Melinda Quotes

Jokes are many things. 'Funny' is only one of them. ~ Melinda Chapman

How can you fall in love at first sight when you can't even see? ~ Melinda Cross

Faith in action to me means going to the margins of society, seeking out those who are isolated, and bringing them back in. I was putting my faith into action when I went into the field and met the women who asked me about contraceptives. So, yes, there is a Church teaching about contraceptives - but there is another Church teaching, which is love of neighbor. When a woman who wants her children to thrive asks me for contraceptives, her plea puts these two Church teachings into conflict, and my conscience tells me to support the woman's desire to keep her children alive. To me, that aligns with Christ's teaching to love my neighbor. ~ Melinda Gates

Somehow she could always think better when all her hair was out of her face. Stupid, but true. ~ Melinda Metz

I was more of a light opera singer, not really much of a lounge singer. ~ Melinda Clarke

I am not cunning...I'm good at seeing around obstacles is all. ~ Melinda Salisbury

When these barriers are broken and opportunities open up, they not only lift women out of poverty; they can elevate women to equality with men in every culture and every level of society. No other single change can do more to improve the state of the world. ~ Melinda Gates

Helping people doesn't have to be an unsound financial strategy. ~ Melinda Gates

Melinda was mine 'til the time that I found her holding Jim, loving him. ~ Neil Diamond

Being yourself sounds like a saccharin prescription for how to make it in an aggressive culture but it's not as sweet as it sounds. It means not acting in a way that is false just to fit in. It's expressing your talent, values, and opinions in your style, defending your rights, and never sacrificing yourself respect. That is power. ~ Melinda Gates

Throw in the humor, throw in that personality, try things you wouldn't normally try. ~ Melinda Clarke

Cassie fumbled helplessly beneath the shade of the ancient oak, still searching for her second shoe.The first had been easy to find, having landed close to where she had kicked it off; and when her hand had finally encountered it, she clutched it to her breast in a gesture of smug triumph. For one brief moment, she felt a twinge of sympathy for the sighted people who would never experience such sweet victory from a task as simple as finding a shoe. ~ Melinda Cross

Someday my prince will come," she lamented softly, "too fast. ~ Melinda DuChamp

I am inspired by the women I meet everywhere I go. They have to work so hard just to make sure their families survive, but somehow they stay optimistic and do everything in their power to make the future better than the past. ~ Melinda Gates

I realized that the only way to get into a good college was to be valedictorian or salutatorian. So that was my goal. ~ Melinda Gates

If someone had told me six moons ago, before I watched my life slip through my hands like water, that my mother would be cursed, locked away, and drugged by my own hand, I would have laughed in their face. Then I would have kicked them for the insult and laughed again. ~ Melinda Salisbury

Okay, he hadn't exactly been happy. But welcome to the club, right? He had eyes. He could see auras, those swirls of color that surrounded all living things, as unique as fingerprints. And those auras told him there were a lot of people out there who weren't quite happy or exactly miserable. And they were all getting along okay. ~ Melinda Metz

But at least when she has the beast in her she can see me. She can hear me. When she's my mother I'm a ghost to her. Like my father, and my brother, except I'm still alive. I'm still here. ~ Melinda Salisbury

Toilet paper unrolled and slithered
then wrapped around my tummy.
That paper tried to roll me up
into an Egyptian mummy. ~ Melinda K. Trotter

We had this scene where I'm supposed to be bending over to get something. I thought it was kind of cute. ~ Melinda Clarke

Scarron is the kind of village people are born in and die in. Rarely does anyone leave. Still more rarely does a new face arrive. So unless the girl is in hiding, like Silas was, I should be able to find her easily; she'd be known as the "new one" for the next fifty years if she stayed here. ~ Melinda Salisbury

I have gotten one question repeatedly from young men. These are guys who liked the book, but they are honestly confused. They ask me why Melinda was so upset about being raped. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

Don't be late or I may end up marrying the judge. ~ Melinda Heald

No radio, no telephone," Melinda observed. "No mod cons whatsoever in Hloubetin, are there."
"We have a hamster," Jacob said.
"Not traditionally considered an amenity. ~ Caleb Crain

Every society says its outsiders are the problem. But the outsiders are not the problem; the urge to create outsiders is the problem. Overcoming that urge is our greatest challenge and our greatest promise. It will take courage and insight, because the people we push to the margins are the ones who trigger in us the feelings we're afraid of. ~ Melinda Gates

