Top 100 If They Knew Quotes
#1. When people died, they took their voices with them. I wondered if they knew how much the people left behind would kill for their sounds one last time.
Brittainy C. Cherry
#2. I'm talking about doing something good for mankind. Imagine how awesome everyone would feel if they knew all that holy stuff was real." -Gregori
"Stuff? Four years of giving sermons, and that what I get back? Holy stuff?
Kerrelyn Sparks
#3. 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
#4. The mages wouldn't be happy at all if they knew you were going after him. Master Rufus - "
"Let's kill him," Call said. Havoc growled.
"Master Rufus?" Aaron looked alarmed.
"No, of course not Master Rufus! I meant Jasper," Call said.
Cassandra Clare
#5. What would our enemies say if they knew we'd all been petrified of a girl?
Sarah J. Maas
#6. Cats don't hunt seals. They would if they knew what they were and where to find them. But they don't, so that's all right.
Terry Pratchett
#7. Although watching her three children toddle to her, sleep-stained from their nap, rubbing their eyes while they make their way to Mama, little hands touching her knee or arm as if she were home base, as if they knew they were safe ... it hurts me sometimes to watch.
Gillian Flynn
#8. That's what the world is like: people talk as if they knew everything, but ifyou dare to ask a question, they don't know anything.
Paulo Coelho
#9. Even though she felt a wave of dread. If they knew she was nervous, she'd be at their mercy. But if they thought she was ice they'd be afraid to touch her.
Alice Hoffman
#10. People would do better, if they knew better.
Jim Rohn
#11. I suspect people would be in for a real shock if they knew the depths of [Obama's] historical ignorance.
Charles Foster Johnson
#12. Messina between the volcanoes, Etna and Stromboli, having known the death-agony's terror. I always dread coming near the awful place, yet I have found the people kind, almost feverishly so, as if they knew the awful need for kindness.
D.H. Lawrence
#13. You had to wonder who all these people in their cars were leaving behind and who they were driving toward, and if they knew that in the distance, the echo of their tires on the asphalt sounded like a river, and that to someone like me, it could seem like the miracle I'd been looking for.
Alice Hoffman
#14. 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
#15. When you lose someone, a whole lot of perfectly normal circumstances suddenly take on different meaning. You see it in a different light. You wonder if they knew. I wondered. Doctors have told me that people do have a sense of their own approaching death.
Joan Didion
#16. It wasn't exactly dangerous to be out during the day ... but the Council, every one of them, up to and including August, would have kittens and penguins and little baby narwhals, too, probably, if they knew what I was up to.
Lili St. Crow
#17. The handshake got a third arm as Blake entered and joined in. This was magic for Beckett, pure and simple. The world slowed down, and his cares melted away as he looked from face to face. He loved these men so fiercely, it'd probably scare them if they knew.
Debra Anastasia
#18. 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
#19. They had no curiousity about him at all. As if they knew all that they needed to know. They stood and watched him pass and watched him vanish upon that landscape solely because he was passing. Solely because he would vanish.
Cormac McCarthy
#20. These Gentlemen must be told, that they take too much upon themselves when they pretend to appoint how far and no farther Men shall go in their Searches, and to set bounds to other Mens Industry; as if they knew the Marks that God has placed to Knowledge ...
Christiaan Huygens
#21. If they knew how much you kept inside to keep from hurting them, but hurting yourself instead, maybe they'd love you more.
Darnell Lamont Walker
#22. Why did people shrink away from winter, he wondered, safe in their blankets, hiding by their fires?
If they knew how beautiful winter really was, they would walk out naked into the snow, walk and walk, until their frozen hearts split open with joy.
Lena Coakley
#23. I did a study of soldiers returning from Iraq, and their levels of PTSD were much higher if they had had to shoot a woman or child, even if they knew the person was a suicide bomber.
Mia Bloom
#24. I walk along a street and see in the faces of the passersby not the expression they really have but the expression they would have for me if they knew about my life and how I am, if I carried, transparent in my gestures and my face, the ridiculous, timid abnormality of my soul.
