Turn Your Back Quotes

1. "You don't turn your back on family, even when they do."
Author: Aboubakar Msangi

2. "To stop. To cease, just for a moment. To turn your back on the world, to close your eyes - to see the nothing that is not rather than the nothing that is everywhere around you. To just be quiet in your mind for a little minute. There are paradises even yet on the abandoned plains of the earth -- and they are not filled with fecund flowering Edens but rather just with sweet unerring silences."
Author: Alden Bell

3. "At lunch I turned my phone on to check my messages. Georgia always sent me a few inane texts during the day, and sure enough there were two messages from her: one complaining about her physics teacher and a second, also obviously sent from her phone: I love you, baby. V.I wrote her back: I thought I told you to buzz off last night, you creep-o French stalker guy.Her response came back immediately: As if! Your beet-red cheeks this morning suggest otherwise ... liar! You're so into him.I groaned and was about to turn my phone off when I saw that there was a third text from UNKNOWN. Clicking on it, I read: Can I pick you up from school? Same place, same time?I texted back: How'd you get my number?Called myself from your phone while you were in the restaurant's bathroom last night. Warned you we were stalkers!"
Author: Amy Plum

4. "I am not a twenty-two-year-old boy; I am not a besotted fool. If you think to jilt me, think again. For I will not turn tail and run the other way as he did, oh no. I will find you, and I will drag you to the altar on your back if need be, no matter how you might be screaming. No matter how scandalous it might be."
Author: Brenda Joyce

5. "I'm sorry I never really believed," I said. "Not the way Jack did.""It doesn't make any difference," my mother replied. Her eyes focused on the beanstalk for a moment, then returned to mine. "You believe now. Be safe and smart up there, my Gen. Be yourself."Before I could answer, my mother turned away and walked quickly toward the house. I turned to face the beanstalk.There is no going back now, I thought.For better or worse, there was only going forward. There was only going up. Seizing the trunk of the beanstalk with both hands, I pushed off from the World Below and began to climb."
Author: Cameron Dokey

6. "You promised to take care of me and not to turn your back on me. How is it possible that you never wrote to me even once and you never came back to see me? Do you think that it is fun for me to spend months, even years, without any news, without any hope!"
Author: Camille Claudel

7. "If Jem dies, I cannot be with Tessa," said Will. "Because it will be as if I were waiting for him to die, or took some joy in his death, if it let me have her. And I will not be that person. I will not profit from his death. So he must live." He lowered his arm, his sleeve bloody. "It is the only way any of this can ever mean anything. Otherwise it is only —""Pointless, needless suffering and pain? I don't suppose it would help if I told you that was the way life is. The good suffer, the evil flourish, and all that is mortal passes away," Magnus said."I want more than that," said Will. "You made me want more than that. You showed me I was only ever cursed because I had chosen to believe myself so. You told me there was possibility, meaning. And now you would turn your back on what you created."
Author: Cassandra Clare

8. "Focus is scary—until you realize that it only means turning your back on markets you could never have anyway. Sharp focus on jobs that customers are trying to get done holds the promise of greatly improving the odds of success in new-product development."
Author: Clayton M. Christensen

9. "It is not right that everyone should read the pages which follow; only a few will be able to savour this bitter fruit with impunity. Consequently, shrinking soul, turn on your heels and go back before penetrating further into such uncharted, perilous wastelands. Listen well to what I say: turn on your heels and go back, not forward,[...]"
Author: Comte De Lautréamont

10. "The irony of what we define as a mistake can and will sometimes return to you as a redefined destiny that life sends your way without any of your own free will and choice in what happens. It just happens. Something in me changed in that one tell-tale moment. And for some strange reason, I knew there wasn't a way of going back."
Author: Cyndi Goodgame

11. "But memories got left behind while you kept walking on; every time you had to retrace your steps further to return to your memories, and sometimes it was better not to turn back at all."
Author: Dalene Matthee

12. "I waited just to see you at that kind of peace, I wanted to be beside you, I wanted you to wake up slowly or startle, or just half awaken and turn over or murmur my name. I wanted to watch you forever, or sleep beside you forever, or sleep forever while you woke and watched me, something forever anyway. I wanted to kiss you, rumple your hair, rest three fingertips on your hip bone warm and smooth, wake you that way or hush you back to sleep."
Author: Daniel Handler

