Not Things Quotes

This entire ordeal taught me a valuable lesson. People are important-not things. I was no longer keeping up with the Joneses, material things or lots of money; that mattered very little to me. Life isn't about having, is about being. ~ Silvia Corradin

You just, like, hate yourself? You hate being yourself?"
"There's no self to hate. It's like, when I look into myself, there's no actual me - just a bunch of thoughts and behaviors and circumstances. And a lot of them just don't feel like they're mine. They're not things I want to think or do or whatever. And when I do look for the, like, Real Me, I never find it. It's like those nesting dolls, you know? The ones that are hollow, and then when you open them up, there's a smaller doll inside, and you keep opening hollow dolls until eventually you get to the smallest one, and it's solid all the way through. But with me, I don't think there is one that is solid. They just keep getting smaller. ~ John Green

What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgements about these things. ~ Epictetus

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our actions. The things in our control are by nature free, unrestrained, unhindered; but those not in our control are weak, slavish, restrained, belonging to others. Remember, then, that if you suppose that things which are slavish by nature are also free, and that what belongs to others is your own, then you will be hindered. You will lament, you will be disturbed, and you will find fault both with gods and men. But if you suppose that only to be your own which is your own, and what belongs to others such as it really is, then no one will ever compel you or restrain you. Further, you will find fault with no one or accuse no one. You will do nothing against your will. No one will hurt you, you will have no enemies, and you not be harmed. ~ Epictetus

Dislike what deserves it, but never hate: for that is of the nature of malice; which is almost ever to persons, not things, and is one of the blackest qualities sin begets in the soul. ~ William Penn

So in the world of Enlightenment, things are just things, except they're not things. We're in nirvana. There is no debating team. ~ Frederick Lenz

Buy experiences, not things. Spending on experiences makes people happier than spending on things. Things get broken and go out of style. Experiences get better every time you talk about them. ~ Jean Chatzky

My most treasured possessions are not things; they are only things, my friends, family and animals are what counts. ~ John The Apostle

Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration. ~ Pliny The Elder

The best things in life are not things, but they are our beautiful loving thoughts. ~ Debasish Mridha

The five elements are energies, not things. In Hinduism, they are known as the five tattvas. Psychic people can see them and their geometric forms. ~ Stefan Emunds

The things that matter most are not things. ~ Art Buchwald

What disturbs people, these are not things, but the judgments relating to things ~ Epictetus

Also, rights are not things that are given in the heavens. Rather, they are levers for political articulations, which enables what was previously invisible to become visible. ~ Simon Critchley

I don't understand this notion of ethnic pride. "Proud to be Irish," "Puerto Rican pride," "Black pride." It seems to me that pride should be reserved for accomplishments; things you attain or achieve, not things that happen to you by chance. Being Irish isn't a skill; it's genetic. You wouldn't say, "I'm proud to have brown hair," or "I'm proud to be short and stocky." So why the fuck should you say you're proud to be Irish? I'm Irish, but I'm not particularly proud of it. Just glad! Goddamn glad to be Irish! ~ George Carlin

I'm going to repeat this: I buy experiences and not things. I don't like to buy my kids' gifts. But I'll take them places and won't hold back. They will lose and forget the "things" in the long run. But they will never forget the experiences. ~ James Altucher

Macintosh felt like a system. As I learned more, I felt like I was able to guess how new things would work. I felt like the bugs in my programs were more my bugs and not things I misunderstood. ~ Steven Sinofsky

I think that I am responsible for the death of thousands of things and for the misery of thousands of people, just through the things that I buy and how I live my life, and these are not things that ever deserved to die. ~ Chuck Palahniuk

We have these words 'space' and 'time,' but you can't touch them. They're not objects, they're not things, they go forever. Space and time are really tools of animal sense perception, the way we organize and construct information. ~ Robert Lanza

We don't use the words begetting or begotten much in modern English, but everyone still knows what they mean. To beget is to become the father of: to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something o the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds. But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself. A bird makes a nest, a beaver builds a dam, a man makes a wireless set – or he may make something more like himself than a wireless set: say, a statue. If he is clever enough carver he may make a statue which is very like man indeed. But, of course, it is not a ream man; it only looks like one. It cannot breathe or think. It is not alive.

