Good Bad News Quotes & Sayings

Unless you point to the good news of God's grace people will not be able to bear the bad news of God's judgement. — Timothy Keller

We don't go out there into the world and do what would make us feel happy and fulfilled with our lives, because what if it's not good enough for our parents? What if it's not cool enough for our friends? What if our choices aren't good enough for everybody else? "But know this: no matter what you do, you will never escape judgment and criticism. Don't even take this as bad news. It just is. It's what people do. They can't help it. You're getting judged either way, so you might as well do what makes you happy. — Katie Morton

The good news is you survived. The bad news is you're hurt and no one can heal you but yourself. — Clementine Von Radics

Never awake me when you have good news to announce, because with good news nothing presses; but when you have bad news, arouse me immediately, for then there is not an instant to be lost. — Napoleon Bonaparte

Reality's just the accumulation of ominous prophecies come to life. All you have to do is open a newspaper on any given day to weigh the good news versus the bad news, and you'll see what I mean. — Haruki Murakami

When the phone rings at 2.15am in the morning it's unlikely to be heralding something pleasant. What chance is there of its being good news? None. Only someone bad would ring at such an hour. Or someone with bad news. — Ben Elton

Good news is, I'm still alive. Bad news is, Bitches be crazy. — Ksenia Solo As Kenzi

The only thing I know about Moses is him coming down from the mountain with the commandments and saying 'The good news is I got him down to 10. The bad news is adultery is still in. — Steve Kluger

The good news is that going blind is not going to make you as unhappy as you think it will. The bad news is that winning the lottery will not make you as happy as you expect. — Daniel Gilbert

The FCC is considering lifting the ban on cellphone calls on planes. The good news is you'll be able to make calls during your flight. The bad news? The person sitting next to you will be able to make cellphone calls during yourflight. — Jay Leno

Are we quick to respond to others' needs? Do we run from problems or face them? Do we talk more about bad news or good news? Do we give people the benefit of the doubt, or do we assume the worst? The — John C. Maxwell

Growing up in Ireland, when my family received important news, good or bad, we would boil water and make tea. It was the first thing I did when my father died in 1984. This ritual allowed me a moment to take in the enormity of what had happened. — Roma Downey

Good news is there is nothing we can do that is bad enough to keep us out of Heaven; — Billy Graham

In the business world, bad news is usually good news - for somebody else. — James Surowiecki

There are no secrets on an successful software project. Both good and bad news must be able to move up and down the ptoject hierarchy without restriction. — Steve McConnell

There's always good news wrapped up in bad news. — Frank Delaney

If partisanship makes us abandon intellectual honesty, if we oppose what our opponents say or do simply because they are the ones saying or doing it, we become mere political short-sellers, hoping for bad news because it's good for our ideological investment. — Kurt Andersen

Roadblock #5: It's Unpredictable
By and large, human beings don't like surprises. I know that I don't. Okay, maybe I like that rare piece of unexpected good news or a letter from a friend or a thoughtful thank-you. But I'm willing to bet that people in funny hats jumping out of dark closets are responsible for more heart attacks than expressions of unbridled delight. When the doorbell rings late at night, I'm under no illusion that it's the Publisher's Clearing House Prize Patrol!
This, most likely, goes back to our caveman past when a big, exciting surprise was apt to be something like an 800-pound,snarling, saber-toothed tiger about to rip the head from our shoulders. Surprises were usually bad news. (Think about this the next time you're crouching in the dark in somebody's front hall closet with their raincoats and umbrellas.) — Paul Powers

The good news is we had this idea of cloud computing. The bad news is we were 10 years too early. — Marc Andreessen

The gospel of Jesus Christ must be the bad news of the conviction of sin before it can be the Good News of redemption. The truth is revealed in God's Holy Word; life can be lived only in absolute and disciplined submission to its authority. — Charles Colson

Christianity is not about good people getting better. If anything, it is good news for bad people coping with their failure to be good. The heart of the Christian faith is Good News, not good advice, good technique, or good behavior. Too many people have walked away from the church, not because they're walking away from Jesus, but because the church has walked away from Jesus. — Tullian Tchividjian

I had my bad times. But the good news is that every time this has happened I've taken full responsibility for it. I don't try to duck it, I don't try to dodge it, I don't try to bullshit about it. Truth crushed to the ground will rise again. And that's what my life has been about. — Marion Barry

