Quotes from Yes Please

Amy Poehler ·  329 pages

Rating: (312.8K votes)


“That is the motto women should constantly repeat over and over again. Good for her! Not for me.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“I think we should stop asking people in their twenties what they “want to do” and start asking them what they don’t want to do.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“However, if you do start crying in an argument and someone asks why, you can always say, "I'm just crying because of how wrong you are.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“You do it because the doing of it is the thing. The doing is the thing. The talking and worrying and thinking is not the thing.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“People are their most beautiful when they are laughing, crying, dancing, playing, telling the truth, and being chased in a fun way.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please



“The only way we will survive is by being kind. The only way we can get by in this world is through the help we receive from others. No one can do it alone, no matter how great the machines are.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Hopefully as you get older, you start to learn how to live with your demon. It’s hard at first. Some people give their demon so much room that there is no space in their head or bed for love. They feed their demon and it gets really strong and then it makes them stay in abusive relationships or starve their beautiful bodies. But sometimes, you get a little older and get a little bored of the demon. Through good therapy and friends and self-love you can practice treating the demon like a hacky, annoying cousin. Maybe a day even comes when you are getting dressed for a fancy event and it whispers, “You aren’t pretty,” and you go, “I know, I know, now let me find my earrings.” Sometimes you say, “Demon, I promise you I will let you remind me of my ugliness, but right now I am having hot sex so I will check in later.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Saying “yes” doesn’t mean I don’t know how to say no, and saying “please” doesn’t mean I am waiting for permission.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Because what else are we going to do? Say no? Say no to an opportunity that may be slightly out of our comfort zone? Quiet our voice because we are worried it is not perfect? I believe great people do things before they are ready.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“You have to care about your work but not about the result. You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not about how good people think you are or how good people think you look.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please



“Telling me to relax or smile when I’m angry is like bringing a birthday cake into an ape sanctuary. You’re just asking to get your nose and genitals bitten off.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Decide what your currency is early. Let go of what you will never have. People who do this are happier and sexier.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“It takes years as a woman to unlearn what you have been taught to be sorry for. It takes years to find your voice and seize your real estate.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“A lot of people don’t know I am always thisfuckingclose to doing some crazy shit.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Watching great people do what you love is a good way to start learning how to do it yourself.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please



“You have to be where you are to get where you need to go.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“how a person treats their waitress is a great indication of their character.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“It’s called Yes Please because it is the constant struggle and often the right answer. Can we figure out what we want, ask for it, and stop talking? Yes please. Is being vulnerable a power position? Yes please. Am I allowed to take up space? Yes please. Would you like to be left alone? Yes please. I love saying “yes” and I love saying “please.” Saying “yes” doesn’t mean I don’t know how to say no, and saying “please” doesn’t mean I am waiting for permission. “Yes please” sounds powerful and concise. It’s a response and a request. It is not about being a good girl; it is about being a real woman. It’s also a title I can tell my kids. I like when they say “Yes please” because most people are rude and nice manners are the secret keys to the universe.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“It’s very hard to have ideas. It’s very hard to put yourself out there, it’s very hard to be vulnerable, but those people who do that are the dreamers, the thinkers and the creators. They are the magic people of the world.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Anger and embarrassment are often neighbors.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please



“Your ability to navigate and tolerate change and its painful uncomfortableness directly correlates to your happiness and general well-being. See what I just did there? I saved you thousands of dollars on self-help books. If you can surf your life rather than plant your feet, you will be happier.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“if you can dance and be free and not embarrassed you can rule the world.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“I believe great people do things before they are ready.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Emotions are like passing storms, and you have to remind yourself that it won’t rain forever. You just have to sit down and watch it pour outside and then peek your head out when it looks dry.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Sticking up for ourselves in the same way we would one of our friends is a hard but satisfying thing to do. Sometimes it works.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please



“Either way, we both agree that ambivalence is a key to success. I will say it again. Ambivalence is key. You have to care about your work but not the result. You have to care about how good you and how good you feel, but now about how good people think you are or how good people think you look I realize this is extremely difficult. I am not saying I am particularly good at it. I'm like you. Or maybe you'er better at this and I am. You will never climb Career Mountain and get to the top and shout, 'I made it!' You will rarely feel done or complete or even successful Most people I know struggle with that complicated soup of feeling slighted on one hand and like a total fraud on the other. Our ego is a monster that loves to sit at the head of the table, and I have learned that my ego is just as rude and loud and hungry as everyone else's. It doesn't matter how much you get; you are left wanting more. Success is filled with MSG.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Treat your career like a bad boyfriend. Here's the thing. Your career won't take care of you. It won't call you back or introduce you to its parents.Your career will openly flirt with other people while you are around. It will forget you birthday and wreck your car. Your career will blow you off if you call it too much. It's never going to leave its wife.Your career is fucking other people and everyone knows but you. Your career will never marry you. (...) If your career is a bad boyfriend, it is healthy to remember you can always leave and go sleep with somebody else”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“I have realized that mystery is what keeps people away, and I’ve grown tired of smoke and mirrors. I yearn for the clean, well-lighted place. So let’s peek behind the curtain and hail the others like us. The open-faced sandwiches who take risks and live big and smile with all of their teeth. These are the people I want to be around. This is the honest way I want to live and love and write.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Going from crying to laughing that fast and hard happens maybe five times in your life and that extreme right turn is the reason why we are alive, and I believe it extends our life by many years.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please


“Please don’t drive drunk, okay? Seriously. It’s so fucked up. But by all means, walk drunk. That looks hilarious. Everyone loves to watch someone act like they are trying to make it to safety during a hurricane.”
― Amy Poehler, quote from Yes Please



About the author

Amy Poehler
Born place: in Newton, MA, The United States
Born date September 16, 1971
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“If there is one thing in which I hold complete confidence, it is the conviction of my own desirability.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, quote from Heartless


“After tidying up, Adela would plunge the rooms into semidarkness by drawing down the linen blinds. All colors immediately fell an octave lower, the room filled with shadows, as if it had sunk to the bottom of the sea and the light was reflected in mirrors of green water–and the heat of the day began to breathe on the blinds as they stirred slightly in their daydreams.”
― Bruno Schulz, quote from The Street of Crocodiles


“His love for this girl was so strong now, at this moment, that he would readily give up everything for her.”
― Oliver Pötzsch, quote from The Hangman's Daughter


“Jimmy Fargo’s birthday party. All the other guys got to take home goldfish in little plastic bags. I won him because I guessed there were three hundred and forty-eight jelly beans in Mrs. Fargo’s jar. Really,”
― Judy Blume, quote from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing


“What about the old standby of kicking a guy in the groin?"
"Try to."
Love to...”
― Kresley Cole, quote from Dark Desires After Dusk


Interesting books

Ship of Destiny
(43.5K)
Ship of Destiny
by Robin Hobb
Death in Venice
(26.3K)
Death in Venice
by Thomas Mann
Vicious
(35.3K)
Vicious
by V.E. Schwab
John Dies at the End
(49.1K)
John Dies at the End
by David Wong
Feet of Clay
(56.9K)
Feet of Clay
by Terry Pratchett
Deliverance
(26.8K)
Deliverance
by James Dickey

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.