
Top 100 I Should Have Said Quotes
#1. I have a suspicion that you are all mad,' said Dr. Renard, smiling sociably; 'but God forbid that madness should in any way interrupt friendship.
G.K. Chesterton
#2. A man thirty years old, I said to myself, should have his field of life all ploughed, and his planting well done; for after that it is summer time.
Lew Wallace
#3. How are you, Watson?" said he, cordially. "I should never have known you under that moustache,
Arthur Conan Doyle
#4. Hey, er ... " said Zaphod, "what's your name?"
The man looked at them doubtfully.
"I don't know. Why, do you think I should have one? It seems very odd to
give a bundle of vague sensory perceptions a name.
Douglas Adams
#5. So, do you have to send The Piano Man the secret code word to come down?"
"Did you just call Josh The Piano Man?"
"Well, I thought we should have a code name for him in case anyone's listening when we talk about you, and your mom said he plays the piano.
Jennifer Comeaux
#6. Besides, as a patriotic citizen, I have serious issues with shadowy government conspiracies." "Jess, we are a shadowy govern - " "Ones that aren't mine," she said. "God, do I really need to qualify that? Some things should be obvious.
Craig Schaefer
#7. Travis walked me to class, his grip tensing a few times when my feet slipped on the ice. "You should be more careful," he teased.
"I'm doing it on purpose. You're such a sucker."
"If you want my arms around you, all you have to do is ask," he said, pulling me into his chest.
Jamie McGuire
#8. Ann Landers said that you are addicted to sex if you have sex more than 3 times a day, and that you should seek professional help. I have news for Ann Landers: The only way I am going to get sex 3 times a day is if I seek professional help.
Jay Leno
#9. And I should have said something. Of course, I should have said thing after thing after thing after thing.
John Green
#10. I don't want to get people nervous falling off their chairs, but Social Security is a socialist program. It's a program by which the United States government has said that when you get old you should have a steady source of income.
Bernie Sanders
#11. If he sees you unclothed, I will have to kill him," he spoke in her ear. She didn't know if she should believe him or not, but she took no chances. "Tell him to leave, then," she said calmly but sternly.
Madison Thorne Grey
#12. A friend said to me, "I think the weather is trippy." I said, "No, man, it's not the weather that's trippy, perhaps it's the way we perceive it." And then I realized I just should have said, "Yeah."
Mitch Hedberg
#13. I should have loved,' Hal said after a very long silence. Neville's eyes filled with tears. ' Aye. You Should have loved.
Sara Douglass
#14. You should have seen this coming,' they said. I did see it coming. I saw it coming the way you see a train coming when you're tied to the tracks.
Margaret Andrews
#15. That was unbelievably presumptuous," she said in astonished wonder. "I should be furious. But it was so well done. I have shivers all over.
Meljean Brook
#16. Sorry," said Mik. "I think you neutralized our capacity for surprise. You should have started with that, and *then* told us you raise the dead.
Laini Taylor
#17. Ten years a wold, and you land here and think to prince about the islands, but you know nothing and no one. Why should men fight and die for you?' 'I am their lawful prince,' Theon said stiffly. 'By the laws of the green lands, you might be. But we make our own laws here, or have you forgotten?
George R R Martin
#18. Might you show me how to project a schematic of the entire inner solar system? I appear to be unable to zoom out from the immediate neighbourhood of Paladin." "Access that sub-menu, then select the logarithmic scale factor," Nissa said. "Thank you - I should have seen that." The
Alastair Reynolds
#19. Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses.
'It is time,' he said, 'for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything.
J.K. Rowling
#20. If you want, I can carry you - "
"I'm fine," she said shortly. "Let's go."
He'd said that wrong. He should have said, "I want to carry you.
Suzanne Brockmann
#21. Freaky monsters were trying to kill us," Sabrina said. "Should I have just died out there so you could keep your clubhouse secret?"
"Absolutely!" the prince said.