The good news is that she is one of the nicest people in the universe. The bad news is, that's because she always does exactly what she pleases. An Aquarius female is rebellious, headstrong, and contrary. She can be selfishly independent and exasperating, especially when she is running through the house screaming, "freedom! — Hazel Dixon-Cooper

The bad news: There is no key to the universe. The good news: It was never locked. — Swami Beyondananda

The good news is that the president gets another chance. The bad news is that he'll be two weeks older. — Johnny Carson

[T]here's a good reason to stay pessimistic about deficits as far as the eye can see. It's called the 'news' media. Legislators who want to get re-elected will clearly want to avoid any spending decision that will create bad national publicity, and our news media, the manufacturers of bad national publicity, will send crying victims down the assembly line at the slightest thought of a social spending cut or freeze. Exhibit A is Sen. Jim Bunning. — L. Brent Bozell Jr.

The bad news is, our past defines us. However, the good news is, our future will someday be a part of that past. — Palle Oswald

The good news was that the newspaper he had ordered was right at his door as promised. The bad news was that he had forgotten to buy milk for his breakfast. So he dumped the cereal back into the box, swept the overflow into the sink, and put second best, a bagel, into the toaster while he read the paper. He was barely past the first page when the toaster started to smoke. He pushed up the handle; the bagel stayed down. Smoke continued to curl toward the ceiling, setting off the fire alarm. Swearing broadly, he silenced it by knocking it down with the handle of the mop that had come in so handy the night before. — Barbara Delinsky

Overachievers, here's some good and some bad news. The good news is, that you're smart, special, and you're raising the bar. The bad news is: very few people will like you. — Joan Marques

The bad news: your love problems are bigger than you think because love problems are God problems. The good news: the solution is bigger than you think because God cares and is involved. Having more love in your marriage means having more of God in your marriage. Having trouble loving is evidence either that you don't know God or that something is interfering in your relationship with God.1 — Winston T. Smith

While the good news of the gospel may not appeal to everyone, the bad news of the gospel still applies to everyone. — Matt Chandler

You want to know what's on the other side?'
Walsh eyed the detective carefully, as if gauging the seriousness of the question.
'Is it seventy-two virgins, like the Muslims believe?'
'That's the good news. The bad news is that they're all guys. It's like being at a boarding school.'
'I knew there had to be a catch. — John Connolly

-What's the good news?
-Pardon?
-You said the bad news is we're going the wrong way.
-There isn't any good news. Just because there's bad news doesn't mean there's good news, too. — David Benioff

I was shocked when they told me congratulations, you won, that's the good news. Then the bad news is that you have six battles next week. That was a bit of a shocker. I was exhausted. And I had Chopped shooting that same week. I didn't have a sous chef lined up; I thought that was bad karma to try to think ahead. So I scrambled. I scrambled the jets, took off and we bombed our target. I think it's gone well. — Geoffrey Zakarian

You wouldn't want to see a movie where the bad guys triumph over the good guys all the time. You'd get bummed out, and you'd just stay at home and watch the news. — Bruce Willis

News of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many ears as praise for a good service experience. — Timi Nadela

Could it be that Christians, eager to point out how good we are, neglect the basic fact that the gospel sounds like good news only to bad people? — Philip Yancey

Bad news is the backdrop against which the Good News really stands out. — Matt Chandler

Good News: I'm rich! Bad News: Too much to list! — Minecrafty Family Books

Anyway, I make up my own mind about men and women. What's the good of other people's opinions? Animals don't consult each other about other animals. They look and sniff and feel. In love and hate, and everything in between, those are the only tests that matter. But people are unsure of their own instincts. They want reassurance. So they ask someone else whether they should like a particular person or not. And as the world loves bad news, they nearly always get a bad answer
or at least a qualified one. — Ian Fleming

Democracy doesn't require a whole lot of work of its citizens, but it requires some: It requires taking a good look outside once in a while, and considering the bad news and what it might mean, and making the occasional tough choice, and soberly taking stock of what your real interests are. — Matt Taibbi

The good news is your surgery was a success and now you look like a movie star! The bad news is that movie star is Drew Carey! — Ryan Stiles

Inspiration comes from so many sources. Music, other fiction, the non-fiction I read, TV shows, films, news reports, people I know, stories I hear, misheard words or lyrics, dreams ... Motivation? The memory of the rush I get from a really good writing session - even on a bad day, I know I'll find that again if I keep going. — Trudi Canavan

The gospel is only good news when we understand the bad news. — R.C. Sproul

In order for good news to be good - like the gospel is good (literally means "good news") - it must invade bad spaces. — Matt Chandler

