher

I love character and voice, and my favourite books have been the ones in which I've become completely absorbed. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

What I've always found interesting in gardens is looking at what people choose to plant there. What they put in. What they leave out. One small choice and then another, and soon there is a mood, an atmosphere, a series of limitations, a world. ~ Helen Humphreys

I care. I care a lot. I think of Cosmopolitan all day, and I run scared. So it's a combination of fright, caring and anxiety. ~ Helen Gurley Brown

Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the action of people. For this reason, a research scientist will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by a wish addressed to a Supernatural Being.
- Albert Einstein, 1936, responding to a child who wrote and asked if scientists pray; quoted in: Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas & Banesh Hoffmann ~ Albert Einstein

In the area we live, there's a large show of children who run from one house to another house to another house. That's lovely because it means all the children play together, and all the adults get to sit around and have coffees and read the papers or go to the park. ~ Helen McCrory

Today be happy with what you have - not discontent with what you don't have. ~ Helen Steiner Rice

I used to look out the window of my bedroom as a kid, and there were these stars that, in my mind, made a big "A" in the sky. I thought my destiny was to go there. ~ Helen Mirren

Overdone lipstick is a deterrent to men. It rubs off easily onto their skin and the edges of their shirts, so it discourages them from kissing, touching, and coming closer to you, which is what they really want to do! ~ Helen Fisher

It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster.
There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference. ~ Helen Keller

They dragged the air mattress up to the widow's walk and eventually figured out how it was supposed to inflate, but Lucas had to read the instructions in Spanish because the English ones were nearly incomprehensible. Hilariously so.
"Insert mouth to the purpose inflation," Helen whispered.
...
"Expel lung into inflator tube," Lucas whispered back. "That sounds like it would hurt. ~ Josephine Angelini

I see you in the grass,
Running through the snow,
But where you have gone,
I cannot go. ~ Helen Pearson

I guess I'm a survivor. There are many of us survivors and any successful woman of my age has somewhat of that in her. ~ Helen Gurley Brown

If it's all wrong, it's all right. ~ Helen Van Wyk

People often ... have no idea how fair the flower is to the touch, nor do they appreciate its fragrance, which is the soul of the flower. ~ Helen Keller

This was a little house, with a ceiling that kept getting higher and higher, a hot place with no windows. This was anger. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

The faster you get back to people, the less brilliant you have to be, ~ Helen Gurley Brown

Barometer of success in later life is not that they always win, but how they deal with failure. An ability to pick themselves up when they fall, retaining their optimism and sense of self, is a far greater predictor of future success than class position in Year 3. ~ Helen Fielding

She is an office girl, her name is Betty. Her favorite group is Helen Reddy. ~ Frank Zappa

What were all the world's alarms To mighty Paris when he found Sleep upon a golden bed That first dawn in Helen's arms? ~ William Butler Yeats

I've been round Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and China in the last few months and the message that I've been taking is that New Zealand is building an up market dynamic into a connected economy. And that we are not the old-fashioned, ship mutton kind of product the people associate their export in work. ~ Helen Clark

The gallery was a neat, pale square of white paint and glossy windows among the colorful shops of the street. The glare of the sun kept her from seeing anything of the art on display behind the glass, but the work listed on the website was nicely curated. A couple of local artists mixed in with more expensive pieces. ~ Victoria Helen Stone

The power of an aroused public is unbeatable. ~ Helen Caldicott

The cow is an exceptionally loving and gentle creature. She cries for days when her calf is taken from her. It is a pitiful sound, a pitiful sound. ~ Helen Weston

As you get older naked stuff [on film] gets easier. It's more to do with the role than what men in the audience think. There's a liberation about it. ~ Helen Mirren

I think the happiness we find, we make. ~ Helen Fisher

All we marrieds have a marriage chuckle. A marriage chuckle is a fake laugh you bring out when your spouse does something dumb that you have to pretend is charming. My ~ Helen Ellis