Now that is the first thing to get clear. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God; just as what man makes is not man. That is why men are not Son's of God in the sense that Christ is. They may be like God in certain ways, but they are not things of the same kind. They are more like statues or pictures of God. ~ C.S. Lewis

She was as unused to seeing tenderness in a man's eyes as she was to being caught off guard. Admiration? Amusement? Yes. Even desire. But those looks could be leveled at any inanimate object: a beautiful painting, a political cartoon, a French postcard. Tenderness was far more intimate, reserved for beings, not things. ~ Connie Brockway

Peace and joy are not things you attain at the end of life. They are the basis of your life. ~ Sadhguru

The things you should value most in this life are NOT things. ~ Tanya Masse

402Emotional position is part of it, but as an individual you are not your emotions, neither are you your intellect. These are things that you have . They're not things that you are . Therefore you have to start to become aware of the different requirements that human beings have, the different areas that they like to be satisfied in. Which means becoming aware of yourself. I mean, as a writer you're gonna have to understand pretty much the whole universe. But the best place to start is by understanding the inner universe. The entire universe – for one thing – only exists in your perceptions. That's all you're gonna see of it. To all practical intents and purposes this is purely some kind of lightshow that's being put on in the kind of neurons in our brain. The whole of reality. So. To understand the universe there's worse advice than that which was carved above the shrine of the Delphi oracle. Where it just said: "Know thyself". Understand yourself. Know thyself is a magical goal, but like I say to me there is very little difference between magic and creative art in any sense – the laws of one apply perfectly well to the other. ~ Alan Moore

People with money tend to buy more things instead of experiences...because they don't have time. ~ Richie Norton

If we do not objectify, and feel instinctively and permanently that words are not the things spoken about, then we could not speak abouth such meaningless subjects as the 'beginning' or the 'end' of time. But, if we are semantically disturbed and objectify, then, of course, since objects have a beginning and an end, so also would 'time' have a 'beggining' and an 'end'. In such pathological fancies the universe must have a 'beginning in time' and so must have been made., and all of our old anthropomorphic and objectified mythologies follow, including the older theories of entropy in physics. But, if 'time' is only a human form of representation and not an object, the universe has no 'beginning in time' and no 'end in time'; in other words, the universe is 'time'-less. The moment we realize, feel permanently, and utilize these realizations and feelings that words are not things, then only do we acquire the semantic freedom to use different forms of representation. We can fit better their structure to the facts at hand, become better adjusted to these facts which are not words, and so evaluate properly m.o (multi-ordinal) realities, which evaluation is important for sanity. ~ Alfred Korzybski

Remember, Little Ones, everything is not important all the time. Only living is important all the time. Not things. Not money. Not more things and more endless money. Spend well the quality of your time. And yes, be greedy with your hours. If only to then give those hours away as the most precious gifts you have to offer to yourself, your family, and your friends. And yes, to my Little Ones." –From The Legacy Letters–"The Everything and Nothing of Money. ~ Carew Papritz

Nay, without thought or conscious desire, might not things external to ourselves vibrate in unison with our moods and passions, atom calling to atom in secret love or strange affinity? ~ Oscar Wilde

I think about how maybe it's not things that change but people that change, and maybe that's the change everyone is really talking about. ~ Susan Pogorzelski

The things one wants the most, are not things after all. ~ Veronique Vienne

Your value is not determined by your valuables, and God says the most valuable things in life are not things! ~ Rick Warren

