If Only They Knew Quotes

#1. I have always been their rock. A mother's unconditional love is fervent enough to battle against the gates of hell, rise up from her knees and stand gallant, in spite of her gaping war wounds. If only they knew the battle fought and the flood of tearshed without having to endure such agony.

Terry A. O'Neal

#2. The long-drawn, wavering howl has, for all its fearful resonance, some inherent sadness in it, as if the beasts would love to be less beastly if only they knew how and never cease to mourn their own condition.

Angela Carter

#3. I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.

Harriet Tubman

#4. All this overt heterosexuality amused me. If only they knew.

Rita Mae Brown

#5. The art of good teaching begins when we can answer the questions our students are really trying to ask us, if only they knew how to do so.

Deborah Meier

#6. One of the reasons I don't see eye to eye with Women's Lib is that women have it all on a plate if only they knew it. They don't have to be pretty either.

Charlotte Rampling

#7. The Russian governors are terrified of ideas. If only they knew what our governors know - that in a massive egalitarian society no idea which runs counter to the prevailing superstitions can successfully penetrate the official carapace.

Gore Vidal

#8. If only they knew that the sword that dominated their weapons is called Pooky Bear.

Susan Ee

#9. They had all known one another a long time, they knew they were complicit victims, and they had no doubt about who the whistleblower was: she, the only one who behaved from the start as if the need to work didn't go hand in hand with the need to be humiliated.

Elena Ferrante

#10. Earth is such a sweet 'n sour place, thought Gonzo, puffing on his seaweed roll-up, and he knew that if aliens did exist, then they'd probably only stop to avail of this planet's toilet facilities on the intergalactic highway.

Jonathan Dunne

#11. Some men are all right in their place if they only knew the right places.

Raoul Walsh

#12. There are a lot of people who know me who can't understand for the life of them why I would got to work on something as unserious as baseball. If they only knew.

A. Bartlett Giamatti

#13. That if a civil war should break out in France, it would take a while to reach the south-west. I knew next to nothing about the south-west, really, only that it was a region where they ate duck confit, and duck confit struck me as incompatible with civil war.

Michel Houellebecq

#14. He thought of Laurent's delicate, needling talk that froze into icy rebuff if Damen pushed at it, but if he didn't
if he matched himself to its subtle pulses and undercurrents
continued, sweetly deepening, until he could only wonder if he knew, if they both knew, what they were doing.

C.S. Pacat

#15. They really need to cite their sources, you think to yourself, which would make your seventh-grade science teacher proud if only he knew.
It's a moot point, however.

Daniel Keidl

#16. Everybody says they're opposed to torture. But everyone would do it personally if they knew it could save the life of a kidnapped child who had only two hours of oxygen left before death. And it would be the right thing to do,

Alan Dershowitz

#17. Farms and in castles, in homes, studies, and cloisters - where sensible people manage to live relatively lusty and decent lives, as moral as they must be, as free as they may be, and as masterly as they can be. If we only knew it, this elusive arrangement is happiness.

Erik Erikson

#18. But she knew this, - that it was necessary for her happiness that she should devote herself to some one. All the elegancies and outward charms of life were delightful, if only they could be used as the means to some end. As an end themselves they were nothing.

Anthony Trollope

#19. Poor little men, poor little cocks! As soon as they're old enough, they swell their plumage to be conquerors. If they only knew that it's enough to be just a little bit wounded and sad in order to obtain everything without fighting for it.

Jean Anouilh

#20. They knew a tremendous number of things - But was it worthwhile knowing all these things if they did not know the one important thing, the only important thing?

Hermann Hesse

#21. If men only knew the staleness of the freshest of us! that nine times out of ten the "first love" they think they are winning from a woman is but the hulk of an old wrecked affection, fitted with new sails and re-used.

Thomas Hardy

#22. If people only knew how much I secretly hated them, they'd love me for holding it in.

Matt Groening

#23. The people who run Hollywood are supposed to be masters at creating drama, suspense, thrills - at putting on a great show. If we knew not only who the winners were but also by how much they won, the Oscar show could actually be the Super Bowl of movies.

Richard Corliss

#24. Worth the trouble. If they only knew about her dream. They had no idea. ...

Rick Riordan

#25. They were weird. They were hippies. They were the only hippies I knew so I didn't know if they were weird hippies.

Kristen Ashley

#26. If I had taken a proprietary control of the Web, then it would never have taken off. People only committed their time to it because they knew it was open, shared: that they could help decide what would happen to it next.. and I wouldn't be raking off 10%!

Tim Berners-Lee

#27. Kuisl knew from his own agonizing interrogations that people could bear a lot of pain if only their beliefs were strong, if they felt close to God, or if, like Kuisl, they were firmly convinced of their own innocence.

Anonymous

#28. When people say "If I only knew then what I know now" makes me wonder why they aren't using that wisdom now.

Rob Liano

#29. When you're winning, you're a hero. When you're losing, you're a bum ... I'm as bad as the fans, believe me. If they only knew how I hate losing and what we go through to try to win.

Alex Spanos

#30. There's this unspoken club where you say to each other: Oh God, if they only knew how ordinary I was, they wouldn't be interested. That includes movie stars and politicians.