The power to change is in my hands. ~ Helen M. Ryan

Life is to be lived as a magnificent adventure, or not at all. ~ Helen Keller

Not the senses I have but what I do with them is my kingdom. ~ Helen Keller

There's no good way to waste your time. Wasting time is just wasting time. ~ Helen Mirren

Darona's face bore the pinched, taut look and shadowed eyes of someone constantly in pain, but the lack of lines suggested she was younger than Jesral had first thought; middle-aged, fifty at the very most.
'You make an uncommonly fine looking noblewoman, for a Mhrydaineg commoner.'
'Thank you.' Jesral was careful to keep all tone out of her voice. Darona gave her a shrewd stare, then a slight smile.
'Self-control. Good. You must ignore me when I offend you unintentionally. They say that pain can make one waspish, but my brothers and son tell me there's been no change in my manner. I was acid-tongued long before this set in,' she held up a knotted hand, 'and taking devil's claw root has no effect on that. Rest assured, young woman, when I intend offence people are in no doubt about it. ~ Helen Bell

It seems to me that the years between eighteen and twenty-eight are the hardest, psychologically. It's then you realize this is make or break, you no longer have the excuse of youth, and it is time to become an adult – but you are not ready. ~ Helen Mirren

Sometimes you can't fix everything," said Amina. "Life isn't always like books."
"No, it's not. ~ Helen Simonson

I always say "I am a Bitch" at the beginning. No one trusts me. In the end they blame me that I didn't warn them. ~ Katherine Helen

I was married and divorced at 23. ~ Helen Fisher

I don't doubt for a moment that the revolution will result in a nonracial society. I have just come from being a patient in Groote Schuur Hospital where they now have integrated wards. For the first time in my life, I have seen it working. The patients were mixed, the staff was mixed, and the medical officers were mixed; it was totally integrated. It was beautiful. White and black together. And it works. To me that is terribly exciting. ~ Helen Joseph

Here he was dispensing them as advice when he had only just taken them in as revelation. So, he thought, do all men steal and display the shiny jackdaw treasure of other people's ideas. ~ Helen Simonson

You don't have to be like them," Kalan said. "Kinship, for all its importance, is an accident of birth. Who we associate with and how we act in this life is always choice, however much we may pretend otherwise, even to ourselves. ~ Helen Lowe

I had only to remember that centuries before, men fell in battle for the daughter of Troy, that passions carried greater weight than decorum. It took so little to prove that human life and property are devastatingly temporary. All she had to do was lie down for a prince. They burned the city to the ground. ~ Brenna Yovanoff

If you want to be President, decide it at the age of five, and then live accordingly. ~ Helen Thomas

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, ~ Helen Harper

What would be worse than being born blind? She replied, To have sight without vision. ~ Helen Keller

Great tracts of reindeer moss, for example: tiny stars and florets and inklings of an ancient flora growing on exhausted land. Crisp underfoot in summer, the stuff is like a patch of the arctic fallen into the world in the wrong place. Everywhere, there are bony shoulders and blades of flint. On wet mornings you can pick up shards knocked from flint cores by Neolithic craftsmen, tiny flakes of stone glowing in thin coats of cold water. ~ Helen Macdonald

Reading myth as crystallizing historical fact was a common
approach in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But it is an
approach to myth that is fraught with problems. It ignores or
takes insufficient account of how mythic narratives are exploited for political purposes. ~ Helen Morales

In a world without air all you breathe is adventure! ~ Helen Dunmore

Historical fiction is not only a respectable literary form; it is a standing reminder of the fact that history is about human beings. ~ Helen Cam

I couldn't do anything. I'd work in a department store for a couple of weeks, but I couldn't hack it. I couldn't even type! I had no skills whatsoever outside of show business. ~ Helen Reddy

You're afraid because you're thinking about the end, not about what you're doing. ~ Helen Van Wyk

Her mother had told her once that the nicest thing you can do for someone is be happy to see them, and Helen thought about that now, as she felt herself smile involuntarily. ~ J. Ryan Stradal