More often than not, things and people are as they appear. ~ Malcolm Forbes

Collect moments not things. ~ Karen Salmansohn

It was a matter of showing by what conjunctions a whole set of practices-- from the moment they became coordinated with a regime of truth––was able to make what does not exist (madness, disease, delinquency, sexuality), nonetheless become something, something however that continues not to exist. That is to say, what I would like to show is not how an error––when I say that which does not exist becomes something, this does not mean showing how it is possible for an error to be constructed––or how an illusion could be born, but how a regime of truth and therefore not an error, makes something that does not exist able to become something. It is not an illusion because it is a set of practices, real practices, which establish it and thus imperiously marks it out in reality... The point of all these investigations concerning madness, disease, delinquency, sexuality, and what i am talking about now, is to show how the coupling of a set of practices and a regime of truth from an apparatus (dispotif) of knowledge-power that effectively marks out in reality that which does not exist and legitimately submits it to the division between true and false. In the things I am presently concerned with, the moment when that which does not exist is inscribed in reality, and when that which does not exist comes under a legitimate regime of the true and false, marks the birth of this dissymmetrical bipolarity of politics and the economy. Politics and the economy are not things that exist, or error ~ Michel Foucault

I ease into the idea of letting go of control and simply let life take the reins. And when I don't hold it so tightly, it doesn't thrash against me so wildly. It calms to a trot and allows me to take in the scenery, experience love, and learn what is important in this world: people, places, memories - not things or perceptions. ~ Sarah Reijonen

Compliments are not things I know how to process. ~ Tahereh Mafi

He had learned a long time ago that some things were worth being afraid of. And some things were not. Things that he had done before and survived did not justify fear. To be afraid of a survivable thing was irrational. ~ Lee Child

Not selfish things, not things for herself; who could give to unwanted children love, care, a home. All these things she could buy for them, but not their love for her. Then ~ Agatha Christie

Once you realize that the universe is made up of processes, not things, you are really on a roll, for what makes life truly interesting are the connections between events. ~ Silver RavenWolf

I hate most people. And I don't want to, it's an awful way to be. But the human race gives me no comfort. I find myself turning to books and films for comfort still. It's repulsive, because one's life consists of people, not things. ~ Morrissey

NO ONE GETS OUT OF CHILDHOOD ALIVE. It's not the first time I've said that. But among the few worthy bon mots I've gotten off in sixty-seven years, that and possibly one other may be the only considerations eligible for carving on my tombstone. (The other one is the one entrepreneurs have misappropriated to emboss on buttons and bumper stickers: The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
(I don't so much mind that they pirated it, but what does honk me off is that they never get it right. They render it dull and imbecile by phrasing it thus: "The two most common things in the universe are ... "
(Not things, you insensate gobbets of ambulatory giraffe dung, elements! Elements is funny, things is imprecise and semi-guttural. Things! Geezus, when will the goyim learn they don't know how to tell a joke. ~ Harlan Ellison

It's not things that trouble us, but our judgement about things.
(Epictetus) ~ Henry Manampiring

Libertarian action must recognize this dependence as a weak point and must attempt through reflection and action to transform it into independence. However, not even the best-intentioned leadership can bestow independence as a gift. The liberation of the oppressed is a liberation of women and men, not things. Accordingly, while no one liberates himself by his own efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others. Liberation, a human phenomenon, cannot be achieved by semihumans. Any attempt to treat people as semihumans only dehumanizes them. ~ Paulo Freire

Perhaps things are not things but words: metaphors, words for other things. ~ Octavio Paz

Animals, or at least those who are conscious and capable of suffering or enjoying their lives, are not things for us to use in whatever way we find convenient. ~ Peter Singer

You have heard it said that the best things in life are not things. So what are the best things in life? What are the best things in your life right now? And what are the best things that are not in your life yet because you don't even know that they should be? A lot of our modern lifestyle is based on having things. Jesus rejected the idea that things should have a primary place in our lives. Other than the clothes on his back and the sandals on his feet, he had nothing. And his teachings constantly affirmed that people were primary and things were secondary. ~ Matthew Kelly

Being, belief and reason are pure relations, which cannot be dealt with absolutely, and are not things but pure scholastic concepts, signs for understanding, not for worshipping, aids to awaken our attention, not to fetter it. ~ Johann Georg Hamann