13. "I don't do magic. I turn your attention back to Friday night and the big-ass sword I was carrying. My job is to run and swing."
Author: Danielle Monsch

14. "Your extensive travels must have been fatiguing," Zakath said in that same flat tone, "particularly for the ladies. I'll see to it that your return journey to Mal Zeth is made in easy stages." "Your Majesty is very kind, but we're not going back to Mal Zeth.""You're wrong, Belgarion. You are going back to Mal Zeth.""Sorry, I've got a pressing engagement elsewhere.""I'll convey your regrets to Zandramas when I see her.""I'm sure she'd be overjoyed to hear that I'm not coming.""Not for very long, she won't. I fully intent to have her burned as a witch.""Good luck, your Majesty, but I don't think you'll find that she's very combustible."
Author: David Eddings

15. "Blake turned to John. "I know you already know this, Mr. McHugh, but your daughter is the most exceptional person I've ever had the honor of meeting. She's a testament to your dedication as a parent." He squeezed Livia's hand back."
Author: Debra Anastasia

16. "Everybody has a story. It's like families. You might not know who they are, might have lost them, but they exist all the same. You might drift apart or you might turn your back on them, but you can't say you haven't got them. Same goes for stories."
Author: Diane Setterfield

17. "In this kind of world," Peterson said, "absurd if you will, possibilities nevertheless proliferate and escalate all around us and there are opportunities for beginning again. I am a minor artist and my dealer won't even display my work if he can help it but minor is as minor does and lightning may strike even yet. Don't be reconciled. Turn off your television sets," Peterson said, "cash in your life insurance, indulge in a mindless optimism. Visit girls at dusk. Play the guitar. How can you be alienated without first having been connected? Think back and remember how it was."
Author: Donald Barthelme

18. "So, kid, you've got to live,and not just that stoic existence you've been stomping trough all this time.You've got to be kind,you've got to fall in love,fall out of love,no matter how much it hurtsbecause my god,it's worth it. Don't let the world turn you to stone;you've got to feel.And sometimes,your heart will threaten to march right out of your chest because you're so fucking full of it all-of the people, the places,the endless days,the eternal nights-and kid, that's fine.Be brave.Courage isn't measured by thenumber of people you've turned awayor by the counts of the nights you'vespent alone because you refuse to give someone the chance to love you. Being alone is not poetic;you've got to let them in.Let them peel back your skinand waltz into your bloodstreamand love them,love them,love them.And finally, kid,your life has already begun.Stop waiting.Chaos is already underway."
Author: Emily Palermo

19. "CYCLOPS: Emma… I knew you wouldn't turn your back on us.EMMA: Sweet as you are, I didn't come back for you Scott. I came for my handbag. Lucky for you, this is a Louis Vuitton."
Author: Grant Morrison

20. "You have turned your back on common men, on their elementary needs and their restricted time and intelligence [...] I ask: who the hell is this Joyce who demands so many waking hours of the few thousands I have still to live for a proper appreciation of his quirks and fancies and flashes of rendering?"
Author: H.G. Wells

21. "You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug, especially when its waving a razor sharp hunting knife in your eye."
Author: Hunter S. Thompson

22. "Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed."
Author: Hunter S. Thompson

23. "If a pot can multiply. One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbour, who was giving a feast. The neighbour returned them, together with one extra one – a very tiny pot. 'What is this?' asked Nasrudin. 'According to law, I have given you the offspring of your property which was born when the pots were in my care,' said the joker. Shortly afterwards Nasrudin borrowed his neighbour's pots, but did not return them. The man came round to get them back. 'Alas!' said Nasrudin, 'they are dead. We have established, have we not, that pots are mortal?'."
Author: Idries Shah