It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance it allotted length. ~ Helen Keller

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face. ~ Helen Keller

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. HELEN KELLER ~ Dave Ramsey

Now I see how many wolf characteristics you had. You were wary, didn't really trust anyone or anything. You were elusive and secretive. You paced out behind the trees, watching everything and waiting for the moment when it was safe to come in and rest by the fire. But you weren't happy there -- no, I take that back, you were happy there, but you weren't comfortable. It wasn't what you knew. It wasn't what you trusted. You trusted meanness, not kindness. Kindness spooked you -- you were always looking for the trap in it. You trusted in a scrappy existence where you had to fight for your survival. ~ Helen Humphreys

...as if, one lover gone, I was opening up for an immediate replacement. Smack habit, love habit - what's the difference? They can both kill you. For the bus journey I fell in love with a woman who smiled at me. The motion of the bus made her thick mop of fair curls tremble. We talked about desperados.

'I am fatally attracted to them', I said. 'In fact, I probably am one'. ~ Helen Garner

He who marries the spirit of the age soon becomes a widower. ~ Helen Keller

He who is not proud of his own blood is not worthy of it. ~ Helen Thompson Woolley

Tea at the Ritz is the last delicious morsel of Edwardian London. The light is kind, the cakes are frivolous and the tempo is calm, confident and leisurely. ~ Helen Simpson

We do not know the future, but we are creating it now. How we align the vision we have for a livable place with intelligent actions is what the future of mankind will be. It is all we can do to perfect ourselves. Nature will determine the rest. ~ Helen Drayton

Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray. ~ Helen Rowland

Liberals and conservatives are looking for entirely different things. Their attitudes toward romance and how they court are really dramatically different. There's almost no overlap. ~ Helen Fisher

I don't get to play the same role over and over in different movies. The roles that I get to play are quite varied, which is great. ~ Helen Mirren

The true task is to unite and organize all workers ... and it is the workers themselves who must secure freedom for themselves ... ~ Helen Keller

It is not always possible or even right for a man to make his wife number one in his life. This is due to the nature of his life. His number one responsibility is to provide the living. ~ Helen Andelin

The silent worker is imagination which decrees reality out of chaos. ~ Helen Keller

I was unnerved to learn in my twenties that the poems of Emily Dickinson that I had memorized as a girl were not the poems as she had written them. ~ Helen Vendler

It is not what you gather but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived. ~ Helen Walton

Try to reject war and give peace a chance. Question the powers that be and find out why they make the dubious decisions they do that send young people to war. ~ Helen Thomas

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done. ~ Helen Keller

Now I feel as if I should succeed in doing something in mathematics, although I cannot see why it is so very important ... The knowledge doesn't make life any sweeter or happier, does it? ~ Helen Keller

Neither gender is routinely more jealous - although women are more willing to work to win back a lover, while men tend to flaunt their money and status and are more likely to walk out to protect their self-esteem or save face. ~ Helen Fisher

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right. ~ Helen Keller

I am no worshiper of cloth of any color, but I love the red flag and what it symbolizes to me and other Socialists. I have a red flag hanging in my study, and if I could I should gladly march with it past the office of the Times and let all the reporters and photographers make the most of the spectacle. ~ Helen Keller

I was the "feelings" child. Everything I did was a feeling, and it did not count. It is so difficult to talk about demons and gods and spirits without it seeming that you are mad, or sarcastic, or simple, or talking in pictures, or trying to confuse. Or trying to be interesting. It is difficult to talk about demons and make it understood that even if "spirit" is the best word available, it isn't the right word. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

I had a great start in television; the first thing I did was an episode of 'Performance' called 'The Entertainer' with Michael Gambon playing Archie Rice. ~ Helen McCrory

A glass devil is a person in whom evil becomes transparent. People simply don't see it, despite the fact that it's there all the time. ~ Helen Tursten

Also, it'd be kinda hard to be together if I was in prison."
"What are you talking about?" Helen asked, suddenly alarmed. "Why would you go to prison?"
"For killing the guy that took your virginity," he replied. "You I would forgive. But the guy? Dead man. ~ Josephine Angelini

