Peck Quotes & Sayings

Liam pulled him into his arms, just like he always did.
Ryan smiled and gave his cheek a peck. "You don't have to," he said but he sure wouldn't be pushing the issue. This was exactly what he wanted.
"I do." Liam pushed the door open with his elbow. "It's obligatory for men taking their princes to their castle. — K.A. Merikan

I am happiest when I am working though, when I am being creative. I realized at a very young age what I loved doing. I think it is so important for people to pursue the things that they love and not give up on their dreams. — Josh Peck

I do hang out with girls, I do relax. But I am a hermit sometimes and get a bit too introverted, too 'Jean-Paul Sartre' and intellectual in my head. And it's like a Kafka novel in there, things get nuts. Then I have to remind myself to get out and I will go and play ice hockey with my friends. — Josh Peck

If you wish to discern either the presence or absence of integrity, you need to ask only one question. What is missing? Has anything been left out? — M. Scott Peck

Something about her eyes or voice has always suggested the hint of a free spirit, trapped in a Peck and Peck cage, dreaming of making rude noises at public gatherings of Republicans. — Jeff Greenfield

We write by the light of every book we've read. — Richard Peck

The times have changed. To move with them I had to give it up. I do not miss it. I thought I would, but I don't. — M. Scott Peck

Why do you love me?"

I sigh at the question I've asked myself frequently over the years. With a quick peck to his lips, I tell him, "Because, in you, I found my heart. — April Brookshire

But for the first time, I had a religious identity. I had come home. And so I called myself a Zen Buddhist at the age of 18. — M. Scott Peck

The group made the salesman aware in no uncertain terms that his tendency to avoid problem-solving by ignoring a problem in the hope that it would go away was in itself his major problem. — M. Scott Peck

Self-discipline is self-caring. — M. Scott Peck

It doesn't matter what you look like really though, it is who you are that matters of course. — Josh Peck

One could have eaten a meal off the ground without overbrimming the proverbial peck of dirt. Mrs. — L.M. Montgomery

Scientists have grave difficulty dealing with the reality of God. — M. Scott Peck

Most people who are HIV positive are on drugs and that gets their viral load so low that it's harder to transmit it. Most new infections come from people who don't know they're infected. — Dale Peck

People who shop at Barnes and Noble voted Ulysses the best novel of the last century, and who's to tell them different? There was a point when I would have liked to, but apparently that's just because I'm a bitch. — Dale Peck

Even when we truly understand these matters, the journey of spiritual growth is still so lonely and difficult that we often become discouraged. — M. Scott Peck

If we deny our anger, our pain, our ambition, or our goodness, we will suffer. — M. Scott Peck

Aye, aye, that's the way wi' thee: thee allays makes a peck o' thy own words out o' a pint o' the Bible's — George Eliot

My sons have such a deep access to my heart. — Austin Peck

What people get admired and appreciated for in community are their soft skills: their sense of humor and timing, their ability to listen, their courage and honesty, their capacity for empathy. — M. Scott Peck

The years went by, and Mary Alice and I grew up, Slower than we wanted to, faster than we realized. — Richard Peck

I read because one life isn't enough. — Richard Peck

The Father protects his children, the septons taught, but Davos had led his boys into the fire. Dale would never give his wife the child they had prayed for, and Allard, with his girl in Oldtown and his girl in Kings Landing, and his girl in Braavos, they would all be weeping soon. Matthos would never captain his own ship, as he dreamed. Maric would never have his knighthood.
'How can I live when they are dead? So many brave knights and mighty lords have died, better men than me, and highborn. Crawl inside your cave, Davos. Crawl inside and shrink up small and the ship will go away, and no one will trouble you ever again. Sleep on your stone pillow and let the gulls peck out your eyes while the crabs feast on your flesh. You've feasted on enough of them, you owe them. Hide, smuggler. Hide, and be quiet, and die. — George R R Martin