Fernando Pessoa
#25. Besides, horses were very large, with rippling muscles and big, grinding teeth, and they looked at me as if they knew I was afraid and were hoping for an opportunity to kick my head in.
Ransom Riggs
#26. Whatever I do, I attempt to do it fully. I try, and don't always succeed, to be thorough. There are musicians who do not know their worth, and if they knew it at one time, it has eluded them. I know my worth. You try not to dwell in the past.
Bill Dixon
#27. What would they say if they knew
I sit for two months
on six lines of poetry?
Lorine Niedecker
#28. He did not blame them. Because in truth, that's what he did, what he was. Seduce and dominate. Charm and manipulate. A user of women. How they would scoff, Rothbury mused bitterly, if they knew that he was secretly in love with the silly little chit, spectacles and all.
Olivia Parker
#29. There was something frantic in their blooming, as if they knew that frost was near and then the bitter cold. They'd lived through all the heat and noise and stench of summertime, and now each widely opened flower was like a triumphant cry, "We will, we will make seed before we die."
Harriette Simpson Arnow
#30. Cats do not hunt seals. They would hunt them if they knew what seals and where to find them. But they do not know, so it's okay.
Terry Pratchett
#31. No one knows how to do officering, Fred. That's why they're officers. If they knew anything, they'd be sergeants.
Terry Pratchett
#32. So goes the world: people talk as if they knew everything, and when you dare to ask, they do not know anything.
Paulo Coelho
#33. Most people are doing the best they can, given what they know and understand, including you. If they knew more and were aware of more, they would do things differently.
Louise Hay
#34. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils. And surely it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one does not know.
Plato
#36. Durum semolina, golden wheat wafting in Italian fields. Can you imagine how astonished the Italians would be if they knew that what they were exporting in 1971 was really loneliness
Haruki Murakami
#37. Thereafter, staggering semiparalytic down the night streets, he would often ask passing policemen if they knew the way to Betelgeuse.
Douglas Adams
#38. You can do this" I murmured. "You are my brother. I love you. All the embarrassing bits, all the annoying bits, which I imagine is most of you
a thousand Zias might run away from you if they knew the truth. But I won't. I'll still be here.
Rick Riordan
#39. Tears filled Claire's eyes but, as if they knew their place, didn't leave.
Amy Waldman
#40. None of the billion lowReds beneath Mars would be happy if they knew what the highReds knew - that they are slaves. So is it not better to lie?"
"It is better to not make slaves.
Pierce Brown
#41. Always try to innovate. If you lose your old fitness, you lose out to Bose-Einstein condensation. I am sure that companies that go under would feel better if they knew that they were victims of Bose-Einstein condensation.
Jennifer Tour Chayes
#42. The stars seemed to distance themselves, as if they knew I'd suck the light out of them.
Pepper Winters
#43. The look on his face made me want to die. It confirmed every mean and low thing I'd ever thought about myself, the stuff you hope and pray no one will ever know about you. Because if they knew, they would see the real you, and they would despise you.
Jenny Han
#44. 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
#45. How the little piglets would grunt if they knew how the old boar suffered.
Ragnar Lodbrok
#46. When I was very young, I thought the theatre was a place where higher beings went about their celestial business, as if they knew nothing of ordinary life and its political mysteries.
Andrew O'Hagan
#47. Probably everybody be nice to you if they knew you were dying," he said.
"Everybody knows everybody is dying," I said. "That is why people are nice. You all die soon enough, so why not be nice to each other?
Mark Harris
#48. The censors don't bother with fantasy books, especially old ones. They can't understand them. They think it's all kids' stuff. They'd die if they knew what The Chronicles of Narnia were really about.
G. Willow Wilson
#49. The reason is that they utter these words of theirs not by virtue of a skill, but by a divine power - otherwise, if they knew how to speak well on one topic thanks to a skill, they would know how to speak about every other topic too.
