Quotes from Ordinary People

263 pages

Rating: (16.5K votes)


“People who keep stiff upper lips find that it's damn hard to smile.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“Feeling is not selective, I keep telling you that. You can’t feel pain, you aren’t gonna feel anything else, either.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“Riding the train gives him too much time to think, he has decided. Too much thinking can ruin you.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“. . . crazy world or maybe it's just the view we have of it, looking through a crack in the door, never being able to see the whole room, the whole picture.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“Depending on the reality one must face, one may prefer to opt for illusion.”
― quote from Ordinary People



“The small seed of despair cracks open and sends experimental tendrils upward to the fragile skin of calm holding him together.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“Life is not a series of pathetic, meaningles actions. Some of them are so far from pathetic, so far from meaningless as to be beyond reason, maybe beyond forgiveness.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“And do not be paralyzed. It is better to move than to be unable to move, because you fear loss so much: loss of order, loss of security, loss of predictability.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“People have a right to be the way they are.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“And what about tomorrow then? And all the tomorrows to come? Why can't we talk about it? Why can't we ever talk about it?”
― quote from Ordinary People



“She hands him his coffee; crosses to the doorway; motes of dust flutter nervously in her wake.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“with grief? There is no dealing; he knows that much. There is simply the stubborn, mindless hanging on until it is over. Until you are through it. But something has happened in the process. The old definitions, the neat, knowing pigeonholes have disappeared. Or else they no longer apply. His eyes move again to the calendar. Wednesday, November fifth. Of course. Obvious. All the painful self-examination ; the unanswered questions. At least he knows what is wrong today. Today is Jordan’s birthday. Today he would have been nineteen.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“He hangs on now, pressing his hand lightly against the wall, below the window, waiting for the familiar arrow of pain. Only there is none. An oddly pleasant swell of memory, a wave of warmth flooding over him, sliding back, slowly. It is a first”
― quote from Ordinary People


“Everything seems excessive, now, and too intense, too important.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“People use people according to their own needs. Or don't use them. When a primary need is one of safety.”
― quote from Ordinary People



“Because it has always been easier to believe himself capable of evil than to accept evil in others.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“It has always been easier to believe himself capable of evil than to accept evil in others.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“And once I wanted to be a fireman. Then”
― quote from Ordinary People


“Geez, if I could get through to you, kiddo, that depression is not sobbing and crying and giving vent, it is plain and simple reduction of feeling. Reduction, see? Of all feeling. People who keep stiff upper lips find that it's damn hard to smile.”
― quote from Ordinary People


“fast. Get those months, days, hours, minutes out of the way, it can’t be quick enough.”
― quote from Ordinary People



Popular quotes

“He turned away and his hands grabbed something. A tiny purple Albertosaurus, and the note she’d given him with it. If she could’ve felt her chest, her heart would’ve skipped a beat.”
― Shannon Messenger, quote from Keeper of the Lost Cities


“Most strange and wondrous, I thought, that the power of the mind was greater than the power of the hands.”
― Anne Rice, quote from Blood And Gold


“trivial as her hair. This morning she was thinking about how to construct”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from A Series of Unfortunate Events Box: The Complete Wreck


“Well, Nero," Genghis said, "I just wanted to give you this rose-a small gift of congratulations for the wonderful concert you gave us last night!"
"Oh, thank you," Nero said, taking the rose out of Genghis's hand and giving it a good smell. "I was wonderful, wasn't I?"
"You were perfection!" Genghis said. "The first time you played your sonata, I was deeply moved. The second time, I had tears in my eyes. The third time, I was sobbing. The fourth time, I had an uncontrollable emotional attack. The fifth time-" The Baudelaires did not hear about the fifth time because Nero's door swung shut behind them.”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from The Austere Academy


“-BDB on the board-
VAMPIRES WITH ONE EYEBROW ARE SEXY
May 8, 2006
Vishous (Back in the Pit, posting in Rhage's room on the board)
Hi! My name is Rhage.....:)
I'm starting a new trend in facial hair.
Having one eyebrow is COOL.
Having one eyebrow is SEXY.
Having one eyebrow is very INTELLECTUAL.
Come. Join me.

Rhage: (In his bedroom) 1. He immobilized me, the motherfucker. Or I woud have gone to work on the goatee. AND IF HE WERE SO TOUGH HE WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO PUT A WHAMMY ON MY ASS TO GET AT ME.
2. My hair grows back VERY fast. I should be BACK TO NORMAL in a couple of days.
3. Even if it takes me the rest of this month...he has SO got it coming for him.

Vishous: Rhage! What happened to your eyebrow?
Why...it's gone.
Did you slip while you were shaving?
Hey....lemme ask you something...Does your head feel off-kilter? You know, heavier on one side?”
― J.R. Ward, quote from The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider's Guide


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