Michael Buckley
#22. Only three flowers? he said, clearly thinking that I should have more, and I smiled nervously. I didn't want a bouquet.
Kim Harrison
#23. I think people get intimidated, and they think results should happen right away. Like I said earlier, the body can only change so fast, and so when you're doing it right you just have to keep at it and keep up with a balanced program.
Daniel Cudmore
#24. The other day my house caught fire. My lawyer said, "Shouldn't be a problem. What kind of coverage do you have?" I said, "Fire and theft." The lawyer frowned. "Uh oh. Wrong kind. Should be fire OR theft."
Alan King
#25. That's a lovely piece," Kat said, pointing at a Louise XV armoire near the fireplace.
The man raised his eyebrows. "Did you come to steal it?"
"Darn it," Kat said with a snap of her fingers."I knew I should have brought my big purse.
Ally Carter
#26. They said that I should lose my ideals and begin to believe in the methods of practical politicians. Now, I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my childlike faith in practical politics.
G.K. Chesterton
#27. If I should die," said I to myself, "I have left no immortal work behind me - nothing to make my friends proud of my memory - but I have lov'd the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remember'd.
Dan Simmons
#28. I cannot,' said Merry. 'I have never seen them. I have never been outside of my own land before. And if I had known what the world outside was like, I don't think I should have had the heart to leave it.
J.R.R. Tolkien
#29. As Rowland Hill said that he could not see why Satan should have the best tunes, so neither can I see why he should have the most graceful speakers!
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
#30. The more people told me that, you know, wow, you should be so blessed. Don't you feel blessed? And you have all this - mansion and all these beautiful things. And I said, you know - the more they told me that, the more depressed I got.
Tanya Tucker
#31. I have also heard that GM Oscar Panno said that -whenever you have to make a rook move and both rooks are available for said move- you should evaluate which rook to move and, once you have made up your mind ... MOVE THE OTHER ONE!!!
Oscar Panno
#32. I should have said no, but if the tech half of the business got himself killed, who would update the website?
Lindsay Buroker
#33. There is supercomputer somewhere in the Nevada desert whose sole function is to count the number of times that I have said the following, because it is unquantifiable by human minds at this point, but this time it's really true: I should have stayed home.
David Rakoff
#34. Some have said I should demand that the surviving members of Unit 731 be brought to justice. But what does that mean? I am no longer a child. I do not want to see trials, parades, spectacles. The law does not give you real justice.
Ken Liu
#35. I should have said the right thing just then, but I did not know what that would be, if such a thing existed, I did not think so, and those who said it did, knew nothing. So I said the first thing that came into my head.
"Are you afraid?". I said.
Per Petterson
#36. I did have regrets these past six months," he told me quietly. "I found it a curse as much as a blessing, all that time to think. About the things I could have said, that I should have told you ...
Karen Chance
#37. Listen, Harr,y can I have a go on it? Can I?"
"I don't think anyone should ride that broom just yet!" said Hermoine shrilly.
Harry and Ron looked at her.
"What d'you think Harry's going to do with it - sweep the floor?" said Ron.
J.K. Rowling
#38. I should have made my meaning plainer," said Professor McGonagall, turning at last to look Umbridge directly in the eyes. "He has achieved high marks in all Defense Against the Dark Arts tests set by a competent teacher." Professor Umbridge's smile vanished as suddenly as a lightbulb blowing. She
J.K. Rowling
#39. Now," said Halt, "all I have to do is work out a way of beating these horse-riding devils."
Erak grinned at him. "That should be child's play," he said. "The hard part will be convincing Ragnak about it.
John Flanagan
#40. With respect," said Red, and his voice had gone so quiet people hushed each other to hear him, "my tale is yet unfinished; you should hear me out. And it is her answer I have come to hear, not yours.
Juliet Marillier
#41. They said, we have education, but what about jobs? So I started telling them, you should be taking a pledge, and the pledge should be: 'I'm not a job seeker; I'm a job giver.' Prepare yourself to be a job giver.