Plato
#50. I wondered how all those people in the states who tried to sound tough, saying that the u.s. should go in here, bomb there, take over this, attack that, would feel if they knew that they were indirectly responsible for babies being burned to death.
Assata Shakur
#51. I don't have any kids, so I'm not as worried about my heirs as the rest of you, but still: I think the youth of tomorrow might be better off if they knew the physical sensation of cracking a spine and turning the page.
Lisa Lutz
#52. History's greatest composers world be rolling in their graves if they knew that their beautiful compositions were reduced to distorted hold music.
Michael P. Naughton
#53. When you have mental illness it's common to be shunned by your family or friends it wouldn't happen if they knew the pain you were in.
Stanley Victor Paskavich
#54. ... it is strange to know you would be cast off by the people who greet you so warmly, if they knew the whole truth about you.
Zen Cho
#55. I don't want them to focus on my outlaw tendencies. If they knew what a long, messy history I have of doing the opposite of what I'm told, things could get ugly.
Ann Aguirre
#56. Women say they have sexual thoughts too. They have no idea. It's the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it. If they knew what we were really thinking, they'd never stop slapping us.
Larry Miller
#57. - Amy said that would be an imprudent expense; but as soon as he had got a good price for a book. Will not the publishers be kind? If they knew what happiness lurked in embryo within their foolish cheque-books!
George Gissing
#58. Even if they knew the truth of their own feelings, most mothers would be socially and emotionally incapable of revealing it.
Rachel Cusk
#59. To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.
Socrates
#60. God sends drunks blackouts because if they knew what they had done they would surely die of shame.
Lucia Berlin
#61. Children would die of terror if they knew the folly and ignorance of their caretakers.
Mason Cooley
#62. Maybe you go through life with ever-present feelings of inadequacy; you worry what other people would think if they knew the real you.
Aubrey Gayel Sampson
#63. Americans have dissipated their racial energy in an orgy of stone-breaking. In their few years they have broken more stones than did centuries of Egyptians, and they have done their work hysterically, desperately, almost as if they knew that the stones would some day break them.
Nathanael West
#64. All the same, she wondered if they did know what she thought and felt, if they knew without knowing, in that way the Irish were so adept at doing.
Benjamin Black
#65. I do not know how much they see through the Mist. I doubt it would matter to them if they knew the truth. Sometimes mortals can be more horrible than monsters.
Rick Riordan
#66. No one knows whether death is really the greatest blessing a man can have, but they fear it is the greatest curse, as if they knew well.
Plato
#67. I grew up in a city. My parents would think there was something wrong with America if they knew I was secretary of agriculture.
Tom Vilsack
#68. You know, many a man realizes late in life that if when he was a boy he had known what he knows now, instead of being what he is he might be what he won't; but how few boys stop to think that if they knew what they don't know instead of being what they will be, they wouldn't be?
Stephen Leacock
#69. They wouldn't be politicians if they knew what they were doing.
Jim Rogers
#70. They wouldn't be so cocky if they knew what me and the moon have going.
Ken Kesey
#71. Don't listen to the ramblings of fools," he said, smiling grimly. "When it comes down to it, if they knew the truth, no one would want to live on this earth forever.
Melika Dannese Lux
#72. Rush Limbaugh says if the health care bill passes, he will leave the country. The Democrats are upset, because if they knew that, they would have passed the bill years ago.
Craig Ferguson
#74. So i sneak out to the garden to see you, we keep quiet 'cause we're dead if they knew, so close your eyes, escape this town for a little while.
Taylor Swift
#75. Why don't we have enough teachers of math and science in the public schools? One answer is well, if they knew the subject well, they'd also know enough to work for Google or Goldman Sachs or God knows where.
James Harris Simons
#76. People would be surprised if they knew how much in this world was due to prayers.
Kurt Vonnegut
#77. Thoale alone knows why suicides are so fond of jumping off cliffs and bridges; they wouldn't if they knew what that trip's like.
Peter F. Hamilton
#78. Every person we assassinate dies to serve a greater purpose."