You can't save kids just with vaccines. ~ Melinda Gates

Here I made this for you. 'Twas finished weeks ago. I should have known better than to expect your attentions when you had no further need of me." She thrust a scrap of cloth at him. "Here." He took it. It was a handkerchief, embroidered with the Montague crest. "Thanks." "You're welcome. Go choke on it. ~ Melinda Taub

He knew how it felt to be on the perimeter of relationships, to feel as if you'd never quite belong. ~ Melinda Curtis

We're to be married. Does it matter if I permit it?"
"To me it does, yes," says Merek. "And I imagine you, like me, appreciate the illusion of having a choice, even when illusion is all it is. ~ Melinda Salisbury

They were roots, Michael realized. Every memory of Maria was a root she had put inside his body. Too many roots, he thought. If Michael left all that roots could come off, shattering him to pieces. There would be nothing, just small and useless parts. ~ Melinda Metz

I've learned that being alone and being lonely are not the same thing. Once I was surrounded by people and lonely for it, but now I'm alone and I've never been so content. ~ Melinda Salisbury

Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing. ~ Melinda Rucker Haynes

So here's the question," Melinda led in. "Who's Tall, Dark and Smoldering? ~ Julie James

When it's "he said/she said," the woman can't win. But when it's "he said/she said/she said/she said/she said/she said," transparency has a chance, and light can flood the places where abusive behavior thrives. ~ Melinda Gates

I've been waiting for you," he says in his low, ragged voice.
All of him is ragged: his patched cloak; his shabby gloves, the fingertips thin and worn; his scuffed boots. His words always seem to catch on my insides, like a goose grass burr, or a torn fingernail dragged across silk. His voice sticks. ~ Melinda Salisbury

To be known without being loved it terrifying

To be loved without being known has no power to change us

But be to be deeply known and deeply loved transforms us

(from Melinda's friend, Killian) ~ Melinda Gates

Monsters always make more trouble before they die. ~ Melinda Gebbie

What now?" he asks the rat catcher's daughter."What is your command?"
She frowns, then takes the writing stick and paper from him. She writes quickly, and then thrusts the paper towards him. Kiss me, it says. He pulls her into his arms and thinks, Finally. He does not need any further commands from her. ~ Melinda Salisbury

Forgive me again." He lifts the carafe and refreshes his goblet. "What happened to those two children who laughed at dandelion fuzz?" he says softly. "Are they gone forever, do you think? ~ Melinda Salisbury

Anyone can be made to feel like an outsider. It's up to the people who have the power to exclude. Often it's on the basis of race. Depending on a culture's fears and biases, Jews can be treated as outsiders. Muslims can be treated as outsiders. Christians can be treated as outsiders. The poor are always outsiders. The sick are often outsiders. People with disabilities can be treated as outsiders. Members of the LGBTQ community can be treated as outsiders. Immigrants are almost always outsiders. And in most every society, women can be made to feel like outsiders - even in their own homes.
Overcoming the need to create outsiders is our greatest challenge as human beings. It is the key to ending deep inequality. We stigmatize and send to the margins people who trigger in us the feelings we want to avoid. This is why there are so many old and weak and sick and poor people on the margins of society. We tend to push out the people who have qualities we're most afraid we will find in ourselves - and sometimes we falsely ascribe qualities we disown to certain groups, then push those groups out as a way of denying those traits in ourselves. This is what drives dominant groups to push different racial and religious groups to the margins.
And we're often not honest about what's happening. If we're on the inside and see someone on the outside, we often say to ourselves, "I'm not in that situation because I'm different. But that's just pride talking. We could easily be that pers ~ Melinda Gates

And perhaps it was that same stubbornness that had allowed their love to survive and last for as long as it had. After so many untold years together, it was still not enough, would never be enough although eternity stretched before them. ~ Melinda O'Donnell

Deep human connection is ... the purpose and the result of a meaningful life - and it will inspire the most amazing acts of love, generosity, and humanity. ~ Melinda Gates

Fortune favors the bold." I smile weakly.
"So does death," she counters immediately. "The craven tend to live much longer than the heroic. ~ Melinda Salisbury

