Top 100 Not Even Trying Quotes
#1. I'm having fun and I'm not even trying to do much. Everything is coming together.
Johan Santana
#3. Fang! Angel? i yelled, not even trying for stealth. i was storming the castle, not stealing the jewels.
James Patterson
#6. Sometimes in your life, you will get to the point where you are not even trying or worthy even taking a step a head of you, but you will have to go to the next step without thinking more.
Auliq Ice
#7. Beer?" Gabriel was so close that Rase could feel Gabriel's breath on his hair.
"This isn't a social call," Rase said, not even trying to keep his voice steady.
"Then why are your clothes still on?
Anah Crow
#8. Rose, nothing in this world could make me hate you."
"Not even trying to bring my ex-boyfriend back from the dead?
Richelle Mead
#9. Yeah. It's impossible. Giving up just like that before you even started. Not even trying to change, to you it's impossible to change. Are you going to forever beat yourself down?
Kayoru
#10. As the late earl said, 'The early bird catches birds of a like feather,'" she said.
I nodded, not even trying to understand how that would work. At the very least, the combination of proverbs made it somewhat original.
Tarun Shanker
#11. Failing sucks. But it's better than the alternative."
"Which is?"
"Not even trying." Now he did look at me, straight on. "Life's short, you know?
Sarah Dessen
#12. We have intelligent species on our planet that we are not even trying to communicate with.
Paul Watson
#13. Even the dumber parts of our government are not run by idiots. These are ordinary people like us, doing a job. By and large, they're trying to do it as well as they can. Or at least as often as people in the private sector try to do as well as they can.
P. J. O'Rourke
#14. I'm trying to not follow fashion. I don't even like the word. But I do like clothes, and I like nicely cut clothes that last and that are built to be worn for the next 30 years.
Robbie Williams
#15. Often we can achieve an even better result when we stumble yet are willing to start over, when we don't give up after a mistake, when something doesn't come easily but we throw ourselves into trying, when we're not afraid to appear less than perfectly polished.
Sharon Salzberg
#16. Loki was trying to look serious, but even so, he was smiling at the corners of his mouth. It was not a reassuring smile.
Neil Gaiman
#17. Father laughed, which upset Bruno even more; there was nothing that made him more angry than when a grown-up laughed at him for not knowing something, especially when he was trying to find out the answer by asking questions.
John Boyne
#18. Carlsen came with a line that was not very theoretical, trying to challenge the World Champion to play chess. [ ... ] But Anand proved that even this obscure line is something he has studied before, and it was Carlsen that was set back.
Alejandro Ramirez
#19. I have a company, and I've got to think about that. I'm trying to do my best there, and that's a much harder task. We recycle as much as possible, and we conserve. But I've always been one to save everything - I even walk up stairs on the very inside or the very outside to not wear out the tread.
Vivienne Westwood
#20. Most of promoting seems unnatural to me, and I wish I didn't have to do it. I'm not especially good at tooting my own horn. However, I do love to connect with readers. That's why I try to keep up with my social media even when I don't have a new book coming out.
Linda Conrad
#21. You should not put too much trust in any unproved conjecture, even if it has been propounded by a great authority, even if it has been propounded by yourself. You should try to prove it or disprove it ...
George Polya
#22. I try not to take things too personally, because most of the time, people aren't even thinking about anyone else but themselves.
Xosha Roquemore
#23. You must not do, you must not even try to do, the will of the Father unless you are prepared to 'know of the doctrine'.
C.S. Lewis
#24. Trying to prove you're not a psychopath is even harder than trying to prove you're not mentally ill,' said Tony.
Jon Ronson
#25. I've always been interested in how to present something that relates to our reality - which is not really ... I don't even know if documentary itself does as good a job. It has its own problems in trying to get at the reality of the situation.
Gus Van Sant
#26. The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he 'likes' them: the Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds him liking more and more people as he goes on - including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning.
C.S. Lewis
#27. I will try not to panic, to keep my standard of living modest and to work steadily, even shyly, in the spirit of those medieval carvers who so fondly sculpted the undersides of choir seats.
John Updike
#28. Whatever our dreams are, we can make them happen. Some dreams may seem impossible, but they are not, in my belief. How can we know that it cannot and will not happen without even trying? It is always better to have tried than not to have tried at all.
Kcat Yarza
#29. It's stupid not to communicate what you know to the adults. They're only trying to protect us. And as far as the no-secrets zone, I can't agree to that. I don't even really know you guys, so why would I tell you my secrets? No way.