If words are not things, or maps are not the actual territory, then, obviously, the only possible link between the objective world and the linguistic world is found in structure, and structure alone. ~ Alfred Korzybski

Are you better off than you were one year ago, one month ago, or one week ago? If not, things will not improve by themselves. ~ Tim Ferriss

The things for which we owe thanks are not things we have from ourselves. They are given to us. We receive many gifts, of many kinds. But the highest and really most lasting gift given to us is always our essential nature, with which we are gifted in such a way that we are what we are only through it. That is why we owe thanks for this endowment, first and unceasingly. ~ Martin Heidegger

We need to be on guard against greed ... above all we need to make sure our lives are centered in Christ and not things. ~ Billy Graham

It is not things in themselves which trouble us, but our opinions of things. ~ Epictetus

Life and work are not things apart. Work is more than gaining privileges and possessions; it is ongoing, ecstatic, LIVING experience. When we tap into living experience, we no longer feel as though we must be king. We can just be ALIVE at work! When we live in the bliss, there is no difficulty which is insurmountable. If we miss the bliss, there is no compensation which is adequate. ~ Laurence Boldt

What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance. ~ Epictetus

People are not things, you cannot have ownership. ~ Rajneesh

And just as Catskin went to the ball, and Cendrillon, and Aschenputtel, so must you. The ball that will be given soon in the palace; I've heard talk of it in the kitchens. The servants say one is held each year. Have you never gone?"
She shook her head.
"Then you must go this year dressed in a fine gown as it is done in the stories."
She sat staring at him. "Me, Gillie? I don't belong at the ball."
"As much as Cinderella did."
"But they are only stories; they're not things that can happen." She studied him for a long time. He did not seem to be making a joke.
"It's what you dream, Thursey. You should do what you dream of doing, else where is the good in dreaming? ~ Shirley Rousseau Murphy

He could not know that thoughts are not things you can give or not give. Thoughts are thrust upon you. You can only hope that thoughts that you don't want will tire of you at some point and flutter away. ~ Susan Meissner

People are not "things" to be manipulated, labeled, boxed, bought, and sold. Above all else, they are not "human resources." They are entire human beings, containing the whole of the evolving universe, limitless until we start limiting them. We must examine the concept of leading and following with new eyes. We must examine the concept of superior and subordinate with increasing skepticism. We must examine the concept of management and labor with new beliefs. And we must examine the nature of organizations that demand such distinctions with an entirely different consciousness. ~ Dee Hock

His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. There is no limit to His power.
If you choose to say, 'God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it,' you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prifex to them the two other words, 'God can.'
It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God. ~ C.S. Lewis

Knowledge and ability were tools, not things to show off. ~ Haruki Murakami

we were buying things we actually loved, not things to show off, ~ Kevin Kwan

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear. ~ Brian Tracy

It is not things, but opinions about things that have absolutely no existence, which have so deranged mankind! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Happiness and Unhappiness are not things that just happen to you, they are a choice. They are a perspective.
Smile, and think about that for a moment. Now smile some more.
Not that hard is it? ~ Donald L. Hicks

Human rights are not things that are put on the table for people to enjoy. These are things you fight for and then you protect. ~ Wangari Maathai

Colton suspects we're not just children, that we are, in fact, the terrifying things that go bump in the night. But, no, that's wrong. Not things that bump. Bumps are clumsy and inelegant. They are sounds made by creatures not at home in the darkness. I don't bump. I crunch in the night. I crack; I splatter; I splash. But I never, ever bump. ~ Eliza Crewe

Did something happen to you in the dark, Sam?'. They always wanted to know. Because they assumed all fear must come from a thing or a place. An event. Cause and effect. Like fear was part of an algebra equation.
No, no, no, so not getting the point of fear. Because fear wasn't about what made sense. Fear was about possibilities. Not things that happened. Things that might.
-Sam ~ Michael Grant

