Top 100 But Why Quotes
#1. Material things are not helpful after a certain degree of saturation. So you turn to other products. I think that therapy is a product that can transform you. But why does it need to be packaged as a product? Why can't I work on myself with my friends and family?
Tino Sehgal
#2. Do you know someone you would like to change and regulate and improve? Good! That is fine. I am all in favor of it, But why not begin on yourself? From a purely selfish standpoint, that is a lot more profitable than trying to improve others - yes, and a lot less dangerous.
Dale Carnegie
#3. Birds sing, wolves howl, crickets chirp. But why? Money? Fame? Record contracts? Endorsements? What's it all for? They do it because they're alive. They do it because life is about making things.
Danny Gregory
#4. His wife spotted the danger in our resolutely bohemian ways.
"You have only one year left before you qualify as a doctor and yet you're going away? You have no idea when you'll be back? But why?"
We couldn't give precise answers to her desperate questions and this horrified her ...
Ernesto Che Guevara
#5. But why should I ask all the dull women in London to my parties? said Clarissa. And if Mrs. Marsham gave a party, did she invite her guests?
Virginia Woolf
#6. So I want to make money. I think it's an OK goal to have. I always felt like I can't ask for that. But why not?
Mary Lambert
#7. A book's alright when the weather's foul and there's nothing else to do, but why sit and read when the wind is calling your name?
Mercedes Lackey
#8. A first kiss is hard to fake on screen. It's tempting to practice before you shoot, but why blow that natural awkwardness on a rehearsal? There's something so beautiful about it that can't be faked.
Maggie Grace
#9. Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?
Edgar Bergen
#10. Life Is Just Understanding, people Just Running but why they Run? They don't know
Sushil Singh
#11. But why? Where are you going?" "Home," Angel said. "I'm going home.
Francine Rivers
#12. In 5 minutes, 1 minute and many other phrases most of them are a lie..., but why do we say them?
Deyth Banger
#13. You're trembling," he said. "I think I'm scared." "But why?" He smoothed his hand over her hair. "I was a fool to have left you alone, but it won't happen again." "I've never had anyone try to kill me before." Richard patted her back gently. "'Tis a bit unnerving the first time.
Lynn Kurland
#14. My art tends toward the literary. My pictures tend toward the outskirts of painting: But why generalize? It is possible to realize one thing or another, according to the impressions gained from one point of view or another. But it is too difficult to make a general rule.
James Ensor
#15. Look, I want what's good for everybody. I want to promote good state education for all. I want to raise standards for all kids, irrespective of race and class but why can't they all just do what I say when I know I'm right?
Arabella Weir
#16. Words are the basic tools, if you are a writer. But why? Why do you choose one set of tools rather than another?
James D. Houston
#17. But why would Victor and Robert take her? And how the hell did two old men subdue a teenage girl anyway?
Richelle Mead
#18. Good. But why written in three styles of script?" To which Nancy had replied: "Because I'm not grown-up enough to be one person with one kind of signature.
Truman Capote
#19. In the great scheme of things, what matters is not how long you live but why you live, what you stand for and what you are willing to die for.
Paul Watson
#20. Patriotism is considered to be an emotion a person ought to feel. But why? Why is it nobler to love your own country than to love someone else's?
Wallace Shawn
#21. But why do I notice everything? She thought. Why must I think? She did not want to think. She wanted to force her mind to become a blank and lie back, and accept quietly, tolerantly, whatever came.
Virginia Woolf
#22. Imagining [The Wizard of Oz] without Judy Garland is a bit like dancing on wet cement: you can do it, but why would you want to?
Pauline Kael
#23. Depression effects all of us in different ways, people even kill themselves, but why? You gain no satisfaction and you ruin people's lives.
Shannon Leto
#24. When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, 'But why do you want to build an amusement park? They're so dirty.' I told her that was just the point
mine wouldn't be.
Walt Disney Company
#25. I am republic
I am maoist
I am activist
and I am this
and I am that
but why?
