Top 100 Reluctant Quotes
#1. Federal judges are just very reluctant to stick the government with responsibility.
Stewart Udall
#2. The love of fame is a love that even the wisest of men are reluctant to forgo.
Tacitus
#3. Victory may now require a level of force deemed objectionable by civilized peoples, meaning that some, for justifiable reasons, may be reluctant to pursue it. But victory has not become an ossified concept altogether.
Victor Davis Hanson
#4. ...in the middle of the field, Harry suddenly stopped and looked back. Mr. Chad was all alone in the creepy woods. He could take care of himself...couldn't he? Of course he could, he was a teacher.
Connie Kingrey Anderson
#5. It may sound corny, but what's wrong with wanting to fight for your country. Why are people reluctant to use the word patriotism?
Jimmy Stewart
#6. In the early years of America's skyjacking epidemic, the airlines were reluctant to let the FBI attempt to end hijackings by force; they feared that innocents would get caught in the crossfire, thereby sparking a wave of negative publicity.
Brendan I. Koerner
#7. I believe there are only one or two people in the world with whom one can have a true connection. When you've been fortunate enough to marry one of those people, you are reluctant to settle for less. One can have lovers, those are easily found, but true love rarely strikes twice.
Nicole Richie
#8. We are extraordinarily reluctant to admit that luck plays a part in business success.
Stephen Bungay
#9. I'm a reluctant writer of non-fiction, in part because I don't really feel qualified.
William Gibson
#10. There are occasions when I have moved boulders, but I'm reluctant to, especially ones that have been rooted in a place for many years.
Andy Goldsworthy
#11. A few months ago, I had the pleasure of actually visiting the Playboy Mansion. I saw the peacocks, fed grapes to the monkeys, and even braved the fabled Grotto. After seeing the estate, I understood why anyone would be reluctant to leave.
Diablo Cody
#12. Police are reluctant to label a murder as a possible serial homicide.
Pat Brown
#13. The helicopter appeared so reluctant to fly forward that we even considered turning the pilot's seat around and letting it fly backward.
Igor Sikorsky
#14. I suppose I am reluctant about being any sort of 'star' and I didn't particularly want to be portrayed as one.
Brian Eno
#15. Patient reluctant to be with people when depressed because she feels her depression is such an intolerable burden on others;
Kay Redfield Jamison
#16. Goodbyes are not easy, but I'm ready to move on. I'm not reluctant, Emma, not holding back. I don't have answers to the questions, but I have some good questions. I have loved life, but I believe that life is to be loved, it is a gift.
Madeleine L'Engle
#17. You might call them soft, because they're very reluctant to kill, and they might agree with you, but they're soft the way the ocean is soft, and, well; ask any sea captain how harmless and puny the ocean can be.
Iain M. Banks
#18. Hi," he says. I manage to grunt in response, and his smile broadens. "Rude enough for you?"
I nod and give him a reluctant grin. Jeez, any ruder and I'd have to spank the pair of us.
E.L. James
#19. I think the fact that Anna Nicole [Smith] clearly did not have a great relationship with her mother made the judge very reluctant to allow the mother to decide where she gets buried.
Dan Abrams
#20. Jensen looked concerned.
"I'm reluctant to delay, but would a later appointment be better?"
He glanced over at Vanelli and got an answering 'I told you so' look that I personally wanted to scrape off Vanelli's face with a blowtorch.
Katherine Bayless
#21. The truth is, I am heartily sick of this life & of the nineteenth century in general. (I am convinced that every thing is going wrong.)
Edgar Allan Poe
#22. I was reluctant to be critical of the United States because I thought the United States could do no wrong; that the government could not lie to its people.
Eric Kandel
#23. The Great Bookkeeper up in the sky has always been reluctant to give me money. Or perhaps I never learned to think big. I decided that if your demands are less than your income, you are rich, but if your demands are greater, you feel poor. The trick is to adjust your demands.
Thaddeus Golas
#24. More coming out about Saddam Hussein. We now know he takes Viagra and he has as many as six mistresses. No wonder Congress is reluctant to take action against this guy - he's one of their own.
