Top 100 I Set Out Quotes
#1. I don't think I set out to have a career in female groups, but it's just kind of happened, and by nature of having worked with my sister - growing up with a sister who also plays, and being in communication with other female musicians.
Emily Robison
#2. I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evident, that the dart belongs in usufruct to the living.
Thomas Jefferson
#3. My heart always timidly hides itself behind my mind. I set out to bring down stars from the sky, then, for fear of ridicule, I stop and pick little flowers of eloquence.
Edmond Rostand
#4. The story comes, and it is pure story. That's all I set out to write. But I don't believe that we can write any kind of story without including, whether we intend to or not, our response to the world around us.
Madeleine L'Engle
#5. One day I realized that that was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to chase my dream and I wanted to show my young daughter that it's okay to chase your dreams. So, I set out to do it.
Drew Waters
#6. I don't set out to be different, I set out to be me, people think it's different.
Lil' Wayne
#7. I set out to write an anti-parenting parenting book.
Bruce Feiler
#8. I set out to write books, to be surrounded by generous, brilliant people, and to have great adventures.
Rebecca Solnit
#9. I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission, and that's what I set out to do.
Twyla Tharp
#10. I set out to create a means whereby music could be a way of vindicating the rights of the masses.
Gustavo Dudamel
#11. Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the 'I'm a Fraud' phase. You go through the 'I'll Never Finish' phase. And every once in a while you think, 'What if I actually have created what I set out to create, and it's received as such?'
Lin-Manuel Miranda
#12. I have learned to live my life one step, one breath, and one moment at a time, but it was a long road. I set out on a journey of love, seeking truth, peace and understanding. I am still learning.
Muhammad Ali
#13. Something that I can say, "I set out to do this, however many years ago, and now I did it." That's a new thing of mine too, is just speaking things into existence.
Ryan Montgomery
#14. I have found that what drives me is the desire to prove, to myself and to my peers, that I can do what I set out to do and build something that matters.
Daniel Snyder
#15. I'm the kind of person that when I saw a lack of African Americans in the apparel business, that was something I set out to do, and I lead by example.
Daymond John
#16. When I was touring and spending so much time on the bus, I realized that I actually knew very little about the industry that I'm in so I set out to educate myself on the music business.
Ty Herndon
#17. I do a lot of media work, I've been investing and I'm involved with real estate. It's totally different from what I had been doing but I find it challenging and fun. To be honest, I really don't miss the track. I pretty well accomplished what I set out to do and it was time to move on.
Donovan Bailey
#18. I was told millions of times that I was never going to achieve what I set out to, but I decided to do it, and I did it.
Thalia
#20. Generally, when I wake up in the morning I set out a series of problems for myself and I write them down, and when I'm sleeping, my mind solves the problems. When I wake up in the morning, I have more clarity on the issue.
Wynton Marsalis
#21. I was able to accomplish pretty much everything I set out to do with my run on Superman, and I'm really proud of how it turned out. I hope that readers enjoyed it, too!
Chris Roberson
#22. Consequently, I won just about everything I set out to win, everything bar the World Cup, of course. But even now, I don't regret that, because I was part of a team which twice reached the semi-finals.
Michel Patini
#23. I set out to discover the why of it, and to transform my pleasure into knowledge.
Charles Baudelaire
#24. I don't set out to make a really hot shoe, I set out to make a product that is true to where I am.
Kobe Bryant
#25. I love a good argument and sometimes I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut if I think someone is wrong ... I've always fought for what I believe in, and I don't quit until I have accomplished what I set out to do.
Kenny Wormald
#26. I never know as a writer when I set out into a novel where it's going to take me.
Kim Edwards
#27. I write novellas, short books, whatever. I set out to write a good story not write a dictionary.
Jason E. Hodges
#28. In my lifetime I plan to see and do alot of things. I want to leave an impact on this world and give my generation and ones to come something to believe in. All the things I set out to be today I shall be, as for tommorrow I will continue to dream and live out my journey.