Why can't; I be
Santosh Kalwar
#26. I work at my life and I cultivate myself and don't spend six hours in a gym. Some people would say I should but why?
Ian Astbury
#27. I'm lying, yes, but why do you force me to give a linear explanation; linear explanations are almost always lies.
Elena Ferrante
#28. One last thing on objectives - I like to make things, create things, so that's probably been the primary objective all along, even before the ego objective - to make. To record. But why record ... [that] gets back to the ego, a little. Oh, well. Making is good. I like to make things.
Jonathan Ames
#29. We may be doomed, but why not enjoy ourselves? It will lessen the victory of our adversaries.
Brandon Mull
#30. Why bad people live in heaven??
If there is heaven so do and hell exist??
but why bad are heaven and good also??
So you have done here something bad and you greeting saying "Bravo..., Bravo... well made!" - WTF???
Deyth Banger
#31. But why, she thought wryly, did a man seem more attractive as he became less available? How humbling to think one had so much in common with a cow stretching its neck through a gate for better grass.
Mary Jo Putney
#32. But why I cry out against Rubens is because he painted undressed people instead of naked ones.
E. M. Forster
#33. But why," he said with animation, "do the English not read their own great literature?"
Victor laughed triumphantly, and said, "Because at school they are made to hate it.
Olaf Stapledon
#34. Why did the stories I knew best never end well?
But why too did I feel at home among them?
I could never give up the myths, the maps, the ship that had shaped me.
Blake's home might be paradise, but my home was the Temptation.
Heidi Heilig
#35. Pain
Waves are the sea's white daughters,
And raindrops the children of rain,
But why for my shimmering body
Have I a mother like Pain?
Night is the mother of stars,
And wind the mother of foam
The world is brimming with beauty,
But I must stay at home.
Sara Teasdale
#36. What matters is not what you photograph, but why and how you photograph it. Even the most controversial subject, if depicted by a sensitive photographer with honesty, sympathy, and understanding, can be transformed into an emotionally rewarding experience.
Andreas Feininger
#37. Really, science is wonderful, but why does it tend to suck all the joyous mystery from the world?
Rick Yancey
#38. The important thing about human beings is not what they do, but why they do it.
Margaret Halsey
#39. I know a lot of celebrity types go for Kabbalah and Scientology. But why pay 10 per cent of your earnings to someone when it's all common sense: treat others as you'd like to be treated yourself.
Gail Porter
#40. Stars are important," I say, laughing.
"Sure, but why not more poems about the sun? The sun is also a star, and it's our most important one. That alone should be worth a poem or two.
Nicola Yoon
#41. You can exercise vigorously and eat junk and get by. But you can't eat perfectly and not exercise. Look at many athletes today; they are human garbage cans. They eat anything, but they exercise so hard they burn it up. But why not exercise and put the right fuel in too?
Jack LaLanne
#42. I can't think straight. But why am I trying to do that anyway? Everybody else thinks straight. That's why nobody expects me to think zigzag-hop.
Frances Hardinge
#43. But why should he be open-minded when he thinks he's right?
Johnny Rich
#44. I understand Windows as well as most technical-support personnel. I can edit a config.sys file and delete bad lines in an autoexec.bat with the best of them. I can partition a hard drive in FAT32
But why would I want to?
Douglas Rushkoff
#45. But why, if the real weekly value of my labour is thirty hours of other people's work, would I ever work sixty hours?
Paul Mason
#46. Sure, you can mix the flour, baking soda, salt, shortening, and the whole nine yards, but why wouldn't you just pull out a box of Bisquick?
Sandra Lee
#47. He advocated that all who follow Jesus are priests, not just the official clergy. Much of what he said made sense, as did his kind manner. But why was he here now? Had this persecuted recluse emerged just to speak to me?
David Holdsworth
#50. Off fucking shitty mankind, you change the topic... you say something I say something against and immediately you change the topic, but why?
The soil is too hot?
The sand is too hot?
Why?
Deyth Banger
#51. But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?