24. "You're lying to yourself. Voron made us into serial killers. We can be okay without violence for a few weeks, but after a couple of months, the hand starts itching for the sword. You start looking for that rush. You get irritable, life turns stale, and then one day some fool crosses your path, attacks, and as you cut him down, you feel that short moment of struggle when he leverages his life against yours. If you're lucky, he's very good and the fight lasts a few seconds. But even if it doesn't, that short moment of triumph is like getting an adrenaline shot. Suddenly color comes back into life, food tastes better, sleep is deeper, and sex is rapture."I knew exactly what he was talking about. I lived it and I felt it."
Author: Ilona Andrews

25. "Well, it kind of hurts when the kind of words you writeAnd kind of turn themselves into knivesAnd don't mind my nerve you can call it fiction'Cause I like being submerged in your contradictions, dear'Cause here we are, here we areAlthough you were biased, I love your adviceYour comebacks they're quick and probably Have to do with your insecuritiesThere's no shame in being crazy depending on how you take theseWords they're paraphrasing this relationship we're stagingAnd it's a beautiful mess, yes, it isIt's like we're picking up trash in dresses"
Author: Jason Mraz

26. "Don't you ever think of going back?" Silly question. There are threads that help you find your way back, and there are threads that intend to bring you back. Mind turns to the pull, it's hard to pull away. I'm always thinking of going back. When Lot's wife looked over her shoulder, she turned into a pillar of salt.Pillars hold things up, and salt keeps things clean, but it's a poor exchange for losing your self. People do go back, but they don't survive, because two realities are claiming them at the same time. Such things are too much. You can salt your heart, or kill your heart, or you can choose between two realities. There is much pain here. Some people think you can have your cake and eat it. The cake goes mouldy and they choke on what's left."
Author: Jeanette Winterson

27. "After a long night at a tropical beach and bar,I helped a drunken couple find their cabin in the early morning darkness. The husband remarked that he is only happy when he is drunk. (I am not sure what to make of that.)When I hear birds serenading the gift of a new day,When I watch the trees sway like fields of wheat,and feel a warm wind ruffle my hair and caress my face,When I see clouds slowly drift and turn like leaves floating on a meandering stream,I know joy. When I hear your sweet voice and see your generous smile, When I gently pull you closer and inhale your perfume,which harks back wonderful memories of love and joy,When I gaze into your eyes, azure pools that draw me in,and gently kiss your crimson lips, When you are lying next to me with your hand on my chest and we feel intimately connected, as if your body is my body, your heart is my heart and our souls are intermingled,I know happiness,I know love."
Author: Jeffrey A. White

28. "And it seems I ought to scatter too. Perhaps at once. It's always better to turn your back on the gale than press your face against it."
Author: Jim Crace

29. "If I want to be the best, I have to take risks others would avoid, always optimizing the learning potential of the moment and turning adversity to my advantage. That said, there are times when the body needs to heal, but those are ripe opportunities to deepen the mental, technical, internal side of my game. When aiming for the top, your path requires an engaged, searching mind. You have to make obstacles spur you to creative new angles in the learning process. Let setbacks deepen your resolve. You should always come off an injury or a loss better than when you went down."
Author: Josh Waitzkin

30. "But Benedict Bridgerton was obviously determined not to be a gentleman this afternoon, because when she moved one of her feet-just to flex her toes, which were falling asleep in her shoes, honest!-barely half a second passed before he growled, "Don't even think about it.""I wasn't!" she protested. "My foot was falling asleep. And hurry up! It can't possibly take so long to get dressed.""Oh?" he drawled."You're doing this just to torture me," she grumbled."You may feel free to face me at any time," he said, his voice laced with quiet amusement. "I assure you that I asked you to turn your back for the sake of your sensibilities, not mine."
Author: Julia Quinn

31. "J.D. scoffed at this. "Please—as if I'm worried about anything Payton has to say. What's she going to do, give me another one of her little pissed-off hair flips?" He flung imaginary long hair off his shoulders, exaggerating. "I'll tell you, one of these days I'm going to grab her by that hair and . . ." He gestured as if throttling someone.Without breaking stride, he returned Tyler's serve. The two smashed a few back and forth, concentrating on the game when—Is violence always part of your sexual fantasies?" Tyler interjected.J.D. whipped around—Sexual—?"—and got hit smack in the face with the squash ball. He toppled back and sprawled ungracefully across the court.Tyler stepped over and twirled his racquet. "This is nice. We should talk like this more often."
Author: Julie James