As I have defined it, love is the antithesis of laziness. Ordinary laziness is a passive failure to love. Some ordinarily lazy people may not lift a finger to extend themselves unless they are compelled to do so. Their being is a manifestation of nonlove; still, they are not evil. — M. Scott Peck

Some Catholics have a concept I very much admire: the Sacrament of the Present Moment. It suggests that every moment of our lives is sacred, and that we should make of each moment a sacrament. Were we to do this we would think of the entire world as diffused with holiness. Wherever we might be would be a holy place for us, and we would see the holy, even sainthood, in everyone we encounter. — M. Scott Peck

I have learned nothing in twenty years that would suggest that evil people can be rapidly influenced by any means other than raw power. They do not respond, at least in the short run, to either gentle kindness or any form of spiritual persuasion with which I am familiar. — M. Scott Peck

In thinking about miracles, I believe that our frame of reference has been too dramatic. We have been looking for the burning bush, the parting of the sea, the bellowing voice from heaven. Instead we should be looking at the ordinary day-to-day events in our lives for evidence of the miraculous, maintaining at the same time a scientific orientation. — M. Scott Peck

They'd peck themselves to death, rather than quit. Who knew what worked? I — Margaret Atwood

I stayed there until the fire died. So it would not have to die alone. — Robert Newton Peck

If necessary, they will even kill to escape the pain of their own spiritual growth. As the integrity of their sick self is threatened by the spiritual health of those around them, they will seek by all manner of means to crush and demolish the spiritual health that may exist near them. I define evil, then, as the exercise of — M. Scott Peck

We cannot be a source for strength unless we nurture our own strength. — M. Scott Peck

The key to community is the acceptance, in fact the celebration of our individual and cultural differences. It is also the key to world peace — M. Scott Peck

I think whether you're a movie critic and have seen a million movies, or you're just a normal popcorn movie watcher, you can tell the difference when someone is just laying it on too thick. — Josh Peck

If your goal is to avoid pain and escape suffering, I would not advise you to seek higher levels of consciousness or spiritual evolution. — M. Scott Peck

Twain please!" Peck blubbered. "It was never personal. It was just business!"
"Oh Peck, do you think I'm mad at you? I"m a lawyer. I don't get mad. I don't get even." Twain gave him a wicked smile. " I sue people. — Arthur Daigle

When you consider yourself valuable you will take care of yourself in all ways that are necessary. — M. Scott Peck

Wizened and white, with brown blotched on her face the size and complexity of unshelled peanuts, Midge had a jitter in her head that made her pew like a chicken trying to make up its mind what to peck. — John Irving

The number one thing I've been doing is being daddy. — Austin Peck

But while all fear is not laziness, much fear is exactly that. Much of our fear is fear of a change in the status quo, a fear that we might lose what we have if we venture forth from where we are now. In the section on discipline I spoke of the fact — M. Scott Peck

But put two librarians' heads together, and mountains move. — Richard Peck

I have a respect for the 3-D computer-generated action movies, but my first love is stuff like 'Lethal Weapon.' — Josh Peck

Idealists are people who believe in the potential of human nature for transformation ... The most essential attribute of human nature is its mutability and freedom from instinct ... it is always within our power to change our nature. So it is actually the idealists who are on the mark and the realists who are off base. — M. Scott Peck

Gower is the first English writer to use "history" as an English word. He regularly rhymes the term with "memory," for to his way of thinking history and memory are correlative. That is, without history, there can be no memory; and without memory, there can be no history. But the point of historical knowledge is not to enable people to live in the past, or even to understand the past in the way we would expect a modern historian to proceed; rather, it is to enable people to live more vitally in the present. — Russell A. Peck

Then I contacted Ken, then he called me back, then we had a great meeting. Then he called and asked if I would come back to the show. Which was awesome. — Austin Peck