Cynthia Hand
#30. I know a lot of great musicians that don't know they're even great, because mangers try and make them feel belittled like they're not worth a crap.
Jim "Dandy" Mangrum
#31. When I was 14, and for the next four years, I was lifting and hauling 10-gallon milk cans full of milk. That will put muscles on you even if you're not trying.
Harmon Killebrew
#32. I would not call myself an optimist, even though I would aspire to be. I am innately a skeptic. There's kind of an incessant dissatisfaction that I have, that I'm always trying to either expose or fight against or wrestle with.
Carrie Brownstein
#33. To me it's just going for the moment that counts. Sometimes, I'll have all the elements there, and I like to play and push something, and to me, in the end, you do achieve things that you're not aware of in the beginning, even though you're there trying to get them.
Herb Ritts
#34. Do not try to make your headline so short that it fails to express your idea properly. It's more important to say what you want to say - even if it takes 20 words to do than make it short and fail to express your idea.
John Caples
#35. Nothing can fill the gap when we are away from those we love, and it would be wrong to try to find anything ... It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; he does not fill it, but keeps it empty so that our communion with another may be kept alive, even at the cost of pain.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#36. Even if I stumble on to the absolute truth of any aspect of the universe, I will not realise my luck and instead will spend my life trying to find flaws in this understanding - such is the role of a scientist.
Brian Schmidt
#37. Even by trying not to care, you care about yourself. If I say shit happens, I mean it.
Karl Renz
#38. Sometimes you have to stop trying to control everything and let life happen the way it's supposed to, Tess. Even if it's not exactly the way you wanted.
But what if it's not even a little like you wanted?
Then you deal with it and keep going.
Lord, Cynthia
#39. 'Snow' is my most popular book in the United States. But in Turkey, it was not as popular as 'My Name is Red,' or even 'The Museum of Innocence,' because the secular leaders didn't want this bourgeois Orhan trying to understand these head-scarf girls.
Orhan Pamuk
#40. Sometimes I feel like everyone else is carrying a bucket of water but I'm trying to carry an ocean. its very hard. sometimes I would rather not carry my ocean, even if it meant I couldn't be alive.
Heidi Cullinan
#41. There's a formality in academia that can't be ignored, even if a man is busy with other things, like trying not to die.
Randy Pausch
#42. I've been trying not to think about the things I wanted but couldn't have.
I figured life must be about what you can't have.
Some part of me has given up wanting anything.
Why? I'm human, aren't I?
Even though I knew that this was pointless.
Why did I fall in love?
Kou Yoneda
#43. Squash has the credentials to become an olympic event and our goal is to see the sport in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We are working towards this and will keep trying even if our bid is not successful.
Jahangir Khan
#44. Then what's the point of trying if you can't even win?"
"You win in lots of different ways," Asher said. "Lots of little wins. The point of this life is not to be good all the time. It's to be as good as you can. No one is perfect. No one does it right all the time. That's not what life is.
Cate Tiernan
#45. After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little.
Shunryu Suzuki
#46. Qualityless simply means there is no way to discuss it. There is no way to pin it down. It could be anything at any given moment since infinity is not bound even by itself, nor the words that human beings choose to try and talk around it.
Frederick Lenz
#47. In 15 years or something
I like the idea of just one paparazzo coming out and trying to get a picture and I just beat the s- out of him. I mean
out of nowhere
when my picture's not even worth ... and I've spent all my money, so you can't sue me!
Robert Pattinson
#48. I spent nine years trying not to have any expressions, trying to be my sister. Now I can't smile, not even if I want to.
Otsuichi
#49. There have been many people whom I have admired, emulated and even modeled parts of my life after. I study how they do things, and then I go through a period of 'trying on' those same thinking patterns and behaviors. After awhile, what is not essentially me falls away while the useful parts remain.
Jack Canfield
#50. I'm not against paying at all. What I'm against is the complexity of paying. And you very often go to a website and you try to click on something and sometimes it will even say it's free, but you have to fill out this form.
Nicholas Negroponte
#51. James says that you deceive yourself if you only hear the Word but do not do it. How many people live in this deception their whole life-hearing and hearing, but never even trying to do what they hear!
Johan Oscar Smith
#52. To me, every interview, even if you love the artist, needs to be somewhat adversarial. Which doesn't mean you need to attack the person, but you do need to look at it like you're trying to get information that has not been written about before.
Chuck Klosterman
#53. It sucks to try and book a tour without the internet, and I'm not even doing it.