Collect memories, not things.
Fill-up dreams, not pockets.
Rise above your calling and be the person you always wanted to be. ~ Akash Lakhotia

Politics and the economy are not things that exist, or illusions, or ideologies. They are things that do not exist and yet which are inscribed in reality and fall under a regime of truth dividing the true and the false. ~ Michel Foucault

My memories are inside me - they're not things or a place - I can take them anywhere. ~ Olivia Newton-John

Those words tasted bitter.
But the worst part was that those words were living inside me. And they were leaking out of me. Words were not things you could control. Not always. ~ Benjamin Alire Saenz

I look in the mirror and see myself,
and yet I really don't.
Only an image is perceived,
not things I will or things I won't.

Ideas in my mind I cannot see.
No glimpse of how I feel.
Shreds of emotion shape my gaze,
but depth, the mirror will not reveal.

I see my reflection colored in,
my hair, my skin, my eyes.
Hues in my heart and shades of thought
remain unlit by fire or skies.

I smile at the mirror and watch it grin,
hasty to copy me,
but who I am 'twill never know.
Mirrors don't reflect identities. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Maybe we need to look upon technologies and social networks as things that come out of us, not things that lead us. We can be on top of these things instead of them bein' on top of us as human beings. ~ Chuck D

The hero is the champion of things becoming, not things become, because he is. "Before Abraham was, I AM." He does not mistake aparent changelesness in time for the permanence of being, nor is he fearful of the next moment or other thing, as destroying the permanence with its change. Thus the next moment is permitted to come to pass. ~ Campbell

We are here because we are made by God, we will return to God. So people who think that they are something, they are totally wrong. And this is the most beautiful thing in life, it is that we don't own anything. So, everything is ours in the sense that we have the world to explore and not things to carry, a burden to carry. ~ Paulo Coelho

I didn't want words. But there certainly was something that I wanted.
And they were definitely not things like to understand each other, to get along with each other, to want to talk to each other, and to stay together. I didn't want to be understood. I was aware that I wasn't understood and I didn't think I wanted to be understood. What I wanted was something more cruel and harsh. I wanted to understand. I want to understand. I want to know. I want to know and be relieved. I want to gain peace of mind. Because I was terrified of things I didn't understand. To want to completely understand everything was a self-righteous, dictatorial, and arrogant wish. It was absolutely wretched and repulsive. I couldn't help but be disgusted at myself for having such a desire. ~ Wataru Watari

the best gifts are not things u give to somebody but things u share with somebody. ~ Jomny Sun

For my entire career, I wanted to be a director. When I was in the theater, it was very difficult to get directing jobs, and I fell into the acting by default. I got in the habit of accepting whatever came my way. Not things that I disagreed with, though. It's not like I had aspirations - well, I did have aspirations to play Hamlet, which I ended up doing. ~ James Cromwell

You still have only one self and one identity. However, self, identity and personality are not things, they are not objects, and they certainly are not rigid. Instead, they are biological processes built within the brain from numerous interactive components, step by step, over a period of time. ~ Antonio Damasio

I love this country because I didn't always have it. Freedom, food, water that is clean, Constitution - these are not things I take for granted. ~ Sayed Badreya

The greatest things in life are not things. ~ Rick Warren

Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men. ~ Epictetus

(You do not have to be shamed in my closeness. Family are the people who must never make you feel ashamed.)
(You are wrong. Family are the people who must make you feel ashamed when you are deserving of shame.)
(And you are deserving of shame?)
(I am. I am trying to tell you.) 'We were stupid,' he said, 'because we believed in things.'
'Why is this stupid?'
'Because there are not things to believe in.'
(Love?)
(There is no love. Only the end of love.)
(Goodness?)
(Do not be a fool.)
(God?)
(If God exists, He is not to be believed in.) ~ Jonathan Safran Foer

The biggest challenge of being a pastry chef is that, unlike other types of chefs, you can't throw things together at a farmer's market. When you're working with baking powder and a formula, you have to be exact. If not, things can go wrong. ~ Carla Hall