Muhammad Yunus
#42. I have learned that it is easier to say later what one should have said before, than to unsay what should not have been said at all.
Melvin R. Starr
#43. I am a plain person. I have merely spoken out my mind. I do not say you should believe what I have said because it alone is certain. Accept such ideas as can be accepted, with the help of your reason, after a sound inquiry. Reject the rest.
Periyar E.V. Ramasamy
#44. I started working for the 'NY Observer' when I was 33. After I had been writing for them for about a year and a half the editor said, 'Your stories are the most talked about stories in the 'Observer'; you should have your own column.'
Candace Bushnell
#45. No reason compels me to maintain that the body does not die unless it is changed into a corpse. And, indeed, experience seems to urge a different conclusion. Sometimes a man undergoes such changes that I should hardly have said he was the same man.
Baruch Spinoza
#46. It's transference, Megan," he said. "It happens from time to time. It happens to me, too. I really should have introduced this topic last time. I'm sorry." I
Paula Hawkins
#47. Did you ever dream this could happen to us? He said, No I didn't, but I should have. After we all helped create this mess, we were not doomed to have the Islamic Republic. And in a sense, he was right.
Azar Nafisi
#48. Oh my God, you're right! Our third date. We should totally have sex now! It wasn't my fault the waiter was walking past just as I said it and dropped the plate he was carrying. David stopped trying and laughed out loud.
J.L. Merrow
#49. I don't regret pulling the trigger. I should have been more careful with many of the things I said afterwards. That was a big regret.
Bernhard Goetz
#50. You should have invited him in," Nola's sleepy voice said from across the room. "Trust me," I said. "I tried." "You make falling in love look hard," she muttered as she rolled over. "Give it a whirl again one of these days," I said. "Show me how easy it is.
Devon Monk
#51. T. Ray said 'Who do you think you are? Julias Shakespeare?' The man sincerely thought that was Shakespeare's first name, and if you think I should have corrected him, you are ignorant about the art of survival.
Sue Monk Kidd
#52. "You know, Mouse," Tabby said, "a brilliant cat like me should have smart friends; people who can count to more than four." "I can count to more than four," answered Mouse, very offended. "And I can do hard sums, and I know geography and history, and I can knit and ... "
Ruth Park
#53. I think that there should have been some nice wumpires," said my sister, wistfully. "Nice, handsome, misunderstood wumpires."
"There were not," said my father.
Neil Gaiman
#54. I really don't think anyone can blame us for wanting no part of the marriage mart if she is already the belle of the ball," Ella said. "My mother even had
the audacity to ask me earlier if I didn't think I should have a gown made like hers! Lord deliver me from the London season
Sarah MacLean
#55. Leaving for the night, it came to me. What I should have told her. Life goes on - that's what I should have said. That's what you say to people when a loved one dies. But, thinking it over, I was glad I didn't. Because maybe that's what she was afraid of.
Stephen King
#56. Odd I should have said those words before and forgotten them. It makes one feel that human beings are just machines after all.
Iris Murdoch
#57. Of course, I should have done what doctors said and walked for miles every day and not eaten great amounts of butter. But then, life is life, and if we all did what they said we should do, it would be a different world.
Maeve Binchy
#58. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob ... [The organized moneyed people] are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred ... I should like to have it said of my second administration that these forces met their master.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
#59. You have to understand - I grew up being told by my parents that the best way to get out of a sticky situation was to assume it didn't exist," he said. "Let the rumors fly ... if the family isn't bothered, why should anyone else be?
Jodi Picoult
#60. A friend asked her doctor if a woman should have children after thirty-five. I said, Thirty-five children is enough for any woman.
Gracie Allen
#61. I get anxious about a lot of things, that's the trouble. I get anxious about everything. I just can't stop thinking about things all the time. And here's the really destructive part - it's always retrospective. I waste time thinking of what I should have said or done.
Hugh Laurie
#62. I think a reading group should have a snappy name to attract members, don't you?'