"I'm sure they would be happy if they knew it," Ileni said sarcastically, but her voice sounded weak even to her. "If you would explain it to them, perhaps they would volunteer for your knives.
Leah Cypess
#79. Would the people in her life still love her if they knew the whole truth about her? Perhaps, but would they love her the same?
Lacey Alexander
#81. The person I think I am is terrified of the person I really am, terrified of what others would think of that person. What would they do to me if they knew the person I really was? Better to be safe! Better to hide the real person, starve the real person, bury the real person!
John Verdon
#82. Let anyone laugh and taunt if he so wishes. I am not keeping silent, nor am I hiding the signs and wonders that were shown to me by the Lord many years before they happened, who knew everything, even before the beginning of time.
Saint Patrick
#83. But he knew, for example, that the things at the ends of his legs were his feet and that if he chose to waggle them, they would waggle. There they went. He knew that if he wanted to he could go to the kitchen and make a cup of tea and not get lost. So he did.
Mal Peet
#84. Kind words are such a blessing to the needful, if one but knew the pleasure that they bring.
John McLeod
#85. They are so very cultivated, so very rich and so utterly charming. At the end of each day, they all ask themselves: 'Is it time I stopped?' And they all reply: 'If I did, there would be no meaning to my life.'
As if they actually knew what the meaning of life was.
Paulo Coelho
#86. He knew her, and she knew him. He had no idea if the images he saw came from past or future, or both, but he knew her. Their souls were bound, had always been bound, and always would be. They were two with one soul between them, perfectly joined, perfectly fitted.
Ann Marston
#87. That whole generation that's gone now, that lived through the two world wars, is a great example to all of us. They knew how to live. If something bad happened, they didn't sit at home, eat Haagen-Dazs, and watch a movie.
Sigourney Weaver
#88. Would it discourage a stalker from stalking if he knew that they knew?
Donna Lynn Hope
#89. Iain didn't know what to say to her. They had all asked an incredible amount from her. She was such an innocent, too. Hell, she wasn't even married, and yet they'd demanded she deliver a baby. He wasn't even certain if she knew how Isabelle had conceived the babe.
Julie Garwood
#90. If only they knew that the sword that dominated their weapons is called Pooky Bear.
Susan Ee
#91. When I auditioned for 'Jessie,' I knew that Disney Channel basically will do 100 episodes of a show if it's a hit; they'll stick with something. It's a great network to work with because they make a nice big commitment to a show.
Kevin Chamberlin
#92. They knew now that if there is one thing one can always yearn for, and sometimes attain, it is human love.
Albert Camus
#93. Most risks we might not take if we could see what we would have to go through to reach our goal. Yet, we would never not take most risks if we knew the great learning experience and soul enrichment they would bring.
Linda Eyre
#94. Poetry wants to make things mean more than they mean, says someone, as if we knew how much things meant, and in what unit of measure.
Rae Armantrout
#95. That, they knew, was true friendship. And they knew, if you're lucky enough to find it, you hold on to it.
Sarah Addison Allen
#96. They call me 'sweet,' and 'gentle'; and some of the men go the length of calling me 'endearing,' and I laugh in my sleeve and think, 'Oh, Lord! If you but knew what a brimstone of a creature I am behind all this beautiful amiability!'
Jane Welsh Carlyle
#97. But an Adrian also knew that an Adrian's lies were real: they were lived and felt and acted out as thoroughly as another man's truths - if other men had truths - and he believed it possible that this last lie might see him through to the grave.
Stephen Fry
#98. And then everyone in the room started laughing. My dad and my uncles and aunts - if there's one thing they knew how to do, it was laugh. My dad called that sort of behavior whistling in the dark.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
#99. Exploration is what you do when you don't know what you're doing. That's what scientists do every day. If a scientist already knew what they were doing, they wouldn't be discovering anything, because they already knew what they were doing.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
#100. Content if hence th' unlearn'd their wants may view, The learn'd reflect on what before they knew.
Alexander Pope