Kyle Parker
#54. We need to encourage members of this next generation to become all that they can become, not try to force them to become what we want them to become ... You and I can't even begin to dream the dreams this next generation is going to dream, or answer the questions that will be put to them.
Barbara Coloroso
#55. Good satire goes beyond the specific point it's trying to make and teaches you how to think critically. Even after your favorite cartoonist retires or [Stephen] Colbert wraps it up, you're not left believing everything they're telling you.
Aaron McGruder
#56. Sometimes you have to get away from people even the one's you love because,they are not trying to become someone different
Martellis Thurmand
#57. I've been trying not to be a big baby by insisting on holding his hand in front of the angels, but the urge is strong. I don't want to embarrass him even when he's unconscious. But now that the others are gone, I sit beside him and hold his hand. It's warm, and I pull it to my chest to warm me up.
Susan Ee
#58. I don't make records that way, where I'm trying to please the marketplace or anything. Not because I have anything against that, it's just never been a part of my aesthetic, even when I was with the Pixies.
Frank Black
#59. Violence has not really been an issue. Even in my wildest hopes, I wasn't trying to get violence in.
Mitchell Hurwitz
#60. Metal has its own code of cool, but it's not really trying to be cool. And that was very refreshing to me, that metal is very much about expressing something that seems awesome to you even if, at the time, much of the world was going to mock and reject it.
John Darnielle
#61. Scott: Friends don't let friends drive drunk. Nora: Are you trying to appeal to my conscience? Scott: How can you turn down a once-in-a-lifetime chance to drive the 'Stang? Nora: How about you sell me the 'Stang for thirty dollars? I can even pay cash. Scott: Drunk, but not that drunk, Grey.
Becca Fitzpatrick
#62. Travel writing is harrowing. You are in paradise, more or less, having to prove it is paradise. It is hard to have a good time trying to figure out a way to say you are having a good time, whether you are having it or not, even in paradise.
Padgett Powell
#63. When you try hard at everything you do, even when it feels foolish to do so, you're opening up doors and possibilities you might not be seeing in the moment.
Ed Helms
#64. I try not to make plans. Because, even the best laid plans etc. etc.
Brent Spiner
#65. You know, it's an odd feeling to not know who you are, I started, trying to keep my voice even and not let urgency or anger skew my words.
S.G. Holster
#66. I try to work every day, even when I'm not motivated. Ritual is very important to me.
Mel Ramos
#67. Why don't you try wandering with me to the Palace of Not-Even-Anything
Zhuangzi
#68. It was not a conspiratorial wink, nor did Hornblower attempt the hopeless task of trying to pretend he stuffed hot greasy sausages into his pockets every day of his life; the wink simply dared the old gentleman to comment on or even think of the remarkable act.
C.S. Forester
#69. We're not trying to make us live forever; we're not trying to even make us live significantly longer. What we're trying to do is extend the period of healthy life.
S. Jay Olshansky
#70. When I sit down to write a song, there is no filter. I'm not trying to write for anyone or anything specifically. It's just trying to capture a little piece of your soul - even if it's a really ugly part.
Jenny Lewis
#71. Why is it that even when you're trying your hardest not to get attached, something still sneaks up on you?
Claire Cook
#72. Another cultural thing that's really creepy. It's not like in the '60s, where there were definitely great high points of creativity where people were trying to outdo each other to be noticed even
J. Robbins
#73. I try not to question the choices of the production. They've done such a good job up until now that I'm sure they have the right plan in place. And to be quite honest, we don't even know exactly when it will be coming out.
Steven Yeun
#74. We could spend weeks, months, even years laboring with the personality ethic trying to change our attitudes and behaviors and not even begin to approach the phenomenon of change that occurs spontaneously when we see things differently
Stephen R. Covey
#75. As a leader, you need to care deeply, deeply about your people while not worrying or really even caring about what they think about you. Managing by trying to be liked is the path to ruin.
Dick Costolo
#76. Human happiness does not seem to have been included in the design of creation. It is only we with our capacity to love that fives meaning to the indifferent universe, and yet most human beings seem to have the ability to keep trying and even to find joy from simple things.
Woody Allen
#77. If I go down, it's never easy. At least my opponent knows they have to go to the end of the earth to take me out no matter what the circumstances. I do try to compete. Even if it's not your best day, I just try to walk off the court knowing I gave 100,000 percent.
Venus Williams
#78. A lot of young-adult authors, great ones, have tried their hands at literary fiction, and not a lot of them have succeeded. Not even Roald Dahl could switch-hit, and not for lack of trying.