I think the worst thing is the way you lose part of yourself." I roll on to my back and stare up at the dark, speckled roof. "There's so much that only Lief knew about me. So many memories that we shared – mostly of things we shouldn't have been doing – but now I'm the last one who remembers them. Times we woke in the night and stole honeycomb from the jars in the kitchen. Times we used to jump into the hay on the farm. No one will ever know me like that again. And what if I forget things? What happens then? ~ Melinda Salisbury

Everyone agrees that the failure of our high schools is tragic. It's bad business, and it's bad policy. But we act as if it can't be helped. It can be helped. We designed these high schools; we can redesign them. ~ Melinda Gates

The most radical approach to resistance is acceptance--and acceptance does not mean accepting the world as it is. It means accepting our pain as it is. If we refuse to accept our pain, then we're just trying to make ourselves feel better--and when our hidden motive is to make ourselves to feel better, there is no limit to the damage we can do in the name of justice. ~ Melinda Gates

It's drive and determination, because that creates talent if you're determined enough and you love something enough. The ability to do it seems to come with that, it doesn't come on its own. It's the determination to succeed that creates talent. ~ Melinda Bilyeu

The world is full of what seem like intractable problems. Often we let that paralyze us. Instead, let is spur you to action. There are some people in the world that we can't help, but there are so many more that we can. So when you see a mother and her children suffering in another part of the world, don't look away. Look right at them. Let them break your heart, then let your empathy and your talents help you make a difference in the lives of others. Whether you volunteer every week or just a few times a year, your time and unique skills are invaluable. ~ Melinda Gates

If societies are going to elevate women to equality with men - and declare that people of any race or religion have the same rights as anyone else - then we have to have men and women and every racial and religious group together writing the code. … Diversity is the best way to defend equality. If people from diverse groups are not making those decisions, the burdens and benefits of society will be divided unequally and unfairly - with the people writing the rules ensuring themselves a greater share of the benefits and a lesser share of the burdens of any society. … That's why we have to include everyone in the decisions that shape our cultures, because even the best of us are blinded by our own interests. If you care about equality, you have to embrace diversity - ~ Melinda Gates

You can have the best vaccines for a woman or her child, but if you can't get her to come and get them then they won't work. ~ Melinda Gates

The premise of this foundation is one life on this planet is no more valuable than the next. ~ Melinda Gates

Sex is a metaphor for everything else and everything is a metaphor for sex as well. Because sex is a coming together of two weather patterns, two separate countries, two entities in a conscious state of potentially blissful crisis. Or chaos, or harmony. You're not quite sure what's going to happen, but it is the most catastrophic, exciting, and weakening thing that can happen to us. If we are personally involved in it, every fiber of our being is made self-conscious, or is encourages to unify on some level with others. We are delicate. We bring our damage to sexuality, we bring our hopes, we bring our self-image, we bring our world-image, we bring what we believe we are/what we believe we aren't, our blind spots, our prejudices, our sadness. Everything comes out. A lot of people are left wanting, and confusing, and having the idea that their body is like an unloved apartment building; it's up for grabs and it's of absolutely no worth. If we feel that way about ourselves and if we feel that way about others, then of course, sex is nothing more than a lot of rubbing and some kind of release. But the more we are, the more we can feel, the more we can empathize, the more human we are. ~ Melinda Gebbie

By almost any measure, the world is better than it has ever been. People are living longer, healthier lives. Many nations that were aid recipients are now self-sufficient. You might think that such striking progress would be widely celebrated, but in fact, Melinda and I are struck by how many people think the world is getting worse. The belief that the world can't solve extreme poverty and disease isn't just mistaken. It is harmful. That's why in this year's letter we take apart some of the myths that slow down the work. The next time you hear these myths, we hope you will do the same. ~ Bill Gates

I'm tired of taking people's sins on myself.
I'm tired of running away from everything.
I want to be like Errin. Like Nia. Like Sister Hope. I want to be the girl who fought a golem, the girl who slammed her hands on a table and told a room full of powerful women that I was going to fight, and to hell with them.
I survived the court of Lormere. I survived the journey to Scarron. I survived the Sleeping Prince's raid on the Conclave. I am a survivor. ~ Melinda Salisbury

Human-centered design. Meeting people where they are and really taking their needs and feedback into account. When you let people participate in the design process, you find that they often have ingenious ideas about what would really help them. And it's not a onetime thing; it's an iterative process. ~ Melinda Gates

