What If Quotes

“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

“One thing that is common among all spiritual people is that they never think or wonder about sentences containing should and shouldn’t.”
― Abhaidev, Notes from the Edge of Sanity

“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

“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

“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

“Don't waste your energy thinking about 'What ifs', focus on what is.”
― Joanne Mallon, Find Your Why

“Recognition

You are in front of your home, about to enter, when someone calls your name. You turn around and see a complete stranger hurriedly walking towards you.

“I’ve been waiting for you, where have you been?”

Seeing your exasperated expression, she adds, “We were supposed to meet, did you forget again?!”

“You have the wrong person,” you reply, adding, “I have never seen you in my life.”

“Please tell me you are joking,” she says in, what looks like, genuine disbelief.

You have no issues with forgetfulness, or memory, in general, but she seems absolutely certain. She goes on an on, providing details about your previous meetings and talks. She knows more about you than a stranger would, but she could have found these things out elsewhere. She says you never exchanged phone numbers, but instead always agreed where and when you would meet next time.

She doesn’t want anything in particular, except your acknowledgment and that you stick to the agreed upon meeting for that day.

How do you behave?
What do you do?”
― Sabina Nore, Why?: Imagination Scenarios and Mental Challenges

“What if you got all your whys answered?
Would you be satisfied then?”
― Jayant Chopra

“What if he decdied to keep things as just friends? What if he didn't want to make anything awkward at work between us?
What if, what if what if...
What if I'm spending the day with my better half? What if this is just the beginning?”
― Max Walker, Love & Monsters

“All you and I have ever had was a what-if," he said roughly. "But it's been the what-if of my lifetime.”
― J.R. Ward, A Bloom in Winter

“What if?" he asked himself. What if, instead of sneaking away from his responsibilities, he had faced them? What if, instead of caving to his father's demands, he had fought against them? Mazen would never know. The past was the past, a story already told, and though he could certainly weave it into a different tale, it would not change the reality.”
― Chelsea Abdullah, The Ashfire King

“The Question Behind The Life You Didn’t Live
At some point in life, many of us look backwards.
We think about the road we did not take. The opportunity we postponed. The relationship we left behind. The dream we decided was impractical.
And sometimes a question appears:
What would my life have been if I had chosen differently?
That question is at the heart of my novel, The Life You Didn’t Live.
Daniel Vale is not living a terrible life. His job is stable. His apartment is comfortable. He has friends, family, and a relationship with Sophie.
Nothing is obviously wrong.
And that is precisely the problem.
Daniel begins to wonder whether he is truly living his own life—or simply continuing the life he happened to choose.
Then an unexpected photograph arrives.
It appears to show a house Daniel has never visited.
But the photograph contains something impossible: a version of Daniel himself.
Soon, objects, photographs, messages and people begin appearing from lives that should not exist.
Daniel discovers that the question is no longer simply what his life might have been.
He must confront something much more difficult:
What if the other lives are real?
And if they are real, does that mean one of them is better than his own?
As Daniel encounters different versions of himself and different possibilities of his relationship with Sophie, the mystery becomes increasingly personal. Each alternate life carries its own happiness, loss, compromise and regret.
The story is therefore not simply about alternate realities.
It is about the choices we make—and the choices we spend our lives imagining.
Perhaps there is no perfect version of ourselves waiting somewhere.
Perhaps every life has something we would change.
And perhaps the greatest danger is not choosing the wrong life, but spending so much time imagining another one that we forget to live the life standing in front of us.
The Life You Didn’t Live is a mystery about alternate lives, but at its heart it is a story about the one life we actually have.
What would you do if you were given the chance to meet the person you might have become?”
― TARAKANT CHOUDHARY

“Daniel begins to notice how much the people around him seem to be moving forward with their lives. Friends are making plans, relationships are changing, careers are developing, while Daniel feels increasingly stuck in the same place.

What makes this more complicated is that Daniel isn't simply jealous of other people's lives. He begins to wonder whether he has missed something in his own.

The chapter raises an uncomfortable question about the way we measure our lives against the lives of the people around us.

Discussion Question:

Do you think Daniel is truly unhappy with his own life, or does seeing other people move forward make him feel unhappy with it?

What do you think Daniel should change first—his circumstances or the way he looks at his life?”
― TARAKANT CHOUDHARY, THE LIFE YOU DIDN'T LIVE: A Mystery of Choices and Other Lives

“Chapter 3 — The Photograph

Daniel receives an unexpected envelope containing an old photograph of a mysterious house. At first, the house means nothing to him. But then he notices something that makes the photograph impossible to ignore: a man standing near the house appears to be wearing the same coat Daniel owns.

On the back of the photograph is a message:

“You were supposed to remember this.”

Soon after, Daniel receives a call from an unknown number. Someone knows his name—but before Daniel can discover who is calling, the line goes dead.

Discussion Question:

If you were Daniel, would you investigate the photograph and try to discover who sent it—or would you destroy it and walk away?

What would you do, and why?”
― TARAKANT CHOUDHARY, THE LIFE YOU DIDN'T LIVE: A Mystery of Choices and Other Lives

“The game is never over until it is over. It isn’t over if there is a single pawn still on the board. If one side is down to a pawn and a king, and the other side has every player, there is still a game. And even if you were a pawn - maybe we all are - then you should remember that a pawn is the most magical piece of all. It might look small and ordinary but it isn't. Because a pawn is never just a pawn. A pawn is a queen-in-waiting. All you need to do is find a way to keep moving forward. One square after another. And you can get to the other side and unlock all kinds of power.


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― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

“The game is never over until it is over. It isn’t over if there is a single pawn still on the board. If one side is down to a pawn and a king, and the other side has every player, there is still a game. And even if you were a pawn - maybe we all are - then you should remember that a pawn is the most magical piece of all. It might look small and ordinary but it isn't. Because a pawn is never just a pawn. A pawn is a queen-in-waiting. All you need to do is find a way to keep moving forward. One square after another. And you can get to the other side and unlock all kinds of power.”
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library