Lev Grossman
#79. If not us, then who? Who's going to stand when everyone else kneels? Who's going to argue for the law even when there's no justice to be had? Who's going to try even when the trying is too damn hard?
Sebastien De Castell
#80. I'm very proud of being a woman, and as a woman, I don't even like the word 'feminism' because when I hear that word, I associate it with women trying to pretend to be men, and I'm not interested in trying to pretend to be a man. I don't want to embrace manhood; I want to embrace my womanhood.
Evangeline Lilly
#81. I'm not even fifty yet, but I still feel like Instagram and Spotify - I'm trying to stay with it! It's not easy. The world is going so fast.
Fisher Stevens
#82. Despite all of the ghastliness in the world, human beings are made for goodness. The ones that are held in high regard are not militarily powerful, nor even economically prosperous. They have a commitment to try and make the world a better place.
Desmond Tutu
#83. The vast majority of Gen Y are lucky; we have been raised to handle, even embrace change, It's something we srive for, and something that we feel we have the ability to create ourselves. We might not always suceed in creating the change we seek; but we're committed to continue trying.
Charlie Caruso
#84. So what I do is supervise the boarding process trying to get the shows the way I'd like them to be. And in some cases I've completely redone a board myself even though I'm not credited for it.
Craig McCracken
#85. Not as much as it bothers me that you just grabbed me without even trying to warn me first. If you're trying to undo ages of prejudice, maybe you should start by acting civil.
Jennifer Silverwood
#86. Communicating is the biggest thing I struggle with. People either totally misunderstand what I am saying or just don't get it. It's tiring trying to explain what you want to say over and over. Even when I rephrase it, I still find it's not how it is in my head.
Tina J. Richardson
#87. I'm not even born yet. I'm still trying. I'm still pushing. I don't ever want to get to a place where I feel satisfied.
Johnny Depp
#88. If there wasn't anything to find out, it would be dull. Even trying to find out and not finding out is just as interesting as trying to find out and finding out; and I don't know but more so.
Mark Twain
#89. Friends don't let friends drive drunk."
"Are you trying to appeal to my conscience?"
"How can you turn down a once-in-a-lifetime chance to drive the 'Stang?"
"How about you sell me the 'Stang for thirty dollars? I can even pay cash."
"Drunk, but not that drunk, Grey.
Becca Fitzpatrick
#90. The idea that no matter how cold and callous and heartless the world seemed, there was somebody out there who just wanted to make life better. Not better for worlds or countries in some vague way. Just better for people trying to live their lives, even if they didn't know about him.
Peter Clines
#91. I knew that I had to find out more about van Gogh. Even though I was far too young, and felt I did not have sufficient technique to write a book about Vincent van Gogh, I knew I had to try. If I didn't I would never write anything else.
Irving Stone
#92. We are not trying to solve the world's problems ... However, even in the midst of hatred and killing, there are things worth living for. A wonderful encounter, or a thing of beauty can still exist.
Hayao Miyazaki
#93. A scientist doesn't know all the answers. Nobody does, not even teachers. But a scientist keeps on trying to find the answers.
Oliver Butterworth
#94. Even in his books, where he's allegedly trying to string multiple thoughts together, Trump wanders randomly from impulse to impulse, seemingly without rhyme or reason. He doesn't think anything through. (He's brilliantly cast this driving-blind trait as "not being politically correct.") It
Matt Taibbi
#95. I'm not sure I ever try to make a case for the music. I mean, sometimes the music isn't even that good. I just tell the band's stories; if I describe the music, it's to explain how it moved the overall story along.
Michael Azerrad
#96. Cynicism is the largest obstacle to social change. Cynicism is dangerous because people throw up their hands and say, "Well it's not possible. Why should I even try?"
Robert Reich
#97. Most managers receive much more data (if not information) than they can possibly absorb even if they spend all of their time trying to do so. Hence they already suffer from an information overload.
Russell L. Ackoff
#98. Sometimes things go wrong, even when you're doing your best. That just shows that none of us are perfect. So I keep trying with all of my heart, and if that's not good enough, I'm not going to hang my head.
Luis Tiant
#99. Maybe I am a little bit guilty of trying to convince myself that I am cool to this point - even today. But I am so much more healthy than I used to be in my twenties, because I was not accepted at all.
Donny Osmond
#100. As cocky as this sounds, I knew I could walk onto that campus and get a date with the nearest available girl. Probably even a girl who wasn't available, but with Avery, it was like trying to hit on a nun. And not a naughty nun.
J. Lynn
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