Jay Leno
#25. For me, I don't have a publicist. I don't want to talk about my personal life. I don't want to talk about my process. I don't want to be a model and do fashion shoots. It's nice to be an entertainer, but I'm a reluctant celebrity.
Debi Mazar
#26. As my friend, you should either bring me along, or keep me company."
"Friend?" he asked.
She blushed. "Well, 'scowling escort' is a better description. Or 'reluctant acquaintance', if you prefer.
Sarah J. Maas
#27. When people affected by epilepsy are reluctant to expose their condition, the public remains in the dark about it - a tragic irony that has made patient care and raising funds for research more than challenging.
Lynda Resnick
#28. He (Alexander Woollcott) always praises the first production of each season, being reluctant to stone the first cast.
Walter Winchell
#29. Everything that exists is a type of matter, he believed, including what we call the soul. We are reluctant to give up the distinction between matter and mind because we cannot imagine matter thinking. But, for Leopardi, the fact that we think shows that matter thinks:
John N. Gray
#31. They're only askin' you to do one thing. From what Rogue says, you ain't exactly reluctant."
"F**k myself into a coma. Sure, I can do that. Then what?"
"Uh, wait an hour?
Michelle O'Leary
#32. I'm reluctant to use the word class so much.
Timothy West
#33. I get asked why there aren't more female directors all the time. I'm kind of reluctant to talk about it. That's not because I think the question is irrelevant or stupid. It's just that there are so many mitigating factors.
Lisa Cholodenko
#34. I always thought of myself is a private-sector person. I was a reluctant candidate. I put in my time. Now it's somebody else's turn to take charge. But I am still very interested in politics.
Steve Largent
#35. 'The Red' is the first book in a trilogy that gained a big following as a self-published e-book, and is now out in paper from Saga. It introduces us to reluctant hero Shelley, a former anti-war activist who chooses to join the military rather than serve jail time after being arrested at a protest.
Annalee Newitz
#36. Have a similar outlook as a monarch. A ruler is not reluctant to come up short. Disappointment is an alternate steppingstone to significance.
Oprah Winfrey
#37. People are very reluctant to talk about their private lives but then you go to the internet and they're much more open.
Paulo Coelho
#38. One of the best cures for a reluctant reader, after all, is a tale they cannot stop themselves from reading.
Neil Gaiman
#40. Some writers and producers are currently writing a sitcom for me, so we'll see what happens there. I'm somewhat reluctant to talk about some of the upcoming projects that I'm working on; I've a lot of stuff on the go, including five pictures that I'm looking at producing.
Gil Gerard
#41. Meetings run best when there are clear rules or norms to follow. These are sometimes difficult to set at the start of the meeting. People may feel reluctant to speak up and suggest rules or there may be pressure to start discussing the agenda items.
Ingrid Bens
#42. It is not for the world to judge, but to crown them all alike. Each and all lived out their own being, did their work in their own way, and carried a reluctant, stupid humanity to greater
possibilities and grander heights.
Clarence Darrow
#43. The one thing ... that is truly ugly is the climate of hate and intimidation, created by a noisy few, which makes the decent majority reluctant to air in public their views on anything controversial ... Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it's likely that no one is thinking at all.
Edward Abbey
#44. nest and prompt their children to follow them. The chicks were reluctant at first but then
D.A. Stevens
#45. Anyone who might feel reluctant to surrender his will to the will of another should remember Jesus' words, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." We must of necessity be servant to someone, either to God or to sin.
A.W. Tozer
#46. Every good story needs a good, bad and lost soul. A people to fight for, an item to turn the tide of battle, an enigmatic character, a motivator/mentor, and an unlikely reluctant hero.
Josh Rose
#47. The trouble is, once you say something about a source, then you've pegged it down, and so now I'm reluctant to say anything. If I say I developed 50 different shapes from Mississippian tumuli, that doesn't mean they're copies of tumuli - I'm not ripping off those shapes.