In the new century science will defeat famine, boredom, and the plague, but ... vital knowledge will become so elevated that nobody will know how anything works ... the good news is that everybody will be empowered; the bad news is nobody will understand why. — Mark Christensen

Bad news drives out good news. The irrational is more controversial than the rational. Concurrence can no longer compete with dissent. One minute of Eldridge Cleaver is worth ten minutes of Roy Wilkins. The labor crises settled at the negotiating table is nothing compared to the confrontation that results in a strike ... normality has become the nemesis of network news. — Spiro T. Agnew

Quentin Tarantino assistant called me and said: "I have good news and bad news. The good news is you got the part, the bad news is you have to do it." I was like: "Oh Jesus, when am I supposed to do this?" I was prepping Hostel. — Eli Roth

The good news is that economists are intelligent, engaging and often charming folks. The bad news is their work is often of little use to investors. — Barry Ritholtz

And you wanna know how i know i love you? He asks. I know because when I see you, I smile. I know because when I'm not with you, you're all I can think about. I know because when I hear good news, you're the first person I want to tell. And I know because when I hear bad news, you're the first person I want to talk to. — Laura Miller

It's common in the middle of a drought . . . to forget that rain is the norm. Or in the middle of a flood to forget that floods rarely happen. Or when bad news comes from the doctor to forget that, for most of us, this comes after many years of relatively good health. — Mark Mittelberg

The good news is that The Hangover Part III isn't a rerun like the second episode. The bad news is everything else. For all the promise of mayhem and WTF moments, the final episode hits you with all the force of a warm can of O'Doul's. — Kyle Smith

For writers - even sportswriters - bad news is always easier than good, since it is, after all, more familiar. — Richard Ford

Buechner put it this way: The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner . . . that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. — Lois Rabey

The bad news is, we're all incomplete people. The good news is, Jesus loves incomplete people. And He wants us to know we can have complete joy by being secure enough in His love to reach out and love other incomplete people. — Lysa TerKeurst

No news is ever as good or as bad as it first seems — Paul Hoffman

If I sound as if I'm always predicting ominous things, it's because I'm a pragmatist. I use deductive reasoning to generalize, and I suppose this sometimes ends up sounding like unlucky prophecies. You know why? Because reality's just the accumulation of ominous prophecies come to life. You have to only open a newspaper on any given day and weigh the good news versus the bad, and you'll see what I mean. — Haruki Murakami

Okay, I'm guessing you're gonna give us the bad news first because there's no good news? — Cindy Gerard

The bad news is you're falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is, there's no ground. — Chogyam Trungpa

Better to have bad news that's true than good news we made up — Eric Ries

In a society where dirt sells, for every good story told as it is, you will hear the whole of that day's 10 bad stories sensationalized; although in reality, it could be that 100 good deeds happened that day which went unsung. — Criss Jami

The good news doesn't make any sense unless you know what the bad news is first, and the bad news goes pretty deep. — Bill Mallonee

If the mood is overly anxious, then anxiety must be reduced by lowering uncertainty. Very simply, uncertainty is reduced when people are told what's going on and what will happen to them. In the vacuum of no news, people imagine the worst. Since disappointment is much easier to handle than anxiety, then, good news or bad, honesty is honestly the best policy. — Judith M Bardwick

When someone dies, it's good to mail a note. Don't send an e-mail. You have to send a card. Everyone should have cards and stamps kicking around. I have some very simple stationery, just nice card stock with my name at the top. When the news is happy, e-mail is fine. You can e-mail congratulations about babies, weddings, anything. But when it's not? If it's a death or other bad news, you have to be more formal. — Tim Gunn

Each stage of development, remember, has a dialectic of progress
in plain language, every new development is good news, bad news. — Ken Wilber

You're probably wondering why there's never any good news.
I mean, I've been doing this job a few months now. I've been soaking up the paper every week, same as you, and watching the same newsfeeds as you. I got the same list burned into the front of my head as you. Death. Horror. Bad sex. Living nightmares. Each day a little further down the spiral.
There's never any good news because they know you.
I mean, here's the top of today's column that I discarded: I had a really good time last night down the bar with my assistant and some cheerfully doomed sex fiends of our acquaintance.
No one ever sold newspapers by telling you the truth; life just ain't that bad. — Warren Ellis

Bad news doesn't hurt as much, if you hear it in good company. It's like, if somebody pushes you out of a 5th floor window and you bounce off an awning, a car roof, and a pile of plastic garbage bags before you smash onto the pavement, you've got a pretty good chance of surviving. — Patricia Gaffney