Margot Kidder

#31. It seems to me, that if people only knew how hard it was for me to endure life, they would find it easier to forgive me for all the wrong things I've done and all the good things that I have failed to do. And they would still find a little compassion within them to pity me.

Ivo Andric

#32. Just imagine the silence in the world, if people talked only what they knew

Karel Capek

#33. Flora hated the phrase "correct me if I'm wrong." In her experience, people only said it when they knew they were right.

Kate DiCamillo

#34. There is a secret medicine given only to those who hurt so hard they can't hope.
The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.

Rumi

#35. The sun surrendered its splendor - why, it was like poetry; he was a poet; Norman smiled. He was many things. If they only knew - - But

Robert Bloch

#36. Is the universe 'elegant,' as Brian Greene tells us? Not as far as I can tell, not the usual laws of particle physics, anyway. I think I might find the universal principles of String Theory most elegant - if I only knew what they were.

Leonard Susskind

#37. Most people search high and wide for the key to success. If they only knew, the key to their dreams lies within.

George Washington Carver

#38. Are there not thousands who have loved virtue who did not accept Jesus Christ in any supernatural or miraculous fashion, who, if they knew of him at all, knew of him only as the Nazarene peasant - the man Jesus. Such was Abraham Lincoln, the tender prophet of the gospel of good will upon earth.

Jenkin Lloyd Jones

#39. Nobody should call themselves a professional if they only knew one language.

Bjarne Stroustrup

#40. All gentlemen of any rank with whom he holds conversations can speak Latin, French, Spanish or Italian. They are aware that the English language is only used in this island and would consider themselves uncivilized if they knew no other tongue than their own.

Ian Mortimer

#41. I don't give away my shoes to celebrities for free. I'm only happy when people like what I do and make the effort to buy them. I would not be happy to see people in my shoes if I knew that they had to be paid to do it, that they had to be pushed.

Christian Louboutin

#42. They need a little girl with innocence and freedom. One that can smile with ease instead of someone who can only form a grimace. They were probably expecting the same girl that they knew nine years ago. What a disappointment if must have been to meet me.

Sydney Blore

#43. You, the sons of the pioneers, if you are true to your ancestry, must make your lives as worthy as they made theirs. They sought for true success, and therefore they did not seek ease. They knew that success comes only to those who lead the life of endeavor

Theodore Roosevelt

#44. Why did he care if Gansey and Ronan saw this? They already knew. They knew everything about him. What a lie unknowable was. The only person who didn't know Adam was himself.

Maggie Stiefvater

#45. Even if they didn't win the battle, even if she couldn't save these kids, Angel knew, as she'd always known, that Max was their only chance at saving the world.

James Patterson

#46. The suggestion that the prime minister had been flirting with one of the senior women cabinet ministers made me laugh every time I saw it, and I thought, "if you only knew!" Perhaps they should have pushed it a bit harder.

Edwina Currie

#47. I think Australians do well here because we feel a bit naughty, like we're in America and if they only knew how much fun we were having, we'd all get thrown out, you know.

Melissa George

#48. If only we all knew! By understanding the personalities, we are able to give words of encouragement to others that are sincere and authentic. We can get to know others, love them in the way they need to be loved, and help bring out their very best, at home, or at work.

Rose Sweet

#49. She heard him mutter, 'Can you take away this grief?'
'I'm sorry,' she replied. 'Everyone asks me. And I would not do so even if I knew how. It belongs to you. Only time and tears take away grief; that is what they are for.

Terry Pratchett

#50. She wasn't certain of exactly what they had together; she doubted Owen knew, either; but whatever it was, she desperately wanted to hold on to it. They were only at the beginning of what they could become together; if she could help it, she would do anything that she could to keep it from ending.

Dorothy Garlock

#51. If I turned towards books, it was because they were the only sanctuary I knew, one I needed in order to survive, to protect some aspect of myself that was now in constant retreat.

Azar Nafisi

#52. Which he said was the big lie they all bought that made doctors and standard therapy such a waste of time for people like us
they thought that diagnosis was the same as cure. That if you knew why, it would stop. Which is bullshit. You only stop if you stop.

David Foster Wallace

#53. Like many people, I only knew of Ford Madox Ford through a book called 'The Good Soldier,' which is everybody's favorite Ford Madox Ford if they have one, but I came to read 'Parade's End' when it was suggested via Damien Timmer of Mammoth Screen.

Tom Stoppard

#54. The only thing that I discovered very early on is that, even though we might change schools and cities and towns and states, the books in the library were the same. They had the same covers. They had the same characters. I could go and visit those people in the library as if I knew them.

J. Michael Straczynski

#55. Ruby knew then that a lie could only control a person if they believed it.

Cynthia Bond

#56. He stood looking at her. She knew that he did not see her. No, she thought, it was not that exactly. He always looked straight at people and his damnable eyes never missed a thing, it was only that he made people feel as if they did not exist. He just stood looking.

Ayn Rand

#57. The ground is still filled iwth rings, and money, and pictures, and Jewish things. I was only able to find a few of them, but they fill the earth. The hero did not ask me once what she was saying. I am not certain if he knew what she was saying, or if he knew not to inquire.

Jonathan Safran Foer