Worry less, enjoy more, because more often than not, things will work out anyway. ~ Jennifer O'Neill

Hope locates itself in the premises that we don't know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes–you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and knowable, a alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists take the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It's the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what is may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterward either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone. ~ Rebecca Solnit

I think that if you, as a comedian, are trying to be in people's face, then you've got to come up with new stuff every year. We're in a mass consumption phase where people take things for granted and want things to be instant when these are not things that can be instant. ~ Keenen Ivory Wayans

[They] may have for instance taken the view of Edmund Burke, who in the 18th century made the central conservative insight; that a culture and a society are not things run for the convenience of the people who happen to be here right now, but is a deep pact between the dead, the living, and those yet to be born. ~ Douglas Murray

Truth, says instrumentalism, is what works out, that which does what you expect it to do. The judgment is true when you can "bank" on it and not be disappointed. If, when you predict, or when you follow the lead of your idea or plan, it brings you to the ends sought for in the beginning, your judgment is true. It does not consist in agreement of ideas, or the agreement of ideas with an outside reality; neither is it an eternal something which always is, but it is a name given to ways of thinking which get the thinker where he started. As a railroad ticket is a "true" one when it lands the passenger at the station he sought, so is an idea "true," not when it agrees with something outside, but when it gets the thinker successfully to the end of his intellectual journey.

Truth, reality, ideas and judgments are not things that stand out eternally "there," whether in the skies above or in the earth beneath; but they are names used to characterize certain vital stages in a process which is ever going on, the process of creation, of evolution. In that process we may speak of reality, this being valuable for our purposes; again, we may speak of truth; later, of ideas; and still again, of judgments; but because we talk about them we should not delude ourselves into thinking we can handle them as something eternally existing as we handle a specimen under the glass.

Such a conception of truth and reality, the instrumentalist believes, is in harmony with the gener ~ Holly Estil Cunningham

I once sheepishly asked a prominent Evangelical apologist, with his PhD in New Testament, if he had ever chanced to read Strauss's Life of Jesus Critically Examined. He had not. Things began to become clear to me. He didn't know that all his trusty arguments had been thoroughly refuted many decades before he was born. ~ Robert M. Price

It is the function of a poet to relate not things that have happened, but things that may happen, ~ Aristotle.

Love people, not things; use things, not people. ~ Spencer W. Kimball

Once you realize that life and love are not things you can possess but forces that emanate through us and through all creation, then you can begin to appreciate the miracle you are a part of. You can release the burden and appreciate what you have had, have now and will have. Only trying to hold on to what you do not have causes pain. Letting go permits you to experience the incredible joy that comes to you at each and every moment. ~ James Rozoff

I paint ideas, not things. My intention is less to paint works that are pleasing to the eye than to suggest great thoughts which will speak to the imagination and the heart and will arouse all that is noblest and best in man. ~ George Frederic Watts

Love and concern for all are not things some of us are born with and others are not. Rather, they are results of what we do with our minds: We can choose to transform our minds so that they embody love, or we can allow them to develop habits and false concepts of separation. ~ Sharon Salzberg

Fear was about possibilities. Not things that had happened. Things that might ~ Michael Grant

No, no, no, so not getting the point of fear. Because fear wasn't about what made sense. Fear was about possibilities. Not things that happened. Things that might. ~ Michael Grant

I thought about all the things I was suddenly able to do - like fight with a sword and summon a magical shell of armor. Those were not things I covered in home school. ~ Rick Riordan

Hands that wrap us in warmth, that hold us close. Hands that guide us to shelter, to comfort, to food. Hands that hold and touch and reassure us through our very first crisis, and guide us into our very first shelter from pain. The first thing we ever learn is that the touch of someone else's hand can ease pain and make things better. ~ Jim Butcher

I do think that there is an innocence to people who are searching for things. It's a beautiful thing when you leave yourself vulnerable to discover anything and everything. ~ Kate Hudson