Do other dads not end their phone calls with existential despair? Because that's what my dad does. Papa ends most of his calls with me the way you might close a conversation with someone you want to menace. "Anyway," he'll say, "I'll be here. Staring into the abyss." Or, when I have given him good news, "The talented will rule and the rest will perish in the sea of mediocrity." Or, when I have given him bad news, "I am for for everything that happens to you, as everything is my fault." He never ends with anything that couldn't one day be construed as a tragic yet comic last word. — Scaachi Koul

At a certain point in our lives, when we really need a clear-cut solution, the person who knocks at our door is, more likely than not, a messenger bearing bad news. This isn't always the case, but from experience I'd say the gloomy reports far outnumber the others. The messenger touches his hand to his cap and looks apologetic, but that does nothing to improve the contents of the message. It isn't the messenger's fault. No good to blame him, no good to grab him by the collar and shake him. The messenger is just conscientiously doing the job his boss assigned him. And this boss? That would be none other than our old friend Reality. — Haruki Murakami

Well-reported news is a public good; bad news is bad for everyone. — Jill Lepore

I quit because I'm so tired of hearing bad news about cigarettes ... Even if they discover good news, they don't publicize it - like the fact that smoking seriously reduces the risk of jogging. — Arj Barker

There's good news and slightly less good news. — Joanne Harris

The good news is that the bad news can be turned into good news when you change your attitude. — Robert H. Schuller

We must never distinguish apologetics and evangelism too neatly. But in broad terms, evangelism is the sharing of the good news, and it addresses the needs and desires of those who know they are in a bad situation. — Os Guinness

An Irishman will always soften bad news, so that a major coronary is no more than 'a bad turn' and a near hurricane that leaves thousands homeless is 'good drying weather'. — Hugh Leonard

So here is the bad news and the good news. The story of human life on Earth is yet to be determined. If there is to be an Act V, it will depend on whether we humans are willing to make changes in our individual and collective beliefs and behaviors and whether we are able to make these changes in time. — Bruce H. Lipton

Balance the bad news of life with the good news of Christ. — Ralph Washington Sockman

I'll tell you a piece of news
I hope you have not heard it before: for good, bad, or indifferent, one always likes to be the first to tell. — Anne Bronte

The image of God I was raised with was this: God is an angry bastard with a killer surveillance system who had to send his little boy (and he only had one) to suffer and die because I was bad. But the good news was that if I believed this story and then tried really hard to be good, when I died I would go to heaven, where I would live in a golden gated community with God and all the other people who believed and did the same things as I did ... this type of thinking portrays God as just as mean and selfish as we are, which feels like it has a lot more to do with our own greed and spite than it has to do with God. — Nadia Bolz-Weber

But what if the great secret insider-trading truth is that you don't ever get over the biggest losses in your life? Is that good news, bad news, or both? ... The pain does grow less acute, but the insidious palace lie that we will get over crushing losses means that our emotional GPS can never find true north, as it is based on maps that no longer mention the most important places we have been to. Pretending that things are nicely boxed up and put away robs us of great riches. — Anne Lamott

We were also performing. We'd give them a list of, like, 'Here's how we want to be introduced' They'd be like, 'Great' And then 5 minutes later they'd come back, 'Bad news: we lost your list. But good news: we've got a trash bag full of weed!' — Amy Poehler

We are killers," Matthias said.
Bad news.
"Not girls. We don't kill girls."
Good news.
"She's no girl."
Insulting news?
"What? Of course she's a girl."
"Want me to check?"
"Shut up, Blake," the rest of them chorused. — A&E Kirk

Good luck with that, Harvath thought. In his experience, life was predominantly made up of three distinct groups: sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves. And if there was one thing he had learned from a lifetime of hunting wolves and protecting sheep, it was that sheep had two speeds - graze and stampede. Now that word was out that the virus was loose, all bets were off. Very soon, chaos was going to ensue. "What else do you have?" he asked, bracing himself for more bad news. "The pharmaceutical companies Damien's involved with appear pretty benign. One focuses on dementia medication and the other on birth control drugs. — Brad Thor

Is the sex good?" ... "I hope it's good but not great," Krystal remarked. "Sex slave to an alpha. Bad news."
This time my head didn't jerk. I blinked again.
"I'm a sex slave to an alpha and I have no complaints," Lauren muttered, grinning at Zara.
"Me either," Zara replied, grinning back.
"I've had mine longer than all of you," Nina announced. "And I'm of a mind that there will never be a time to complain. — Kristen Ashley

