What If Quotes

“That taught us how to block a sword with two knives. But what if an ax man's coming at me?"
Gilan looked suspicious. "An ax man? I don't recommend trying to block an ax with two knives."
But Will wouldn't take no for an answer. "But what if he's charging at me?" Horace walked over.
Gilan looked away. "Uh...shoot him."
Horace intervened. "Can't, his bowstring's broken."
Gilan gritted his teeth. "Run and hide."
Will kept on him. "There's a sheer cliff behind me."
Horace caught on. "There's a sheer cliff behind him, and his bowstring's broken. What should he do?"
Gilan thought for a moment. "Jump off the cliff, it'll be less messy that way.”
― John Flanagan, The Burning Bridge

“COMING FORTH INTO THE LIGHT

I was born the day
I thought:
What is?
What was?
And
What if?

I was transformed the day
My ego shattered,
And all the superficial, material
Things that mattered
To me before,
Suddenly ceased
To matter.

I really came into being
The day I no longer cared about
What the world thought of me,
Only on my thoughts for
Changing the world.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“It’s fun to think of the what-if. Scary, but fun. It’s like, I thought this door was closed before, but here it is open just the tiniest crack. What if?”
― Jenny Han, To All the Boys I've Loved Before

“You see, the what ifs are as boundless as the stars.”
― Sally Gardner, Maggot Moon

“Here you sit on your high-backed chair
Wonder how the view is from there
I wouldn't know 'cause I like to sit
Upon the floor, yeah upon the floor
If you like we could play a game
Let's pretend that we are the same
But you will have to look much closer
Than you do, closer than you do

And I'm far too tired to stay here anymore
And I don't care what you think anyway
'Cause I think you were wrong about me
Yeah what if you were, what if you were

And what if I'm a snowstorm burning
What if I'm a world unturning
What if I'm an ocean, far too shallow, much too deep
What if I'm the kindest demon
Something you may not believe in
What if I'm a siren singing gentlemen to sleep

I know you've got it figured out
Tell me what I am all about
And I just might learn a thing or two
Hundred about you, maybe about you
I'm the end of your telescope
I don't change just to suit your vision
'Cause I am bound by a fraying rope
Around my hands, tied around my hands

And you close your eyes when I say I'm breaking free
And put your hands over both your ears
Because you cannot stand to believe I'm not
The perfect girl you thought
Well what have I got to lose

And what if I'm a weeping willow
Laughing tears upon my pillow
What if I'm a socialite who wants to be alone
What if I'm a toothless leopard
What if I'm a sheepless shepherd
What if I'm an angel without wings to take me home

You don't know me
Never will, never will
I'm outside your picture frame
And the glass is breaking now
You can't see me
Never will, never will
If you're never gonna see

What if I'm a crowded desert
Too much pain with little pleasure
What if I'm the nicest place you never want to go
What if I don't know who I am
Will that keep us both from trying
To find out and when you have
Be sure to let me know

What if I'm a snowstorm burning
What if I'm a world unturning
What if I'm an ocean, far too shallow, much too deep
What if I'm the kindest demon
Something you may not believe in
What if I'm a siren singing gentlemen to sleep
Sleep...
Sleep...”
― Emilie Autumn

“He shrugs. "Doesn't help to waste my time thinking about would've-beens."
Laila whispers, "He says to the girl with a mind full of them.”
― Kasie West, Pivot Point

“At times he felt that he had almost rather not be in love with her, for it brought him no peace. What was the use of it, if it was only going to be painful?”
― Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

“What if it's as simple as one moment? One tiny thing, like that kiss on the rocks? What if I'd kissed him a little longer? Would he be alive right now? Or what if I'd stayed with him Friday night, what if I'd been with him… wherever he was?”
― Kristina McBride, One Moment

“You’re worried about what-ifs. Well, what if you stopped worrying?”
― Shannon Celebi, Driving Off Bridges

“But what if you're wrong?
What if there's more?
What if there's hope you never dreamed of hoping for?
What if you jump?
And just close your eyes?
What if the arms that catch you, catch you by surprise?
What if He's more than enough?
What if it's love?”
― Nichole Nordeman

“But if someone had slowed him down, just slightly interrupted his course, maybe he could have gotten through that one nightmarish moment; maybe he would never get that close to it again.”
― Frederick Barthelme, Elroy Nights

“Then I wondered, what if?
What if he kissed me? What if he told me I was beautiful? What if he told me he loved me?
What would I say in return?”
― Markelle Grabo, The Elf Girl