She didn't look into the mirror itself. She was becoming someone, it seemed. She had read somewhere that you only became a woman once your mother had died. But that wasn't what worried her. She worried about becoming as perfect as the person shown to her on paper in Lily's studio. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

Helen Keller was blind and deaf when she graduated from college with honors. So what's your problem? ~ Charles F. Stanley

It is beyond a doubt that everyone should have time for some special delight, if only five minutes each day to seek out a lovely flower or cloud or star, or learn a verse to brighten another's dull task. What is the use of such terrible diligence as many tire themselves out with, if they always postpone their exchanges of smiles with Beauty and Joy to cling to irksome duties and relations? ~ Helen Keller

Jeanine Honicker. . . . coined a sentence . . . 'The solution to pollution by dilution when it comes to radiation if fallacious. ~ Helen Broinowski Caldicott

It felt as real as the dusty air she sucked in before and rushed out after. ~ Solange Nicole

No. I came here to see you. I didn't believe the rumors,but after hearing it on so many continents I had to come andsee for myself."
"See what?"
His eyes widened in adulation, his voice taking on areverent tone. "If it was true that Helen of Troy, nay, Aphrodite herself had been reincarnated in gym teacher form."
The room was utterly silent. Except Vicious Redhead's jaw dropping to the ground with a little plink. Or maybe I imagined that. And then the class did the worst thingpossible: They started giggling. Miss Lynn was going tomurder me. ~ Kiersten White

I stalked around the edge of the wood, crouching low, holding my breath. My attention was microscopically fierce. I'd become a thing of eyes and will alone. Mabel held her wings out from her sides, her head snaking, reptilian, eyes glowing. It felt like I was holding the bastard offspring of a flaming torch and an assault rifle. ~ Helen Macdonald

The best friends are the ones who you can be away from for months or even years, but then when you meet up again it's like you just saw them that morning. ~ Helen Harper

There are few more frustrating things in life than being told something that you already know but cannot admit to knowing. ~ Helen Cresswell

Jesu, Helen, turn the horses! ~ Ilona Andrews

She had an old friend from the vaudeville days named Buck Mack who lived with her. Buck had been part of a vaudeville team called Miller & Mack and had been an extra in Citizen Kane. In modern terms, he was a personal assistant: he ran the house, kept everything running smoothly, and watched over her. At first, Buck regarded me as an interloper, but it wasn't long before he saw that Barbara and I genuinely loved each other, and he and I became good friends. Because of the age difference, neither of us wanted to have our relationship in the papers, and with the help of Helen Ferguson, her publicist and one of her best friends, we kept it quiet. There were only a few people who knew about us. Nancy Sinatra Sr. was one of them, because she and Barbara were close friends. I didn't tell anybody at Fox about our affair, although Harry Brand might have known, if only because Harry knew everything. Likewise, I always assumed that Darryl Zanuck knew, although he never said a word about it to me. That might have been because Darryl and Barbara had something of a history, a bad one: Barbara told me that Darryl had chased her around his office years earlier, and I got the distinct impression that she hadn't appreciated the exercise. ~ Robert J. Wagner

Looking at those last photos was like flipping through a book of silence. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

The best educated human being is the one who understands most about the life in which he is placed. ~ Helen Keller

People who let the weak or greedy drink their blood sometimes have a need to play God. ~ Helen Van Slyke

The first coffee of the morning is never, ever, ready quickly enough. You die before it's ready and then your ghost pours the resurrection potion out of the moka pot. ~ Helen Oyeyemi

Deep, solemn optimism, it seems to me, should spring from this firm belief in the presence of God in the individual; not a remote, unapproachable governor of the universe, but a God who is very near every one of us, who is present not only in earth, sea and sky, but also in every pure and noble impulse of our hearts. ~ Helen Keller

I think back and marvel that my ambitions were so small. ~ Helen Reddy