Duane King
#29. I've been part of really big things that are amazing, but I haven't taken on that responsibility yet. So I don't want to sell myself short by having a kid and then regret not doing what I set out to do.
Michelle Rodriguez
#30. I'm dying. I am dying. I have finally achieved what I set out to do. My heart is splitting open and I breathe in but no air gets into my lungs.
Courtney Summers
#31. The poor priest went to his poor mountaineers with empty hands, and he returns from them with his hands full. I set out bearing only my faith in God; I have brought back the treasure of a cathedral.
Victor Hugo
#32. I'm really changed by my research. This book ["This Changes Everything" ]is very different from what I set out to write.
Avi Lewis
#33. I set out to do a horror film with 'Dog Soldiers,' and what I came out with at the end of the day was something that was more of a cult movie, more of a black comedy with some horror elements in it. It kind of went over the top.
Neil Marshall
#34. With Mr. Montgomery, I set out to see what it would be like to write a novel in 30 days. It was hell! I'd do it again in a minute.
Nadlee Thims
#35. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.
Frederick Douglass
#36. I accomplished what I set out to do, but I lost my discipline and my career.
Pete Maravich
#37. When I started Virgin from a basement flat in West London, I did not set
out to build a business empire. I set out to create something I enjoyed
that would pay the bills.
Richard Branson
#38. I have achieved what I set out to achieve when I took over the leadership. The Greens have gone from strength to strength with solid election results and a growing, engaged party membership.
Christine Milne
#39. For so long I hid behind the blonde hair and the blue eyes. Now I feel like I've done it, I've done what I set out to achieve, now I can just go back to being me.
Jodie Marsh
#40. I set out as a sort of self-dependent politician. My opinions were my own. I dashed at all prejudices. I scorned to follow anybodyin matter of opinion ... All were, therefore, offended at my presumption, as they deemed it.
William Cobbett
#41. I just want people to finish the book and say, 'I was entertained.' When I set out to do it, I had no deal in place. I knew it would be tough. I read somewhere that John Steinbeck was turned down 22 times on his first novel. But I was just going to do it.
Marv Levy
#42. I am surely a feminist filmmaker, but not because I set out to become one, or am trying to make any kind of statement. Rather, it's inherent in the act of expressing myself, as a woman who is deeply alienated from mainstream cinematic structures of seeing. I express myself and am instantly feminist.
Nina Menkes
#43. I think if I'm controversial it's not because I set out to be. It's because I've never felt comfortable being part of someone else's mainstream community.
Tony Judt
#44. My beloved son Thomas did caution, when first I set out to flow this tale upon the world, that although they may not be felt like a fist or a whip, words have a power that can nevertheless cower even the largest man to gibbering tears.
Andrea Levy
#45. I don't write things to benefit the world. If it happens that they do, swell. I didn't set out to do that. I set out to have a hell of a lot of fun.
Ray Bradbury
#46. Beware, Charlotte Atherton," Stone murmured as she disappeared around the corner of the barn. "I'm coming for you." A smile of anticipation stretched across his face. "And I always retrieve what I set out after.
Karen Witemeyer
#47. I set out to try to help my fellow man and to do what little I could to make the world a better place.
L. Ron Hubbard
#48. I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
#49. I don't think we really measured the enormity of the whole occasion. I'm very, very surprised. We never expected it. When I set out in May we didn't realise how big this was. Only now have we realised the importance of this. [on the 2005 Ashes win
Duncan Fletcher
#50. So I set out to study the oxidation system in the potato, which, if damaged, causes the plant to turn brown. I did this in the hope of discovering, through these studies, the key to the understanding of adrenal function.
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
#51. Traveling is irritating to me, but not driving. Going to the airport makes me nervous, but when I set out to just take a leisurely drive, it's blue skies and puffy clouds and time.