Mr Peterson didn't ask about my snappy name, but I could tell his curiosity was piqued.
'The Secular Church of Kurt Vonnegut,' I said.
'Jesus F Christ,' said Mr Peterson.
Gavin Extence
#63. The US spends more on energy R&D than all other countries put together, and I personally consider it quite inadequate. In fact, I would have said we should more than double it, if I thought the absorptive capacity could scale up and if it was actually possible to get to that level.
Bill Gates
#64. I once punched a bloke in the face for saying 'Hawk the Slayer' was rubbish, when what I should have said 'Dad, you're wrong.'
Bill Bailey
#65. I am often tongue-tied with strangers and have what the philosopher Monsieur Diderot calls l'esprit de l'escalier, staircase wit: only long after a remark is made to me will my imagination supply the thing I should have said in reply.
Debra Dean
#66. Have either of you seen your mother "
"Yeah " Ethan said and my heart actually skipped a beat.
But I should have known Ethan was joking. "Slim lady. Blue eyes and a gray pageboy " he continued his eyes glistening in appreciation of his own humor. "Answers to the name 'Mom'.
Rachel Vincent
#67. You should have told me earlier. It was an expensive lesson," I said. "It drained my emotional bank account.
Alex Brunkhorst
#68. I've already told the police what happened, they didn't believe me. Why should you,' he said.
'Because we're the people that believe people that other people don't believe,' I said.
'How can I know that?' he asked.
'You're just going to have to believe me,' I said.
Ben Aaronovitch
#69. I wish you did return my regard," he said. "More than I have ever wished anything in my life! Perhaps you may yet learn to do so: I should warn you that I don't easily despair!
Georgette Heyer
#70. There will be blood," he said quietly, "blood and death. You should not have come."
"Since when was a woman afraid of blood?" she asked. "The problem is not only Sean's. It is mine also. If there is to be blood, I will share in the letting or the losing of it.
Louis L'Amour
#71. Susan said, "Have you given any thought to how we should spend Christmas?" "Only that we should be together." I glanced over at the softly snoring Pearl. "With Pearl, of course. Hawk, too. Maybe
Robert B. Parker
#72. My mother read that parents should spend quality time with their children. One way is to sign up for organized activities together. This month we're taking meditation to free the mind. Last month it was Rolfing. Have you ever Rolfed, Tone?"
"Only after the school's shepherd's pie," I said.
Julie Anne Peters
#73. [ ... ]
"oh, dear," said Tessa.
"I have that effect on women," Will said. "I probably should have warned you before you agreed to marry me."
"I can still change my mind," Tessa said sweetly.
"Don't you dare -," He began with a breathless half laugh, [ ... ]
Cassandra Clare
#74. Sarah Palin is speaking out about the oil spill. She said, I'm not kidding, we should ask the Dutch for help with the spill because the Dutch have the world's best dikes. So let me get this straight. It is OK to cover lesbians in oil but you just can't let them get married.
Craig Ferguson
#75. The money part is one of the most difficult things. Coppola always said I should do a tango movie. If it hadn't been for him, I don't know where we would have gotten the money.
Robert Duvall
#76. You're right about something else," he
said, his voice ragged. "I'm scared to death of you. Because I want you, when common sense and a lifetime of experience tells me I should kill you. I want you, and if I give up then you'll own me, and I'll have nothing left to fight with.
Anne Stuart
#77. My contract had specified only that I 'should undertake work upon the fossil Arthropoda,' which left me free to roam through hundreds of millions of years. It might as well have said: 'Amuse yourself
for money.
Richard Fortey
#78. Was it - was she making a real prediction?'
Dumbledore looked mildly impressed.
'Do you know, Harry, I think she might have been,' he said thoughtfully. 'Who'd have thought it? That brings her total of real predictions up to two. I should offer her a pay raise ...
J.K. Rowling
#79. I should have known better than to lie to the government. People always said Uncle Sam would spend a thousand dollars to get you if you stole a three-cent stamp from him. He was more revengeful than God. I
Maya Angelou
#80. I have never made radically different experiments. Whenever I wanted to say something, I said it the way I believed I should.