Mental Health is dedication to reality at all costs. — M. Scott Peck

Because nobody but a reader ever became a writer. — Richard Peck

If an act is not one of work or courage, then it is not an act of love. There are no exceptions. — M. Scott Peck

Marlboro Lights, he sighed. Barely a peck on the cheek of destruction.
I'm commitment phobic. — Alexis Hall

What is wrong with keeping guns out of the hands of the wrong people? — Gregory Peck

Who wouldn't admire the gall of a fellow brings a machine gun and a peck of hired killers to his own goddamn trial? Who wouldn't admire a fellow never leaves a trail of evidence? That's got this far in the world and galled so many folks and killed twice that number and cheated the rest, all without being blowed to itty bitty pieces or hanged by his goddamn neck or succumbing to one of countless infirmities he seems to collect like a goddamn hobby, hell yeah I admire the son-of-a-bitch. — Tom Franklin

And the one on the pigeons, trained to peck a button that made a grain of corn appear. Three groups of them: the first got one grain per peck, the second one grain every other peck, the third was random. When the man in charge cut off the grain, the first group gave up quite soon, the second group a little later. The third group never gave up. They'd peck themselves to death, rather than quit. Who knew what worked? — Margaret Atwood

I think that my mother, Frances Dorothy Peck, modeled her whole life on that of Scarlett O'Hara. — Pat Conroy

The third tool of discipline or technique of dealing with the pain of problem-solving, which must continually be employed if our lives are to be healthy and our spirits are to grow, is dedication to the truth. — M. Scott Peck

If there were but one thing I could hope for from the reader of the remainder of this book, it would be that he or she possesses the capacity to perceive the miraculous. — M. Scott Peck

There really are people, and institutions made up of people, who respond with hatred in the presence of goodness and would destroy the good insofar as it is in their power to do so. They do this not with conscious malice but blindly, lacking awareness of their own evil - indeed, seeking to avoid any such awareness. — M. Scott Peck

Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only decent way to live. — M. Scott Peck

Often the most loving thing we can do when a friend is in pain is to share the pain-to be there even when we have nothing to offer except our presence and even when being there is painful to ourselves. — M. Scott Peck

You are a beautiful and beloved individual. It is good to be you. We will love you no matter what you do, as long as you are you. — M. Scott Peck

She tries to take a step down the hall, but I tug on her hand and kiss her again, and this time it's not a peck. I kiss her hard, losing myself in her taste and her heat and every damn thing about her. I never expected her. Sometimes people sneak up on you and suddenly you don't know you ever lived without them. — Elle Kennedy

We'd gotten him wrong. He wasn't a dunce. He was an artist. According to these pages, he'd seen us all a good deal clearer than we'd ever seen him. — Richard Peck

This is how you hold onto your family. You hold them with open hands so they are free to find futures of their own. It's just that simple. — Richard Peck

And then she is kissing me, right here on the sidewalk on a foggy summer night. Violet is kissing me, and everything is perfect. The kiss doesn't end. We are not two girls on a polite first date, bestowing a customary good-night peck.
No.
We are kissing like girls who have ached for each other for years who never even spoke but somehow exchanged I love yous anyway. — Nina LaCour

That meant I could come back whenever I could manage it. And she was telling me to go. She knew the decision was too big a load for me to carry by myself. She knew me through and through. She had eyes in the back of her heart. — Richard Peck

Writers, good ones, don't tell stories.
Characters show stories. — Robert Newton Peck

I don't really understand why I should be a role model but I know that children do look up to me, so it is my responsibility to motivate people and be inspiring. I hope that I can do that for kids. — Josh Peck

Not only do self-love and love of others go hand in hand but ultimately they are indistinguishable. — M. Scott Peck

I didn't want any degrees if all the ill-read literates and radio announcers and pedagogical dummies I knew had them by the peck. — J.D. Salinger

By far the most important form of attention we can give our loved ones is listening ... True listening is love in action. — M. Scott Peck