Edward Ruscha
#52. Well can I just say unlike my predecessors, Conservative and Labour, I have set up an independent body that studies whether what I'm saying is true, whether I've met the targets that I set out.
George Osborne
#53. I set out to be a cross between Lenny Bruce and Robert the Bruce - my main thrust was the body and its functions and malfunctions - the absurdity of the thing.
Billy Connolly
#54. I don't feel, 'I've made a great film'; I feel I've made what I set out to make.
Jonathan Glazer
#55. Many adults that I have met in my time believed that picture books are 'babyish'. I hope I have changed minds on this, as I set out to do.
Anthony Browne
#56. I set out to really build this universe of interfaith connectedness, where people could see that other people in different parts of the world are very much like them.
Oprah Winfrey
#57. I opened my veins. Unstoppably life spurts out with no remedy. Now I set out bowls and plates. Every bowl will be shallow. Every plate will be small. And overflowing their rims, into the black earth, to nourish the rushes unstoppably without cure, gushes poetry ...
Marina Tsvetaeva
#58. Maybe It's not the biggest blockbuster film, but there will be some people that will see it, that will be debating it, that will be questioning their own sense of spirituality. If the film resonates, then I have succeeded in what I set out to do.
Eriq La Salle
#59. I set out on a narrow way many years ago, hoping I would find true love along the broken road
Rascal Flatts
#60. Previously, when I began to write this tale, I set out by saying that Mlle. Claude was a whore. She is a whore, of course, and I'm not trying to deny it, but what I say now is
if Mlle. Claude is a whore then what name shall I find for the other women I know?
Henry Miller
#61. Even though I may not intend it when I set out to write the book, these places just emerge as major players in what I'm doing, almost as if they are insisting on it.
David Guterson
#62. I set out to create chips that used low-energy technology, and that has allowed me to develop devices that can do all their data crunching on site.
Chris Toumazou
#63. All I set out to do was to earn a living playing drums, you know? And as luck would have it, I've surpassed that.
Phil Collins
#64. I never really had male influences in my life. Steady, male influences. And that's what I wanna be for my family. As a musician, I definitely will attain everything that I set out to. I work very hard. But more important to me is that my family is taken care of.
Trey Songz
#65. I really wasn't equipped to be a writer when I left Oxford. But then I set out to learn. I've always had the highest regard for the craft. I've always felt it was work.
V.S. Naipaul
#66. Every kid dreams of playing in the NFL or MLB and I was that 27-year-old that dreamed of fighting in the UFC. It was kind of surreal to see that I have actually accomplished what I set out to do. It's better than I could have ever imagined.
Charlie Brenneman
#67. When you direct is the only time you get to have the world exactly how you want it. My movies are very close to what I set out to do. And I'm super-opinionated about what I do and don't like.
Sofia Coppola
#68. When I set out to become an actor, I had set myself a standard.
Sidney Poitier
#69. There's no way I set out to be a certain kind of symbol - the way I dress is the way I am, the way I live my life.
Pamela Anderson
#70. I set out to become a comedian, and I said in order to do that the first thing I'll do is become a disc jockey and know my pop music. I like it, my voice is good, and I can start out getting confidence without an audience in front of me.
George Carlin
#71. The thing about the 'Melrose' novels is that I have to feel they're impossible when I set out.
Edward St. Aubyn
#72. Sometimes I struggle to watch stuff that I've done and sometimes I don't, and I'm sure that my judgment is based on whether I feel like I accomplished what I set out to accomplish.
Gillian Anderson
#73. I had been a reporter for 15 years when I set out to write my first novel. I knew how to research an article or profile a subject - skills that I assumed would be useless when it came to fiction. It was from my imagination that the characters in my story would emerge.
Amy Waldman
#74. When I set out to write, I want to write something that will rip your heart out.
Mat Kearney
#75. I set out to write a screenplay but, since my early 20s, had dreamed of writing a novel.