Pablo Picasso
#81. With me, nothing goes right. My psychiatrist said my wife and I should have sex every night. Now, we'll never see each other!
Rodney Dangerfield
#82. I'm not sure we should have taken the company jet," Gabriella said two hours later as the plane lifted off the runway. "Oh, hush. It was just sitting there not being used, and Mark knows he has to come right back after we land in Portland. After he gets some sleep, of course.
Samantha Chase
#83. Will you please stop peeking at me like that? This is degrading enough as it is."
"Did it ever occur to you," I said, with a sly smile and a wink, "that you're irresistibly handsome, I can't keep my eyes off of you?"
He threw his head back in a laugh. "Of course. I should have realized.
Lani Woodland
#84. This should never have happened, Brishen. We were unimportant, you and I. We weren't supposed to mean anything to anyone."
"Woman of day," he said slowly. "You mean everything to me.
Grace Draven
#85. I should have lived a different story, or lived the same story differently. I should have better told you, should have said: I have seen you, seen you and loved you because of what I have seen.
Greggory Moore
#86. You have everyone else at your feet, Miss Lydia. Why should you need me as well?"
For a moment she couldn't speak, mesmerized by the torment she saw in the dark depths of his eyes. "Because you're the one I want," she said in a hushed voice.
Anne Stuart
#87. But I thought you said we didn't have to worry," Perrin said, and Tam shook his head.
"I said should not, boy, not did not. I've seen men die because they were sure that what should not happen, would not.
Robert Jordan
#88. As I said earlier it is most surprising that the kingdom of then world should have come under the sway of a species of monkey, and there is reason to suppose that there were other claimants to the throne. ("The Shadmock")
R. Chetwynd-Hayes
#89. Have that effect on women," Will said. "I probably should have warned you before you agreed to marry me." "I
Cassandra Clare
#90. I should have said to the young woman who asked the first question about signs that this was a sign, confirming that I was where I should be, in the right place, at the right time, even though I didn't understand what had brought me there. I suspect there was no need though. She would
Paulo Coelho
#91. Upon the exposure of his bribery, it is reported he said, I should have paid more.
David Ebershoff
#92. What we have said and - and - and with which I concur is that we should use every diplomatic and political vehicle that's available to us to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear capability state.
Mitt Romney
#93. What happens to me when I'm provoked is that I get tongue-tied and my mind goes blank. Then I spend all night tossing and turning trying to figure out what I should have said
Nora Ephron
#94. I have made it a habit," said Miss Marple. "To be careful?" "I should not put it exactly like that, but I have made a point of being always ready to disbelieve as well as believe anything that is told to me.
Agatha Christie
#95. You should spend more time reading the Good Book and less reading all those novels. What are you going to tell the Lord on Judgement Day when He asks you why you didn't read your bible? Hmm?
I will tell Him that His press agents could have done with a writing lesson or two, I said. To myself.
Jennifer Donnelly
#96. Campaign boot camp started as an opportunity to work in a grassroots way with people who were running for Congress. Colleagues on the Democratic National Committee were batting around different possibilities. I said, 'We should have boot camps.'
Christine Pelosi
#97. I know," she said. "You have a stone in your heart, and some days it's so heavy there is nothing to be done. But you don't have to be alone for it. You should have come to me. I understand.
Patrick Rothfuss
#98. I warned that there should be no place on Earth where terrorists can rest and train and practice their deadly skills. I meant it. I said that we would act with others, if possible, and alone if necessary to ensure that terrorists have no sanctuary anywhere. Tonight, we have.
Ronald Reagan
#99. What do you think of Christmas?"
"I like it," she said. "I think we should have it every year.
Liz Flaherty
#100. Gallimard: You have to do what I say! I'm conjuring you up in my mind!
Song: Rene, I've never done what you've said. Why should it be any different in your mind?
David Henry Hwang
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