Barbara Bush
#52. Around then Jade happened by again. "Thought that was you," Doc said, "though we ain't exactly been wallerin in eye contact. Got your note at the office, but why'd you go runnin away like that? we could've hung out, you know, smoke some shit.
Thomas Pynchon
#53. When I was little, the great mystery to me was not how babies were made, but why?
Jodi Picoult
#54. And you know, aunt, I still hope that I shall be found to have kept on the right side of the posts. You will find that poor Lord Chiltern is not so black as he is painted.' 'But why take anybody that is black at all?' 'I like a little shade in the picture, aunt.
Anthony Trollope
#55. No, Ronan. It means that she missed you. While you are out and about in the world and doing your thing every day, a dog only has interactions with you to look forward to." "But why would she look forward to that?" he asks. "Because she loves you." He
A. Zavarelli
#56. When late I attempted your pity to move,
Why seemed you so deaf to my prayers?
Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love
But-why did you kick me downstairs?
John Philip Kemble
#57. Those reformers who preach against image-worship, or what they denounce as idolatry - to them I say "Brothers, if you are fit to worship God-without-form discarding all external help, do so, but why do you condemn others who cannot do the same?"
Swami Vivekananda
#58. But why are we always the ones who have to suffer?" she cried out in indignation. "Us and people like us? Ordinary people, the lower middle classes.
Irene Nemirovsky
#59. A good friend is worth pursuing ... but why would a good friend be running away?
Ashleigh Brilliant
#60. But why are you giving this to me if you don't believe?"
"Because I know that you do.
Adria J. Cimino
#61. they say we're losing centimetres
every year; as if we were
a beach that's losing
ground with every salt advance
the night is overcast
but why not try, at least,
to touch the things our orbits
cannot hold, while there's time
while we can.
Andrew McMillan
#62. I'm not saying that what the radio plays isn't good. My issue is with what they don't play. You can play Jay-Z, but why don't you play Jurassic 5? You can play Nas and Nelly, but why don't you play J-Live? I want to open up the door to how it was back in the day.
DJ Jazzy Jeff
#63. I don't mean to presume to dictate to you in the slightest degree but why did you leave your father's house?
MTo seek misfortune, was Stephen's answer.
James Joyce
#64. The central question driving literary aesthetics in the age of the iPad is no longer 'How should novels be?' but 'Why write novels at all?'
Garth Risk Hallberg
#65. But why?" "You heard the pay, right? And also, to be near you." Thumbing a tear from my cheek, he added, "Mostly, to be near you.
Tammara Webber
#66. Do not God's visitations unnerve us? But why? Because He never comes to us without asking us to do something. We never know what He will ask of us, but we know that we will be overwhelmed by our feelings of inadequacy
Calvin Miller
#67. Art is not that much needed in life, we only need sleep and food. But why do people want art? Because they want to feel emotion! So emotionally moving things is great art to me!
Hiromi
#68. Fine, but why a spork?" "Because I'm versatile. I can multitask like nobody's business. And I like the way it sounds. It's so ... sporky.
Darynda Jones
#69. But why?" Vimbai whispered, overwhelmed with the weight of accumulated disbelief. "What is happening to us?"
"Who knows?" Maya shrugged. "Who cares? Enjoy it while you can, why don't you? There will be tons of boring shit in your life, okay? I promise.
Ekaterina Sedia
#70. Okay ... ' I hurried on. 'But why me?'
'You're a girl,' Lockwood called. 'Aren't you supposed to be more sensitive?'
'To emotions, yes. To nuances of human behavior. Not necessarily to secret passages in a wall.'
'Oh, it's much the same thing.
Jonathan Stroud
#71. The poor we shall always have with us, but why the hungry?
John Van Hengel
#72. Stakeholders - meaning workers and community - the CEO could just as well be responsible to them. This presupposes there ought to be management but why does there have to be management? Why not have the stakeholders run the industry?
