Jonathan Safran Foer Quotes

I think my general disposition on life is finding what's funny about it. When something happens, the first thing in my mind is, "What's funny about it?"

I guess I'm way too kind and generous, and a saint - if you can believe that!

I always see the absurdity in most situations. It's my experience of how life works.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.

A sacrifice is best refuted by accepting it.

Cheerfulness is a very great help in fostering the virtue of charity. Cheerfulness itself is a virtue.

If I don’t get elected? Great. The Republic will live on

You're never going to catch me calling myself a hero unless I'm joking.

Mom was never self-pitying. She was ferociously focused on making sure that everyone understood that she knew how fortunate she has been.

I always have positive intentions.

Frank had decided that whatever his fate was, he wouldn’t worry about it. He would just do the best he could to help his friends.

The glasses were half full, which meant that the guests were completely so

You need not be proud of me.... I'm only being active till you can be again--it isn't such a great desire on my part to serve theworld and I'll fall back into habits of sloth quite easily!

If I simply do my best, I cannot complain even if I am taken to hell.

I do not look upon my life as a sacrifice at all.

I was in love with everything- I wanted to look with love at the angry people so that their eyes would be forced to respond; and I wanted to bring gifts to the envious and tell them that I am worthless.

I wish I could think of a positive point to leave you with. Will you take two negative points?

"And how are you feeling?" asked Patrick."Oh, I'm grand." Augustus Waters smiled with a corner of his mouth. "I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend."

There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be, because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring.

I still believe in Hope - mostly because there's no such place as Fingers Crossed, Arkansas.

The secret to success is to subjugate your ego and serve others.

I am never embarrassed by something that makes people laugh.

of all the unusual features of Stargirl, this struck me as the most remarkable. Bad things did not stick to her. Correction: her bad things did not stick to her. If we were hurt, if we were unhappy or otherwise victimized by life, she seemed to know about it, and to care, as soon as we did. But bad things falling on her -- unkind words, nasty stares, foot blisters -- she seemed unaware of. I never saw her look in a mirror, never heard her complain. All of her feelings, all of her attentions flowed outward. She had no ego.

I know that I have still before me a difficult path to traverse. I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility.

Pleasure for others is the only pleasure possible to me. I assure you I'm quite selfish! - I'm greedy for the happiness of those I love - and if they can't or won't be happy I'm perfectly miserable.