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William Wharton Quotes

Love is a combination of admiration, respect, and passion. If you have one of those going, that's par for the course. If you have two, you aren't quite world class but you're close. If you have all three, then you don't

Love is a combination of admiration, respect, and passion. If you have one of those going, that's par for the course. If you have two, you aren't quite world class but you're close. If you have all three, then you don't need to die; you're already in heaven.

William Wharton
Love, Respect, Passion
William Wharton (2013). “Ever After”, p.11, HarperCollins UK

People can't fly because they don't believe they can. If nobody ever showed people they could swim, everybody'd drown if they were dropped into the water.

William Wharton
Believe, People, Water
William Wharton (1980). “Birdy”, Avon Books

There's no end to the absurd things people will do trying to make life mean something.

William Wharton
Mean, People, Trying
William Wharton (1980). “Birdy”, Avon Books

Not many people are interested in what somebody else is thinking, or what they have to say. The best you can hope for is they'll listen to you just so you'll have to listen to them.

William Wharton
Thinking, People
William Wharton (2014). “The Complete Collection”, p.104, HarperCollins UK

What is love? As far as I can tell, it is passion, admiration and respect. If you have two, you have enough. If you have all three, you don't have to die to go to heaven.

William Wharton
Passion, Two, What Is Love

Things come apart much easier than they go together.

William Wharton
Together, Easier
William Wharton (2014). “The Complete Collection”, p.246, HarperCollins UK

What we all tend to complain about most in other people are those things we don't like about ourselves.

William Wharton
People, Judging, Complaining

Sometimes looking so hard can make one blind.

William Wharton
Sometimes, Blind, Hard

Movement is most of what a bird is. When they're dead, they're only feathers and air.

William Wharton
Air, Bird, Movement
William Wharton (1980). “Birdy”, Avon Books

The first time I flew, it was being alive. Nothing was pressing under me. I was living in the fullness of air; air all around me, no holding place to break the air spaces. It's worth everything to be alone in the air, alive.

William Wharton
Air, Space, Alive
William Wharton (2012). “Birdy”, p.31, HarperCollins UK

He's convinced most human adults do not know how to play anymore and that playing is one of the best ways to think. Franky finds children, by far, much more pleasant and intelligent than most adults, but they are easily ruined by their families, schools, and society. He says one of the ways they are ruined is by being forced to think of all the tasks that need to be done as work, not as play. It takes the joy out of living.

William Wharton
Children, School, Intelligent

It occurs to me one evening as I'm feeding the birds that all I did was put two birds in the aviary, some food and water and nothing else and now there are six of them. I know this is perfectly natural, it's one of the things life is all about, but to have it happen in my bedroom, under my own eyes, is magic.

William Wharton
Eye, Two, Water
William Wharton (1980). “Birdy”, Avon Books

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