32. "Not going back is fine.Not going back but occasionally visiting might be best.Not going back but remembering so you don't see the same view twice.Not going back so you can turn a new page, write a new chapter, develop an entire new list.Not going back so you can stretch and grow and see yourself in a light that you never knew existed.Not going back so that you can fly. Fly."
Author: Kris Radish

33. "To dispair is to turn your back on God."
Author: L.M. Montgomery

34. "You turned your back on tomorrow, 'Cause you forgot yesterday. I gave you my love to borrow, but you just gave it away"
Author: Maroon 5

35. "Acedia is sorrow so complete that the flesh pervails completely over the spirit. You don't just turn your back on the world, you turn your back on God. You don't care, and you don't care that you don't care."
Author: Mishka Shubaly

36. "Then what are you doing here, Luce?" he asked, his voice elevating. "You want time? You want space? Fine. I gave that to you. But then you keep throwing yourself back into my life whenever the hell you choose. No warning. No apology, No permanence. You show up at my front door and sneak out the back without so much as a goodbye," he continued, never taking his eyes off of me. "You couldn't take the up and down. The roller coaster was going to kill you. You know what I can't take? You in and back out of my life before I even knew you were there in the first place. You looking at me the way you are now and then able to turn your back and walk away five minutes later." His hands clenched over my cheek before he lowered it. "That is what will kill me. I can't live wondering if you're still mine to claim."
Author: Nicole Williams

37. "Taylen," Glate whispered, wrapping his arm around my waist. "Are you okay?"Was I okay? No. I was a complete and utter wreck, but there was no way in hell I was going to show him that. "I'm dandy.""You're a terrible liar." He propped himself up on his elbow, and leaned in closer, resting his chin on my shoulder. My body was well aware of how close he was, and it took everything in me to fight the urge to turn and face him. Teenage hormones were the absolute worst. "You know how I can tell?" he asked, running a single finger down my arm."How?" the word barely escaped my lips."Your voice trembles," he whispered. Glate moved his hand to my hips and pulled me back towards him. "Whenever you lie, you get this slight tremble in your voice. It's almost as if you're scared to admit the truth, so you try to conjure up a lie, but the fear engulfs your words on the way out, calling your bluff."
Author: Nicole Sobon

38. "You failed her when you turned your back on what you are."
Author: Poppet

39. "Decebel grabbed her hand and turned towards the door, dragging a growling Jen behind him."Oh smart ass of mine, I will. I told you once that one day your mouth would write a check that your ass couldn't cash. Today is that day." Decebel's eyes were glowing again Sally noticed."Uh no, you actually said cute ass. Get it right if you're going to quote yourself, you barbarian covered in hair and fleas. Bossy, domineering, overbearing, ridiculously over protective…" Jen paused in between insulting her mate and hollered back at Sally, "Sally, our conversation about the FAHDEH is not over."Sally laughed when she heard a smacking sound and imagined Decebel had swatted Jen's butt. Then she heard Jen yell, "I don't care how hot you are, you're still a flea infested butt head!""FAHDEH, FAHDEH, FAHDEH,"
Author: Quinn Loftis

40. "Don't tell your secrets to anyone/Because ideas are vulnerable/As soon as you say your idea out loud/Then it can go and live on its own/And you will miss it oh so much/And you will wait for its return/And you will wish it were your own/But ideas that left never come back home."
Author: Regina Spektor

41. "You forgot another lesson: Never turn your back until you know your enemyis dead. Looks like we'll have to go over the lesson again the next timeI see you—which will be soon.Love, D."
Author: Richelle Mead

42. "Angeline's gaze swiveled to Zoe."Why didn't you have us pick upsomething?""Because that's not my job!" Zoelifted her head up high. "We're here tokeep Jill's cover and make sure she stays off the radar. It's not my job tofeed you guys.""In which sense?" I asked. I knewperfectly well that was a mean thing tosay to her but couldn't resist. It took her a moment to pick up the double meaning.First she paled; then she turned an angry red."Neither! I'm not your concierge.Neither is Sydney. I don't know why shealways takes care of that stuff for you.She should only be dealing with thingsthat are essential for your survival.Ordering pizza isn't one of them."I faked a yawn and leaned back intothe couch. "Maybe she figures if we'rewell fed, you two won't look thatappetizing."Zoe was too horrified to respond,and Eddie shot me a withering look."
Author: Richelle Mead