Noam Chomsky
#73. But why must everything always have a practical application? I'd been such a diligent soldier for years - working, producing, never missing a deadline, taking care of my loved ones, my gums and my credit record, voting, etc. Is this lifetime supposed to be only about duty?
Elizabeth Gilbert
#74. Not why the addiction but why the pain.
Gabor Mate
#75. Is that what you think this is about? Your letting me die? I don't know what clouds your judgement worse. Your guilt or your antiquated sense of morality. Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me. But why... Why on God's earth--??!
Is he still alive!!??
Judd Winick
#76. But why? Why do you need prophets to tell you how you ought to live? Why do you need anyone to tell you how you ought to live
Daniel Quinn
#77. You are alone... you put it like that "Come and Fuck me"... or "I am free.."... but why???
Deyth Banger
#78. I get that
but why replace him with this guy? I mean, Dick Clark did American Bandstand. All this guy's done is deny that he's gay.
Keith R.A. DeCandido
#79. There may well be a few extremists out there somewhere calling for a militant, women-only utopia, but why should this be the definition of 'feminist' when it's already the definition of 'silly'?
Meghan Daum
#80. But why think about that when all the golden lands ahead of you and all kinds of unforseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?
Jack Kerouac
#81. Oh, oh human stupidity, probably that's why I don't succeed with mankind, somebody says "Can I stop by?" you answer "Okay..." or "Sure""... but why and saying what you are doing in case he hasn't asked you?
Deyth Banger
#82. But why insult the poor, affront the great?'
A knave's a knave, to me, in every state.
Alexander Pope
#83. The key to a great story is not who, or what, or when, but why.
Jonathan Pryce
#84. True, nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will say that I am mad?! The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.
Edgar Allan Poe
#85. You cant laugh at a joke agian and agian, but why do you keep crying over the same thing over and over agian?
Monika Ramzy
#86. Science fiction has done a really good job of scaring us into thinking that computers shouldn't get too smart, because as soon as they get really smart, they're going to take over the world and kill us, or something like that. But why would they do that?
Luis Von Ahn
#87. In the silence between your heartbeat bides a summons. Do you hear it? Name it if you must, or leave it forever nameless, but why pretend it is not there?
Rumi
#88. I could give all to Time except
except
What I myself have held. But why declare
The things forbidden that while the Customs slept
I have crossed to Safety with? For I am There,
And what I would not part with I have kept.
Robert Frost
#89. Give me something huge to fight, - and I should enjoy that - but why make me sweep the dust?
Charles Kingsley
#90. A good strategy tells you not only what specifically needs to accomplish, but WHY.
Pearl Zhu
#91. Do we stand up over a gold plated trophy? Or do we stand up and say we need equal wages and equal treatment?The Oscars have not been any different for what ... 89 years? But why do we keep wanting to get thrown a bone? Why do we want to keep saying 'Can we please come to your party?
Mo'Nique Imes-Jackson
#92. What they do not comprehend is man's helplessness. I am weak, small, of no consequence to the universe. It does not notice me; I live on unseen. But why is that bad? Isn't it that way? Whom the gods notice they destroy. Be small ... and you will escape the jealousy of the great.
Philip K. Dick
#93. What we've been denied is what we deny others. But why? Why do we fall into the same patterns of those people we always swore we'd never be like?
Nicole Williams
#94. And in all of this, to what end?" "No end save itself: I pass the time to pass the time, and stay involved to stay involved." "Yes, but why?" "Why not?
Iain M. Banks
#96. Love is the biggest mystery of the universe. But why try to solve it, when one simply view it for what it is and marvel at the wonders and strangeness it brings?
Arnold Arre
#97. God does not care what good you did, but why you did it. He does not grade the fruit but probes the core and tests the root.
Angelus Silesius
#98. It isn't chic for women to be drunk. Men drunks are more excusable, more easily absolved, but why? It must be thought they have better reasons.
Margaret Atwood
#99. It's not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy ...
Catherine O'Hara
#100. I don't want to say Monsanto is evil right off the bat, but why is Monsanto so evil?
Bill Maher
