Paraphrased Quotes & Sayings

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn about anyone else — L.J.Smith

The fourth (of the four cardinal virtues) is supportiveness: this manifests as service to others without expectation of reward. (Paraphrased: Such service is not a mere conforming to some external rule of behavior, but instead a manifestation of your original nature). — Laozi

And then what?"
"I'll burn that bridge when I cross it. — Ilona Andrews

I came, I saw, I concurred... — Darren E. Laws

Speak softly and employ a huge man with a crowbar. — Terry Pratchett

Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light. — Groucho Marx

Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness. — Terry Pratchett

I gave you all!" screeched Lear, waving a palsied claw at Regan.
"And you took your bloody time giving it, too, you senile old fuck," said Regan. — Christopher Moore

Life is like a box of Hand grenades,You never know what will blow you to kingdom come — Mario Puzo

Are you kidding? That guy was a mystery wrapped in an enigma and crudely stapled to a ticking fucking time bomb. He was either going to hit somebody or start a blog. — Lev Grossman

You can have everything in the world, but if you don't have love, none of it means crap," he said promptly. "Love is patient. Love is kind. Love always forgives, trusts, supports, and endures. Love never fails. When every star in the heavens grows cold, and when silence lies once more on the face of the deep, three things will endure: faith, hope, and love."
And the greatest of these is love," I finished. "That's from the Bible."
First Corinthians, chapter thirteen," Thomas confirmed. "I paraphrased. Father makes all of us memorize that passage. Like when parents put those green yucky-face stickers on the poisonous cleaning products under the kitchen sink. — Jim Butcher

To be or not to be. That's not really a question. — Jean-Luc Godard

Never trust a man who won't accept that there is more than one way to spell a word
Paraphrased — Thomas Jefferson

Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. — Mother Teresa

I told NASA what I did. Our (paraphrased) conversation was: Me: "I took it apart, found the problem, and fixed it." NASA: "Dick. — Andy Weir

Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love. — Mother Teresa

Some are born great, others achieve greatness. — William Shakespeare

Aren't you an enigma wrapped in a thick coating of contradictions. — Sherrilyn Kenyon

Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver. — Barbara De Angelis

Forgiveness is given to us from God not because we deserve it. Forgiveness is given to us by the grace of God.(Paraphrased message from the Bible.) — Dortha Jackson

What's in a name, anyway? That which we call a nose by any other name would still smell. — Reduced Shakespeare Company

Science advances one funeral at a time. — Max Planck

The curve is more powerful than the sword. — Mae West

Love yourself before you love someone else. — Leslie Becker-Phelps

At the bottom of the poster was the famous Samuel Johnson quote I've now heard repeated, mangled, and paraphrased many times: When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford. — Craig Taylor

All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental. — Kurt Vonnegut

Today is the last day of some of your life. Don't waste it. quote from Tara Daniels — Jill Shalvis

Writing is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent elimination. — Louise Brooks

Her life was the significant pause between two glances in a mirror." ( paraphrased from The Beautiful and Damned") — F Scott Fitzgerald

People with disabilities not only need to be given lives, they need to be given lives worth living. (paraphrased, not a direct quote)) — Helen Keller

We didn't land on plymouth rock, Plymouth rock landed on us. — Malcolm X

If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live. — Maurice Maeterlinck

The only good human being is a dead one. — George Orwell

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. — Mother Teresa

Love is not patronizing and charity isn't about pity, it is about love. Charity and love are the same
with charity you give love, so don't just give money but reach out your hand instead. — Mother Teresa

Learn to stand for something in life otherwise you will fall for anything that comes along which is not a good indication to pursue your dreams. — Euginia Herlihy

Charity . . . is the opium of the privileged. — Chinua Achebe

The search for truth is more precious than its possession. — Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

I am a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a pita. Why the pita? That counts as another mystery. — Demetri Martin

Read like a butterfly, write like a bee. — Philip Pullman

You can fool some people some times but you cant fool all the people all the time — Bob Marley