...truth is reality — M. Scott Peck

The person with a secular mentality feels himself to be the center of the universe. Yet he is likely to suffer from a sense of meaninglessness and insignificance because he knows he's but one human among five billion others - all feeling themselves to be the center of things - scratching out an existence on the surface of a medium-sized planet circling a small star among countless stars in a galaxy lost among countless galaxies. The person with the sacred mentality, on the other hand, does not feel herself to be the center of the universe. She considers the Center to be elsewhere and other. Yet she is unlikely to feel lost or insignificant precisely because she draws her significance and meaning from her relationship, her connection, with that center, that Other. — M. Scott Peck

The best decision-makers are those who are willing to suffer the most over their decisions but still retain their ability to be decisive. One — M. Scott Peck

A Seth Thomas steeple clock stood on a high shelf. When it struck ten, Grandma jerked awake. She looked around the room astonished. It was her belief that she never slept, not even in bed. — Richard Peck

My biggest hero, Gregory Peck, was my birthday present on April 14, 1973. I just sat and stared at him. — Loretta Lynn

I have been told that when a baby bird is ready to hatch, if you break the egg for the bird, it will die. The bird must peck its own way out of the egg into the world. This aggressive "workout" strengthens the bird, allowing it to function in the outside world. Robbed of this responsibility, it will die. This is also the way God has made us. If he "hatches" us, does our work for us, invades our boundaries, we will die. We must not shrink back passively. Our boundaries can only be created by our being active and aggressive, by our knocking, seeking, and asking — Henry Cloud

The major problem in our lives is to decide and clarify our responsibilities. To truly be committed to a life of honesty, love and discipline, we must be willing to commit ourselves to reality. This commitment, according to Peck, "requires the willingness and the capacity to suffer continual self-examination." Such an ability requires a good relationship with oneself. This is precisely what no shame-based person has. In fact, a toxically shamed person has an adversarial relationship with himself. Toxic shame - the shame that binds us - is a core part of neurotic and character disordered syndromes of behavior. — John Bradshaw

To me, there's nothing greater than making people laugh. — Josh Peck

My favorite actor is Sir Ben Kingsley - nobody is as good as him, in my opinion. I think he's so good as an artist. — Josh Peck

Strawberries that in gardens grow
Are plump and juicy fine,
But sweeter far as wise men know
Spring from the woodland vine.
No need for bowl or silver spoon,
Sugar or spice or cream,
Has the wild berry plucked in June
Beside the trickling stream.
One such to melt at the tongue's root,
Confounding taste with scent,
Beats a full peck of garden fruit:
Which points my argument. — Robert Graves

In the tide pool I was riveted by fat pink sea stars sitting like satisfied gangsters and seemingly unconcerned by their exposure; gulls would peck at them but the sea stars simply grew replacement limbs. — Mary Ellen Hannibal

Good discipline requires time. When we have no time to give our children, or no time that we are willing to give, we don't even observe them closely enough to become aware of when their need for our disciplinary assistance is expressed subtley. — M. Scott Peck

In the Chief's ears. He and Phoebe had danced awfully close to the band's brass section. "Okay, I have to go in to work. Please don't wake your mother. Will you be around when the twins get home?" "Um," Kacy said. "I guess?" April Peck, the Chief thought. Sweet Jesus. "I have to go," he said. He was unwashed, unshaven, in his street clothes, and he had to make do with the truly atrocious coffee that Molly made for the station. These were all bad omens. And somehow he had to make room in his mind for Phoebe's — Elin Hilderbrand

"Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes. "What do you need?"
"You."
I loved how her face glowed. She stood up on her tiptoes and gave me a quick peck on the lips. — Katie McGarry