Thinking those old sticks looked authoritative, somehow. Like something belonging to an ancient queen come ashore by mistake in a common land full of limits. ~ Melinda Haynes

Gender bias does worldwide damage. It's a cause of low productivity on farms. It's a source of poverty and disease. It's at the core of social customs that keep women down. ~ Melinda Gates

Having children made us look differently at all these things that we take for granted, like taking your child to get a vaccine against measles or polio. ~ Melinda Gates

The water rippled when he leaned in; he studied what he saw. Against a background of blue sky, there was his face, broad of forehead and overly long, and he was surprised at the new look of age on him. To everybody else, I must look ten years beyond twenty-seven, he thought, and it made him glad. Even had begun to fear gaps and what they might mean. Wide-spanning spaces between age and its weight of language and ability had begun to feel like easy reasons for saying good-bye. He saw inside the calm reflection a gull flying low over his head, braced by clouds drifting east toward Runnelstown.
Turning back, he walked north around moss-based trees and finally found her digging wild onions growing thick next to fern. With her back to him she said, "Tired does one of two things-either builds the soul or breaks the heart. Can't decide which it is right now. All I know is I'm tired. ~ Melinda Haynes

Damn, boy. Look at you. You're almost as old as me." "Hardly." Ricky laughed. "Look at you. You're getting gray, what's this?" "Melinda, naturally. She's working me over. You should be careful, Rick. Strong, sexy women? They'll kill you slow." "What a way to go, huh?" "Yeah, ~ Robyn Carr

When we invest in women and girls, we are investing in the people who invest in everyone else. ~ Melinda Gates

My background was computer science and business school, so eventually I worked my way up where I was running product groups - development, testing, marketing, user education. ~ Melinda Gates

One of the defining features of hierarchy is that you take the powerful and exciting jobs for yourself and impose the crummy tasks on others. That's a purpose of hierarchy. So when you come together to share the unpleasant work it's an attack on hierarchy. Because what's the point of hierarchy if not getting someone else to do what you don't want to do? What is hierarchy but a way to escape your share of the responsibilities? ~ Melinda Gates

I felt suicidal. I couldn't stop crying. I remember thinking, wouldn't it be great if the car crashed and I died? ~ Melinda Gates

What great changes have not been ambitious? ~ Melinda Gates

Enough. I don't have time for this; self-pity's a luxury that I can't afford.
Like bread. Or pride.
Enough, Errin. There's work to do. Get up. ~ Melinda Salisbury

I dream of the man, but it's fragmented: he's there, but he isn't. He's always one room away, in a place with more rooms than seems possible. I run down endless halls, longing for and dreading him being around the corner. I hear him call out for me and the skin on the back of my neck tightens and prickles. I don't know if I'm running to him, or from him. ~ Melinda Salisbury

I really love 'Dexter.' I'd like to be on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' or 'Breaking Bad.' ~ Melinda McGraw

If I come to you, I want it to be because I am choosing you, for no reason other than that. I don't want for to ever doubt it. ~ Melinda Salisbury

When we invest in women, we invest in a powerful source of global development ~ Melinda Gates

We always protect our heads, our faces,' he commented as he followed a half-step behind and to her left. It's pure instinct; to shield the eyes. The irony is that the blind have no eyes to protect, and suffer most of their injuries on their legs. But instinct can be blind, too. ~ Melinda Cross

She Can Run (She Can Series, Book 1) (Leigh, Melinda) - Your Highlight on page 232 | Location 2961-2962 | Added on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 6:41:44 PM something, but that never happened." "Baker was probably too concerned about his image to go public with the fact that ========== ~ Anonymous

There are absolutely lots of teachers who are trying to come into the profession, but they are not attracted enough to say, 'I'm going to switch careers to do it,' or they are often not retained ... because the salaries and the compensation aren't there to make it happen. ~ Melinda Gates

If you invest in a girl or a woman, you're investing in everyone else. ~ Melinda Gates

When were you born, who are your parents, where did you grow up? None of us earns these things. These things were given to us. So when we strip away all of our luck and our privilege, and we consider where we'd be without them, it becomes much easier to see someone who's poor and say, "That could be me." And that's empathy. ~ Melinda Gates

I want to live as private a life as I can because of our children. ~ Melinda Gates

It's the mark of a backward society - or a society moving backward - when decisions are made for women by men. ~ Melinda Gates