We didn't speak our truest thoughts, and paraphrased our souls until we didn't know our feelings, and so were strangers to ourselves. — Adam Novy

Reason is just a means to an end, and the end depends on the reasoner's passions. — Steven Pinker

Paraphrased: The way of al-Junayd includes among other things abstaining constantly from resisting God Most High in whatever happens to one, whether good or bad ... — Ibn Ata Allah

A metaphor cannot be paraphrased — Percival Everett

I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things. — Mother Teresa

Accentuaute the positives - medicate the negatives. — Amy Sedaris

The point isn't to win the game. The point is to play a beautiful game. (paraphrased) — Patrick Rothfuss

When scriptures are used as the Lord has caused them to be recorded, they have intrinsic power that is not communicated when paraphrased. — Richard G. Scott

12. If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the enemy from engaging us even though the lines of our encampment be merely traced out on the ground. All we need do is to throw something odd and unaccountable in his way. [This extremely concise expression is intelligibly paraphrased by Chia Lin: "even though we have constructed neither wall nor ditch." Li Ch'uan says: "we puzzle him by strange and unusual dispositions;" and Tu Mu finally clinches the meaning by three illustrative anecdotes - one of Chu-ko Liang, who when occupying Yang-p'ing and about to be attacked by Ssu-ma I, suddenly struck his colors, stopped the beating of the drums, and flung open the city gates, showing only a few men engaged in sweeping and sprinkling the ground. This unexpected proceeding had the intended effect; for Ssu-ma I, suspecting an ambush, actually drew off his army and retreated. What Sun Tzu is advocating here, therefore, is nothing more nor less than the timely use of "bluff."] — Sun Tzu

In the vivid description of the Gospel, it would seem that we must help the Christ hidden in every poor man, in every prisioner, in every sufferer. But if we paraphrased the marvelous scene and applied it to the child, we should find that Christ goes to help all men in the form of the child. — Maria Montessori

Nothing is forever except change. — Gautama Buddha

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. — Mother Teresa

If you can't feed a hundred people, feed just one. — Mother Teresa

Evil will win if good people do nothing. — P.C. Cast

It's better to have loved and lost than to be nagged about buying a damn anniversary gift every year. — Joey Green

You woke up on the wrong side of the oak tree, didn't you? (Acheron) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

Because in one sense the drinker learns wisdom, in the words of Goethe or Blake or whichever it was The pathway to wisdom lies through excess — Jack Kerouac

There's no clear water from a muddy well. All you can do is let the silt settle until the water clears otherwise it will taste sour. (paraphrased) — Patrick Rothfuss

Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. — Henry Thomas Buckle

Mothers are the necessity of invention. — Bill Watterson

I get mail; therefore I am. — Scott Adams

You see, then, that the most anyone can do is point people to Jesus as the sole Source of Life. They may experience Life through us, but we cannot give them Life ourselves. To those bound by Organized Religion, Jesus cries, "You search the Scriptures, because you think in them you have Life. You are content to read about Me, but you will not come to Me that you may have Life" (John 5:39,40, paraphrased). Come to Me! Not, "Memorize these Three Easy Steps and attend the Church of your choice this Sunday." "Come to Me!" He is Life. — Chip Brogden

See a pin and pick it up, and, all day long, you'll have a pin. — Terry Pratchett

When your life has an expiration date, you don't have time to be negative. (Paraphrased from Kresley Cole's book "Lothaire") — Kresley Cole

What will be is up to me — Kevin Green

I never minded the random scribblings of other readers, found them interesting in fact. It is a truth universally acknowledged that people write the darndest things in the margins of their books. — Tara Bray Smith

A few days later she sent him a two page, single-spaced, typewritten letter preaching to him about the Catholic stand on premarital sex, and especially condemning the use of that horrendous tool of the devil, the seed-killing prophylactic. Don't worry. Those facetious words weren't hers. I paraphrased. This boy was more browbeaten by mommy than Norman Bates. — Dan Skinner