Graeme Simsion
#76. Everybody after Fukushima had to reassess the safety of nuclear. When I set out to design a reactor, I knew it had to be passive and intrinsically safe.
Taylor Wilson
#77. I set out to write this book only because I thought it would be better to tell the story than to go on living the story.
Michael Lewis
#78. The mission I set out on in the beginning - to become heavyweight champion of the world, undisputed, lineal champion - you could say that mission is complete.
Lennox Lewis
#79. For better or worse, I've always been curious musically. Whether it's opera or Judy Garland or pop, I've deliberately sought those things out. I've never wanted to do the same things over and over. Some think I've accomplished what I set out to do, and others consider me a dilettante.
Rufus Wainwright
#80. When I set out to write 'Sanctus,' all I wanted to do was craft a piece of high quality entertainment.
Simon Toyne
#81. I really wanted my music to reflect my personal life and what I set out to do every day.
Brooke Valentine
#82. I set out to become the greatest lover in Vienna, the greatest horseman in Austria, and the greatest economist in the world. Alas, for the illusions of youth: as a horseman, I was never really first-rate.
Joseph A. Schumpeter
#83. When I set out from the boy's attic window, my head was so full of competing plans and complex stratagems that I didn't look where I was going and flew straight into a chimney.
Something symbolic in that. It's what fake freedom does for you.
Jonathan Stroud
#84. When I set out to research the story of the Culper Spy Ring, I had no idea where it would take me.
Brian Kilmeade
#85. When you spend two to three years working on an album that I feel very happy with the end result, there is nothing I would change. Musically, I have achieved what I set out to do.
Enya
#86. If I have made you dream, laugh, cry and smell the roses in bloom, the salt on the sea air, then I have accomplished what I set out do. Feel the magic.
Barbara Mason
#87. Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me.
Federico Fellini
#88. As my object was not myself, I set out with the determination, and happily with the disposition, of not being moved by praise or censure, friendship or calumny, nor of being drawn from my purpose by any personal altercation; and the man who cannot do this, is not fit for a public character.
Thomas Paine
#89. When I made my first film, I didn't think of it as directing, so it wasn't like I set out to become a director.
Kathryn Bigelow
#90. I love my style of writing. Nope, it's not the most poetic stuff you've ever read but you know, it can evoke emotions and images and smells and sensations, and that is what I set out to do.
Erin M. Truesdale
#91. I figured, 'When is that ever going to happen again?'. So I basically set out the opposite way movies are made; I set out with a budget first. I said, 'What can I do well for $40,000?'.
John Sayles
#92. So it's not so much that I set out to do something different, it's just that the songs themselves require their own individual voice and attention.
Ben Harper
#93. When I set out to write crime fiction, I didn't think to myself, 'I'm going to model myself on Agatha Christie' or 'I am going to be a crime writer in the Christie tradition'.
Sophie Hannah
#94. It was never just about painting everything white, I set out to create comfortable spaces - visually comfortable spaces. My mind always feels a little scrambled, so being in simple rooms helps me to think straight.
John Pawson
#95. Everything I've done in my career is a result of growing up in rural Oklahoma, because if I hadn't had the training from Mama and Daddy to work hard, to do what I'm told, to take directions, to mind and to do a good job at anything I set out to do, then I wouldn't be where I am today.
Reba McEntire
#96. Though I did not know the place, I set out for the land of my dreams. Having arrived at the land of my dreams, I found I did not know the place
Keiichi Sigsawa
#97. Achieving what I set out to do: to feel that I was instrumental in starting a great new movement which could not only change the course of things for Humanity and the rest of Creation, but alter Man's expectation of surviving for much longer on this planet.
Donald Watson
#98. Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.
Lawrence Durrell
#99. I didn't accomplish what I set out to do, but I realized I had set out to do the wrong things
Jane McGonigal
#100. If I set out to sculpt a standing man and it becomes a lying woman, I know I am making art.
Henry Moore