Michael Heizer
#48. In an interview given at Gen Con in 2007, Gygax explained that he had been reluctant to talk about his identity as a Christian during the era of the panic: "I was afraid it would give Christianity a bad name because I did D&D."4
Joseph Laycock
#49. Because I love the taste of meat I am a reluctant but dedicated vegetarian.
Rex Harrison
#50. While I am reluctant to cite sexism as a political issue, sexism certainly can exist.
Michele Bachmann
#51. (Via Malcolm) ... For the moment, I have this incredible gift ... It just happened. I bend, whisper, sing, shout - and a radiant light surrounds and then emanates from people.
Kathleen Maher
#52. The good stuff was hiding the bad stuff. I realised that this was something I needed to look out for: When downsides coexist with upsides, as they often do, people are reluctant to explore what's bugging them, for the fear of being labeled complainers.
Ed Catmull
#53. Heaven opened and the water hammered down, reviving the reluctant old well, greenmossing the pigless pigsty, carpet bombing still, tea-colored puddles the way memory bombs still, tea-colored minds.
Arundhati Roy
#54. Indeed. Oh, and Fal?"
"Yeah?"
"Get laid, while you're up there, won't you?"
"Oh, God."
"Seriously. Your hymen's going to grow back, it's been so long. Have a fling. It might lighten you up."
"Goodbye, Rache."
Meg Maguire, The Reluctant Nude
Meg Maguire
#55. I suspect that Jesus spoke many of his parables as a kind of sad and holy joke and that that may be part of why he seemed reluctant to explain them because if you have to explain a joke, you might as well save your breath.
Frederick Buechner
#56. You teach best what you most need to learn. - RICHARD BACH, ILLUSIONS: THE ADVENTURES OF A RELUCTANT MESSIAH
Lisa B. Marshall
#57. You tend to get reluctant to talk about anything until the day before filming.
Will Ferrell
#58. I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.
Nina Simone
#59. It's always a huge red flag for me when somebody's reticent or reluctant or a little slow in providing thoughtful references that are a testament to them as a person and their professional accomplishments.
Ivanka Trump
#60. France would be reluctant to embrace any proposal by the European Commission to slash agricultural tariffs if it threatened the European Union's Common Agriculture Policy .
Christine Lagarde
#61. Just because we haven't seen a dragon, doesn't mean dragons don't exist." Louise stated the logic of why the scientists were reluctant to commit to a theory.
Wen Spencer
#62. It seems that in Baltimore, one of the most violent cities in America, jurors are far more reluctant to convict criminal defendants than in the suburban enclaves that ring the city.
David Simon
#63. Life's splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come.
Franz Kafka
#64. It just feels nice to be an astronaut again. That's all it is. Not a reluctant farmer, not an electrical engineer, not a long-haul trucker. An astronaut.
Andy Weir
#65. Plato long ago pointed out the importance of being governed by men with sufficient sense of responsibility and comprehension of public duties to be very reluctant to undertake the work of governing.
George Bernard Shaw
#66. There is as much wisdom in soliciting good counsel as in giving it. The most sensible people are not reluctant to consider the feelings of other people; and to know how to submit to the wise guidance of others is a kind of wisdom in itself.
Madeleine De Souvre, Marquise De ...
#67. I've been offered all the reality TV shows but have turned them down. If I did it as 'Johnny,' there'd be no jungle left! It was really hard regaining control of myself, so I am reluctant to let 'Johnny' back out of the box.
Johnny Vegas
#68. The ordinary chestnut can beget a sickly and reluctant laugh, but it takes a horse chestnut to fetch the gorgeous big horse-laugh.
Mark Twain
#69. Most publishers seem very reluctant to publish short story collections at all; they bring them out in paperback, often disguised as novels.
John Sladek
#71. [Ted Denson] is sort of a reluctant leader. He didn't try to flex his influence. He's just eminently followable.
George Wendt
#72. I feel him near in the twist of me guts. It's something I've always been able to do.
The Reluctant Assassin
Eoin Colfer
#73. Networks are reluctant to take a chance. They put on shows that they know will work on some level, but to get the innovative show, it's very difficult.