43. "You know what would help?" I asked, not meeting his eyes."Hmm?""If you turned off this crap music and put on something that came out after the Berlin Wall went down."Dimitri laughted. "Your worst class is history, yet somehow, you know everything about Eastern Europe.""Hey, gotta have material for my jokes, Comrade." Still smiling, he turned the radio dail. To a country station."Hey! This isn't what I had in mind," I exclaimed. I could tell he was on the verge of laughing again."Pick. It's one or the other."I sighed. "Go back to the 1980s stuff."He flipped the dail, and I crossed my arms over my chest as some vaguely European-sounding band sang about how video had killed the radio star. I wished someone would kill this radio."
Author: Richelle Mead

44. "]Sardisoften turning her thoughts here]you like a goddessand in your song most of all she rejoiced.But now she is conspicuous among Lydian womenas sometimes at sunsetthe rosyfingered moonsurpasses all the stars. And her lightstretches over salt seaequally and flowerdeep fields.And the beautiful dew is poured outand roses bloom and frailchervil and flowering sweetclover.But she goes back and forth rememberinggentle Atthis and in longingshe bites her tender mind"
Author: Sappho

45. "You will leave your home: nothing will hold you. You will wear dresses of gold; skins of silver, copper and bronze. The sky above you will shift in meaning each time you think you understand. You will spend a lifetime chipping away layers of flesh. The shadow of your scales will always remain. You will be marked by sulphur and salt. You will bathe endlessly in clear streams and fail to rid yourself of that scent. Your feet will never be your own. Stone will be your path. Storms will follow in your wake, destroying all those who take you in. You will desert your children kill your lovers and devour their flesh. You will love no one but the wind and ache of your bones. Neither will love you in return. With age, your hair will grow matted and dull, your skin will gape and hang in long folds, your eyes will cease to shine. But nothing will be enough. The sea will never take you back."
Author: Shara McCallum

46. "Love wasn't a happening one decided on---to indulge or not, to partake or not. To feel or not. When it came, when it struck, the only decision left to make was how to respond---whether you embraced it, took it in, and made it a part of you, or whether you turned your back and let it die."
Author: Stephanie Laurens

47. "The Doctor: Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink."
Author: Steven Moffat

48. "As Ian popped the lock and opened the car door, he turned to Phoebe. "Can you do me a favour?"She immediately stepped toward him, fully embracing their new mature relationship. "Of course."Ian looked pointedly over his own shoulder and said, "Tell me the truth. Does this car make my glowing ass look fat?"She'd naturally followed the direction of his gaze, but now she looked up, hard, into his eyes. And she smiled back at him despite herself. She even laughed. "You're an idiot.""When things get too serious, I get a rash."She pointedly looked back down at his nether regions, despite the fact doing so made her blush. Still, she spoke coolly, dryly. "Not on your ass."If Ian believed in love, that would've been it for him. Instantly. Enthrallingly. Eternally. Instead, he just laughed. "Thank God for that. See if there's anything remotely clothinglike in the backseat or the trunk."
Author: Suzanne Brockmann

49. "I turn to face him. "Listen, I'm grateful you're going to help me train now-really, I am. Thank you for that. But you can't go around proclaiming your fake love for me-especially not in front of Adam-and you have to let me cross this room before the breakfast hour is over, okay? I hardly ever get to see him."Kenji nods very slowly, looks a little solemn. You're right. I'm sorry. I get it.""Thank you.""Adam is jealous of our love.""Just go get your food!" I push him, hard, fighting back an exasperated laugh."
Author: Tahereh Mafi

50. "Then turn your eyes back on me,and tell me that Cathy and I are still children to be treated with condescension, and are incapable of understanding adult subjects."
Author: V.C. Andrews

Turn Your Back Quotes Pictures