“That's what a dare does. It taunts you to take a different direction, to do something you never thought you could do, to jump, knowing that a million consequences could be on the other side of that dare, but that if you don't do it, you'll always wonder. And sometimes wondering is worse than consequences.”
― Rebekah Crane, The Upside of Falling Down

“He sighed and knew that life was full of ‘if only’ for everyone”
― Colin Dexter, The Dead of Jericho

“What if the endings are just a fresh start? Maybe it just depends on the way you look at it.”
― Ivy Oakes, What if Stars Don't Die

“It’s a dangerous game to play what-if with the past.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“Might-have and mud are fine places to wallow”
― Greg Keyes, Lord of Souls

“She didn't ask herself what could have been, because Kovit was right. Asking what-ifs about people stole their agency for the choices they made in this life. But what could be. That was another question."
•pg.89 - Nita's thoughts”
― Rebecca Schaeffer, When Villains Rise

“I try not to dwell on what if’s, Ancient One. They can be dangerous.”
― Dana Gricken, The Girl With The Invincible Blood

“Imagine if there were a pentatonic scale for life: no matter what step you took, you could not strike a wrong note.”
― Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home

“We need to focus on what-is, not on what-ifs.”
― Ari Gunzburg, The Little Book of Greatness: A Parable About Unlocking Your Destiny

“India's political economy is replete with tales of how things did not happen. The lament is preceded by the ubiquitous 'if only', about how solutions were thought of but the ideas did not translate into action.”
― Shankkar Aiyar, Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India's 12-Digit Revolution

“She nibbled on a couple of cucumber sandwiches and a slice of cold Welsh rarebit (the cheese had solidified and was a little chewy, just the way she liked it). She wondered what a picture of it would result in: a plate of iced biscuits with the power to cause sudden growth?”
― Liz Braswell, Unbirthday

“If… if back then in the past, Dia didn’t summon him during that stormy night, and attended the following year’s ball…—

—what kind of future would they have?

When she wondered about such things, it was as if her chest would burst.

In the last 13 years she had lived along with despair, Dia acknowledged that she had indeed ruined her future with her own hands.

However, the sharp pain that ran through her chest—she didn’t feel it for the first time.

…It’s been a long time since that ball.

It felt awkward to walk around while clutching her painful chest everywhere she went.

She wondered if her footsteps of today were still steeped in the blood of that night.

That stormy night…”
― Sakurase Ayaka (桜瀬彩香), 長い夜の国と最後の舞踏会 1　～ひとりぼっちの公爵令嬢と真夜中の精霊～

“Who would you be if you had somehow avoided every tenacious impediment in the invisible bacterial obstacle course of your daily life? Or what if, through some miracle of science...there was a way to cleanse the detritus that has cumulatively contaminated your genes since before you were even born? Who would you be today? Would you be the same person; the same unique individual? Or would you be something more?”
― Ezra Claytan Daniels, Upgrade Soul

“She notices that she’s tense and has gone over to the RED side – lost in ‘What if?’s, overthinking. To get a grip on her emotions, she quietly runs through her basic three breaths routine while she drives. She imagines breathing energy and calm deep into her belly – and breathing out tension and stress.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“Ever Wonder? by Stewart Stafford

Ever wonder why the gales howl?
Screams of the multitude departed,
In all those mauling, biting attacks,
Life numbed in interminable silence.

Ever wonder why woods are tangled?
Matted hair from a sprite's dwelling,
To catch the lost, nosey and wandering,
Their hair caught to make new tangles.

Ever wonder how waves roll over white?
Sea horses rising and diving underneath,
The sun striking their wet necks glinting,
A trick of the light of white horses riding.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The more I tried to refrain from drugs, the more important became snowboarding, wakeboarding, longboarding, skating, biking, hiking, bouldering, cliff jumping, and every other thing that got my adrenaline pumping. I realized these things couldn’t balance me out inside, but they were good outlets. That feeling of insidious fear, the big “what if?” that pulsates through your mind while suspended in midair. The split second where everything seems to freeze before you go plummeting towards the ground like a bolt of lightning.”
― Michael J Heil, Pursued: God’s relentless pursuit and a drug addict’s journey to finding purpose

“We're caught in an endless cycle of 'what if', where all we can do is take the next step and see where that leads.”
― Raynor Winn, Landlines

“How is a call to change named shame,
named penance, named chastisement?

How does one say

what if

without reproach?”
― Claudia Rankine, Just Us: An American Conversation