James Burrows
#74. Learning is by nature curiosity ... prying into everything, reluctant to leave anything, material or immaterial, unexplained.
Philo Of Alexandria
#75. Came to ... see you."
"But I had to go home, remember? You were supposed to say good-bye."
"Don't know why you ... say good-bye. I say ... hello."
Her lip quivers between reactions, but she ends up with a reluctant smile. "God you're a cheeseball. But seriously, R -
Isaac Marion
#76. People are very reluctant to invest unless they know it's going to be a sure thing, and let's face it: film is never a sure thing.
Julianne Moore
#77. We Call Them the Brave who likely were reluctant to be brave.
Marianne Moore
#78. Keating had the appearance of a man who was reluctant to say what he had to say
James Runcie
#79. We're very reluctant to change, even though we know that all things change, and especially our relationships are just determined to change.
Nick Nolte
#80. One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project, most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can't afford it.
Ronald Reagan
#81. For some reason I was reluctant to ask anybody what had happened. I hate being the person who always doesn't know what's going on and has to ask somebody; it always seems like everybody else knows what's going on. This is a clear low-status marker, and I resisted it.
David Foster Wallace
#82. Passonate, irreverent, utterly relevant, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk offers an unforgettable portrait of a reluctant hero. Ben Fountain writes like a man inspired and his razor sharp exploration of our contemporary ironies will break your heart.
Margot Livesey
#83. Most economists, like doctors, are reluctant to make predictions, and those who make them are seldom accurate. The economy, like the human body, is a highly complex system whose workings are not thoroughly understood.
Alice Rivlin
#84. Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am-a reluctant enthusiast ... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure.
Edward Abbey
#85. Pray don't hold back," Robert said politely. "You can tell me what you really think of my valet." Stewart broke in to a reluctant grin."Sorry fer bein' so forward, sir, but that valet o' yers is nothin' but a Frenchified piece o' lace.
Karen Hawkins
#86. Surveys show that many talented and committed young people are reluctant to enter teaching for the long haul because they think the profession is low-paying and not prestigious enough.
Arne Duncan
#87. There are many reluctant young readers who haven't yet found books that make them laugh.
Barbara Park
#88. Almost all war making states borrow extensively, raise taxes, and seize the means of combat - including men - from reluctant citizens ...
Charles Tilly
#89. When I became a director, I wanted to convince a very reluctant Sidney into allowing me to go on the journey of his life. Sidney had gone ahead of every other African American actor.
Lee Grant
#90. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do; the task can be as paralysing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand.
Alain De Botton
#91. Watching him walk away, she considered his laconic attitude and reluctant decency, and she thought she might be crushing on him just a little. Two
Thea Harrison
#92. So many, though reluctant to admit it. Shun clever men, and rather suffer fools.
Ivan Krylov
#93. And what will be there, and what has there been here? Why was I so reluctant to part with life? There was something in this life I did not and do not understand.
Leo Tolstoy
#94. By the time I've opened up that part of you, you'll be happy to become the naughty and dirty girl I know you want to be. Ethan White, Reluctant Surrender.
Riley Murphy
#95. And while a bald head and a looped ribbon were seen as badges of courage and hope, her reluctant vocabulary and vanishing memories advertised mental instability and impending insanity. Those with cancer could expect to be supported by their community. Alice expected to be an outcast.
Lisa Genova
#97. We found that Central Americans and Hispanics are somewhat reluctant to send their children off to school as early as Anglo-Americans born in this country. There are some cultural differences.
Dannel Malloy
#98. I hate the whole reluctant sex-symbol thing. It's such bull. You see these dudes greased up, in their underwear, talking about how they don't want to be a sex symbol.
Ben Affleck
#99. Unfortunately, the media, which are not at all reluctant to act in their own self-interest, have succeeded in equating reform in the public mind with further restrictions on just about everyone else's freedom of political speech.
James L. Buckley
#100. A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a symptom of meagerness.
Eric Hoffer