Always dream big and dare to believe! ~ Melinda Rabin

…contraceptives are the greatest life-saving, poverty-ending, women-empowering innovation ever created. ~ Melinda Gates

Trauma may happen to you, but it can never define you. ~ Melinda Longtin

I am the perfect weapon, I can kill with a single touch. ~ Melinda Salisbury

I believe that all lives have equal value. That all men and women are created equal. That everyone belongs. That everyone has rights, and everyone has the right to flourish. I believe that when people who are bound by the rules have no role in shaping the rules, moral blind spots become law, and the powerless bear the burden. … I believe that entrenched social norms that shift society's benefits to the powerful and its burdens to the powerless not only hurt the people pushed out but also always hurt the whole. ~ Melinda Gates

But what are they?" Annie asked.
"An omphalos, probably," said Jacob.
"A what, dear?" Melinda asked.
"A bellybutton of the world."
"I didn't know it had one. ~ Caleb Crain

Then he dies. He just dies. One moment his eye is bright and focused and the next… I see him die; I see the change. Indefinable, but something in him is gone, something permanent. ~ Melinda Salisbury

The parents are making threatening noises, turning dinner into performance art, with dad doing his Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation and mom playing Glenn Close in one of her psycho roles. I am the Victim.
Mom: [creepy smile] "Thought you could put one over us, did you, Melinda? Big high school students now, don't need to show your homework to your parents, don't need to show any failing test grades?"
Dad: [bangs table, silverware jumps] "Cut the crap. She knows what's up. The interim reports came today. Listen to me, young lady. I'm only going to say this to you once. You get those grades up or your name is mud. Hear me? Get them up!" [Attacks baked potato.] ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

Social activism has gone mainstream. A new generation of philanthropic leaders such as Bill and Melinda Gates, and Bono are providing inspiration, guidance, and billions of dollars through their global foundations. ~ Willow Bay

If you want to lift up humanity, empower women. It is the most comprehensive, pervasive, high-leverage investment you can make in human beings. ~ Melinda Gates

Consequential strangers help us stretch beyond the relatively rigid boxes that the people who have known us the longest - our family and close friends - often put us into. Through interacting with people who do not know us as well, we are more free to experiment with ourselves, and less likely to have our new behaviors and roles reflected back to us by people who object, 'But that's not like you!' ~ Melinda Blau

In the developing world, it's about time that women are on the agenda. For instance, 80 percent of small-subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are women, and yet all the programs in the past were predominantly focused on men. ~ Melinda Gates

We live in a world where action is what counts. ~ Melinda McGraw

Think, for a moment, about our educational ladder.
We've strengthened the steps lifting students from elementary school to junior high, and those from junior high to high school.
But, that critical step taking students from high school into adulthood is badly broken. And it can no longer support the weight it must bear. ~ Melinda Gates

Change is both exciting and scary. Learning new skills is the same. Having an idea of what to expect emotionally is as important as knowing what to expect from both real and imagined limitations. ~ Melinda West Seifert

The rose fell, a brief fragrant blazing meteor before it plummeted to the cold stones, forgotten. ~ Melinda O'Donnell

The best jokes in life, are the lies that have come out of your mouth ~ Cut Melinda

In 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched a massive project to study 3,000 teachers in seven cities and learn what made them effective. The five metrics that most correlated with student learning were:
1. Students in this class treat the teacher with respect.
2. My classmates behave the way my teacher wants them to.
3. Our class stays busy and doesn't waste time.
4. In this class, we learn a lot almost every day.
5. In this class, we learn to correct our mistakes. ~ Thomas Kane

I can see the things he doesn't say, because they're written all over him. ~ Melinda Salisbury

Sometimes partial kindness kills a person as bad as partial knowin.' Judy said this while she hugged the dress. "But then sometimes partial kindness and partial knowin' is the two best things in the world. ~ Melinda Haynes

Overcoming the need to create outsiders is our greatest challenge as human beings... This is why there are so many old and weak and sick and poor people on the margins of society. We tend to push out the people who have qualities we're most afraid we will find in ourselves ~ Melinda Gates

... but for now it's too great a pleasure to stay in my own cottage, with my own books, and do exactly what I want to do. ~ Melinda Salisbury

Jill showed friend Kay the cute white mice.
They liked to run races for cheese.
Mice were lots of fun to play with.
Jill said, "Take Poopsie, the male one, please! ~ Melinda K. Trotter