I get so disenfranchised reading the news, because global borders and lines we've created are completely unnecessary. That's just another person on the other side, and it's his bad luck that he was born there and it's my good fortune that I was born here. It's all kind of illogical. — Eddie Huang

Doctor: I have some good news and some bad news. Patient: What's the good news? Doctor: The tests you took showed that you have twenty-four hours to live. Patient:That's the good news? What's the bad news? Doctor: I forgot to call you yesterday. — Thomas Cathcart

A man says to the doctor: "What's the good news?" "You've got 24 hours to live." He says: "What's the bad news?" The doctor says: "We should have told you yesterday." — Frank Carson

Twentysomethings take these difficult moments particularly hard. Compared to older adults, they find negative information - the bad news - more memorable than positive information - or the good news. MRI studies show that twentysomething brains simply react more strongly to negative information than do the brains of older adults. There is more activity in the amygdala - the seat of the emotional brain. When twentysomethings have their competence criticized, they become anxious and angry. They are tempted to march in and take action. They generate negative feelings toward others and obsess about the why: "Why did my boss say that? Why doesn't my boss like me?" Taking work so intensely personally can make a forty-hour workweek long indeed. — Meg Jay

Bad news is that you can control nothing but your thoughts. Good news is that with your thoughts you can control everything else. — Debasish Mridha

When the news is good, the BBC view is: 'Get the government out of the picture quickly, don't allow them to say anything about it.' When the news is bad: 'Let's all dump on the government.' — Iain Duncan Smith

This is the short drop," the man said. "You'll notice that, unlike the standard drop or the long drop, your neck is not broken. Which may seem like a blessing now, but in the end you will wish it had been a longer drop and a shorter wait. But that's the good news and bad news of the short drop. You live longer, but . . . you live longer. Most people think they'd always want to live longer, but twenty minutes at the end of a rope is a long time to die. A long time to regret things that cannot be changed and that no longer matter. — Matthew FitzSimmons

The bad news is that 50 people died in a hotel fire; the good news is that we got exclusive footage. — Jessica Savitch

A visitor is a friend, he brings news, good or bad, which is bread to the hungry minds in lonely places. A real friend who comes to the house is a heavenly messenger, who brings the panis angelorum. — Karen Blixen

He sat on a kitchen chair and lifted her onto his lap so her legs straddled his, and then he slipped his hands under her skirt and cupped her backside to drag her closer. Oh f**k. Good news and bad news.
The good news was no underwear.
The bad news was no underwear. — Barbara Elsborg

Bad news. If you can see it coming, you brace yourself; you weigh the outcome. But there's always that niggling voice, that voice of hope whispering, 'Maybe it's good news.' Whether you can admit it or not, that little whisper is a potent thing. — Lily Gardner

So, good news/bad news: good news that I'm progressing; bad news that life is short and art is long. — George Saunders

You'll always get the good news; it's how fast you get the bad news that counts. — Harvey MacKay

And then he heard an answer. A voice said, "Yes?" It was a man's voice, from a big chest and a thick neck, but the syllable was snatched at and the full boom was bitten back short, because of breathy haste and enthusiasm. And anticipation. Like a gulp or a gasp. This guy had caller ID, and he wanted Hackett's news, and he wanted it bad, and he wanted it right then. That was clear. So the celebrations could begin, presumably. Reacher said, "This is not Hackett." The voice paused, and said, "I see." "This is Jack Reacher." No answer. "Hackett got McCann, but he didn't get us. In fact we got him. He was good, but not good enough." The voice said, "Where is Hackett now? — Lee Child

Hope doesn't come from calculating whether the good news is winning out over the bad. Its simply a choice to take action. — Anna Lappe

Altruism, compassion, empathy, love, conscience, the sense of justice - all of these things, the things that hold society together, the things that allow our species to think so highly of itself, can now confidently be said to have a firm genetic basis. That's the good news. The bad news is that, although these things are in some ways blessings for humanity as a whole, they didn't evolve for the "good of the species" and aren't reliably employed to that end. Quite the contrary: it is now clearer than ever how (and precisely why) the moral sentiments are used with brutal flexibility, switched on and off in keeping with self-interest; and how naturally oblivious we often are to this switching. In the new view, human beings are a species splendid in their array of moral equipment, tragic in their propensity to misuse it, and pathetic in their constitutional ignorance of the misuse. The title of this book is not wholly without irony. — Robert Wright