If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
—E. B. White
The world is governed more by appearances than realities, so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.
—Daniel Webster
The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.
—George Eliot
There is not one world for man and one for animals; they are part of the same one and lead parallel lives.
—Rigoberta Menchú
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
—Anne Frank
I realized either I was crazy or the world was crazy; and I picked on the world. And of course I was right.
—Jack Kerouac
In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
—Frank Zappa
The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly flawed, no institution can be trusted, certainty is a mirage, security a delusion, and the tyranny of the dull mind forever threatens—but our lives are not as limited as we think they are, all things are possible, laughter is holier than piety, freedom is sweeter than fame, and in the end it’s love and love alone that really matters.
—Tom Robbins
“You’re better equipped for this world than I am,” she said. “I’m always trying to change the world. You know how to live in it.”
—Tom Robbins
We’re making it up. The world, the universe, life, reality. Especially reality.
—Tom Robbins
It is the virtue and the pathos of man that he aspires endlessly toward a better world; it is his weakness and his tragedy that he does nothing to bring such a world even one step nearer.
—Ludwig Lewisohn
People with a grudge against the world are always dangerous. They seem to think life owes them something. I’ve known many who have suffered worse and been cut off from life much more… and they’ve managed to lead happy contented lives. It’s what’s in yourself that makes you happy or unhappy.
—Agatha Christie in A Murder Is Announced
I was so happy that I wanted to be kind to everyone in the world.
—Dodie Smith in I Capture the Castle
But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
—Benjamin Franklin
The world is round; it has no point.
—Adrienne E. Gusoff