Where commerce and capitalism are invloved, often times, morality and honor sink to the bottom-Oliver Goldsmith paraphrased — Oliver Goldsmith

Now, I know what you're thinking: Isn't this the guy who said, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"? Well, not exactly. This quote has been somewhat paraphrased and hijacked by many of our nation's craft breweries, and rightly so. It may be revisionist writing, but I for one am okay with it. What Franklin did write was, "Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy." Beer, wine . . . come on. Six of one, etcetera. He also coined the euphemism for drunkenness "Halfway to Concord," which tickles me to no end. That, my friends, is fun with words. — Nick Offerman

I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself. — Oscar Wilde

It's a truth universally acknowledged that an FBI special agent in possession of great skill and talent is likely to engage in trash talk every now and then. — Julie James

Paraphrased: When Chuang Tzu was about to die, his disciples began planning a splendid funeral. However some disciples expressed concern that given a particular arrangement, birds and kites would eat his remains. Chuang Tzu replied, Well, above ground I shall be eaten by crows and kites, below it by ants and worms. What do you have against birds? — Zhuangzi

All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let's get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States
and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death! — Kurt Vonnegut

Goodnight sweet prince, may flights of devils wing you to your rest. — Anne Rice

The proper study of Mankind is Everything. — Margaret Atwood

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong. — Bertrand Russell

You could know a man not by what his friends said about him, but by how he treated his servants. — Cassandra Clare

Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint. — Banksy

Discretion is the better part of not getting exsanguinated. — Jim Butcher

all that he has, and he will sing a different tune!" (1:10-11, paraphrased). — Lee A. Schott

Paraphrased: Among the degrees of the universal Manifestation, each sentient creature typically experiences an illusory sense of autonomy. At the same time, with or without the creature's awareness, the creature subsists eternally as an "immutable prototype" in the divine Knowledge. — Abdelkader El Djezairi

If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed. — Adolf Hitler

I've always heard that by the time you see the teeth, its too late."

(this quote paraphrased in several Jayne Castle books) — Jayne Castle

Arjuna, fair or unfair, the results of any action depend on five things: the body, the mind, the instruments, the method and divine grace (luck? fate?). Only the ignorant think they alone are responsible for any outcome. - Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 18, verses 13 to 16 (paraphrased). — Devdutt Pattanaik

We have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may hear more and speak less. — Diogenes Laertius

Voices in the study of positive psychology, framed the traits as hope, wisdom, creativity, future-mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance. V. Paraphrased from a speech given by Bruce Springsteen — Martin Dugard

What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. — Mother Teresa

Michael was still an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, coated in yum. Only now the enigma was a little less mysterious; I was a few clues closer to solving the riddle - but damn, that man would always be coated in yum. — Lisa Shearin

Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope. So that today, St. John the apostle may well be paraphrased: In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man - and the Word is with Men. — John Steinbeck

He who hesitates is a damned fool. — Mae West

Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed. — G.K. Chesterton

God doesn't require us to succeed, he only requires that you try. — Mother Teresa

How do you know if a demon is lying? His lips are moving. — Richelle Mead

Genius has its limitations.
Insanity ... not so much -Bumper Sticker — Darynda Jones

When I listen to you, God
when I do what you ask me to,
I am like a tree
planted by a river,
a tree full of fruit
with leaves that are always green. Ps 1(paraphrased) — Marie-Helene Delval

Beware the abuse of Power. Both by those we disagree with, as well as those we may agree with — Ben Carson

I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief ... I'm not in the business of offending people. I find the books upholding certain values that I think are important, such as life is immensely valuable and this world is an extraordinarily beautiful place. We should do what we can to increase the amount of wisdom in the world.
[Washington Post interview, 19 February 2001] — Philip Pullman

Dune: ...That's disgraceful!
Sette: So's your face! — Ashley Cope

There's none so blind as those who will not listen. — Neil Gaiman