The American critic Dale Peck, author of Hatchet Jobs (2004), argues that reviewing finds its true character in critical GBH such as Fischer's [review of Martin Amis's Yellow Dog]. It represents a return to the prehistoric origins of reviewing in Zoilism - a kind of pelting of pretentious literature with dung, lest the writers get above themselves; it is to the novelist what the gown of humiliation was to the Roman politician - a salutary ordeal. Less grandly, bad reviews are fun, so long as you are not the author. There is, it must be admitted, a kind of furtive blood sport pleasure in seeing a novelist suffer. You read on. Whereas most of us stop reading at the first use of the word 'splendid' or 'marvellous' in a review. — John Sutherland

Zoroastrianism? Oh, there's never been but a few hundred thousand of them at any one time, mostly located in Iran and India, but that's it. The one true faith. If you're not a Zoroastrian, I'm afraid you are bound for Hell."
The man looked stunned and shocked. "It's not fair."
The demon gave a mirthful laugh. "Well, it was fair when you were sending all the Chinese to Hell who had never heard of Jesus. Wasn't it? — Steven L. Peck

Shows have asked a lot of actors to take cuts. Shows are going off the air. So okay, life goes on. — Austin Peck

Children," Mrs. Oakenfeld sighed.
"I do not want you to be good to avoid being punished. I do not want you to be good so that you can receive rewards. I want you to be good," she stressed, "because it is the right thing to do.
You are very formidable adversaries, but don't you see that when you work against eachother, you just cancel eachother out? — Dale Peck

Most of us operate from a narrower frame of reference than that of which we are capable, failing to transcend the influence of our particular culture, our particular set of parents and our particular childhood experience upon our understanding. It is no wonder, then, that the world of humanity is so full of conflict. We have a situation in which human beings, who must deal with each other, have vastly different views as to the nature of reality, yet each one believes his or her own view to be the correct one since it is based on the microcosm of personal experience. And to make matters worse, most of us are not even fully aware of our own world views, much less the uniqueness of the experience from which they are derived. — M. Scott Peck

You must have something in order to give it up. — M. Scott Peck

ascertain, Jersey had no knowledge of demonology. At this point, all I could do was tell her and her family that I was very uncertain about the case, and that, after I got home, I would be — M. Scott Peck

The blending, of course, is the challenge. Most creatures who are special cannot seem to stop themselves from announcing the fact, despite the dangers that come with being different from the rest of your species. If you tie a red string around a wren's leg, the others in the flock will peck it to death. — Kim Wright

Sex was absolutely not allowed to be scheduled, at least not by explicit discussion, but I had become familiar with the sequence of events likely to precipitate it: a blueberry muffin from Blue Sky Bakery, a triple shot of espresso from Otha's, removal of my shirt, and my impersonation of Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. — Graeme Simsion

I gave examples from my clinical practice of how love was not wholly a thought or feeling. I told of how that very evening there would be some man sitting at a bar in the local village, crying into his beer and sputtering to the bartender how much he loved his wife and children while at the same time he was wasting his family's money and depriving them of his attention. We recounted how this man was thinking love and feeling love
were they not real tears in his eyes?
but he was not in truth behaving with love. — M. Scott Peck

Aw, dad... this isn't another one of those "oh, you're LUCKY you didn't have to peck dry corn and uncooked rice off the dirt!" kind of thing is it? — Gerry Alanguilan

He pulls the tape off Allegra's mouth. Grabs her BY THE HAIR and gives her a peck on the lips. — Richard Kadrey

Many addictions can be far more dangerous than addiction to drugs. The addiction to power ... — M. Scott Peck

There is no act of love that is not an act of work or courage. No exceptions. — M. Scott Peck

Why she hankered to be a teacher, I couldn't tell you. But she had chalk dust in her veins, and she deserved to get that certificate. It was only fair. — Richard Peck

If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. — M. Scott Peck

What does a life of total dedication to truth mean? It means, first of all, a life of continuous and never-ending stringent self-examination. We know the world only through our relationship to it. Therefore, to know the world, we must not only examine it but we must simultaneously examine the examiner. — M. Scott Peck