Quotes from A Company of Swans

“Loneliness had taught Harriet that there was always someone who understood - it was just so often that they were dead, and in a book.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Company of Swans

“She was so intelligent that she could think herself into beauty. Intelligence...they don't talk about it much, the poets, but when a woman is intelligent and passionate and good...”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Company of Swans

“The news should have terrified her, but it was difficult to be frightened of anything when she was sitting so close to Rom. 'I thought we had convinced him that I was leading a blameless life?' 'We had, till you burst out of that damnable cake.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Company of Swans

“There are those who dance the notes, and those who dance the music.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Company of Swans

“Yet for a moment it seemed to him that the men who had dragged marble from Italy and porphyry from Portugal, who had ransacked the jungle for its rarest woods and paid their millions to build this opulent and fantastical theatre, had done so in order that a young girl with loose brown hair should move across its stage, drawing her future from its empty air.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Company of Swans

“And lying there, her hair in damp strands across her crumpled face, Harriet gave up the long, long struggle to love her father and her aunt.
"It was for this loss above all that she wept. She had learned, during the long years of her childhood, to live without receiving love. To live without giving it seemed more than she could bear.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Company of Swans

“-they were still practicing the fiendishly difficult pattern at the end of the act where the diagonal lines of swans cross over and dissolve to form three groups: unequal groups, since the number seventeen is notoriously difficult to divide by three.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Company of Swans

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“Sanchez got the phone call, listened carefully, glanced over at Spencer, in Whittaker's office, having his morning coffee. Hung up the phone, got up, went and knocked on the door, asked if he could see Spencer a moment, and lowering his voice said, "Carl downstairs just called me because someone wants to file a vagrancy report.
Spencer slapped him on the back. "Detective Sanchez, thank you for bringing the particulars of your job description to my attention. Well done. Go to it.
Sanchez hemmed and said, "The young woman says she is Lily Quinn. Specifically asked for me, Carl says.
Spencer didn't slap him on the back this time. He stared at Carl and then said, "All right smart-ass, go back to you desk.
"That's what I thought," said Sanchez.”
― Paullina Simons, quote from The Girl In Times Square

“The husband is the head of the wife just in so far as he is to her what Christ is to the Church - read on - and give his life for her (Eph. V, 25). This headship, then, is most fully embodied not in the husband we should all wish to be but in him whose marriage is most like a crucifixion; whose wife receives most and gives least, is most unworthy of him, is - in her own mere nature - least lovable. For the Church has not beauty but what the Bride-groom gives her; he does not find, but makes her, lovely. The chrism of this terrible coronation is to be seen not in the joys of any man's marriage but in its sorrows, in the sickness and sufferings of a good wife or the faults of a bad one, in his unwearying (never paraded) care or his inexhaustible forgiveness: forgiveness, not acquiescence. As Christ sees in the flawed, proud, fanatical or lukewarm Church on earth that Bride who will one day be without spot or wrinkle, and labours to produce the latter, so the husband whose headship is Christ-like (and he is allowed no other sort) never despairs. He is a King Cophetua who after twenty years still hopes that the beggar-girl will one day learn to speak the truth and wash behind her ears.”
― C.S. Lewis, quote from The Four Loves

“How does one end a moment like this? It would kill her to feel him pull away. She had to be first. In a moment. One moment more. Yes. Now”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from Luncheon of the Boating Party

“Fascinated by the glitter of gain, man gazes at the Medusa-like face of greed and stands petrified.”
― Manly P. Hall, quote from Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic, and Ro

“Три жълти луни, по една за всеки, бяха накацали през прозореца и се забавляваха да правят гримаси на братята. Те, и тримата по нощници, се бяха пъхнали в леглото на Ситроен, откъдето най-добре се виждаха луните. Трите им опитомени мечета танцуваха в кръг около леглото и пееха тихичко, за да не събудят Клемантин – тази бавачка на омари. Ситроен лежеше между Ноел и Жоел и изглеждаше замислен. Той криеше нещо в ръцете си.
- Търся думи – каза той на братята си. – Тази започва с…
Той млъкна.
- Готово. Намерих я.
Той сложи ръце пред устата си и каза нещо много тихо. След това остави на юрганчето това, което държеше. Беше малък бял скакалец.
Мечетата веднага дойдоха и седнаха около него.
- Пазете се – каза Жоел, - нищо не виждам.
Мечетата се отстраниха и обърнаха гръб на леглото. Скакалецът ги поздрави и започна да прави акробатически номера. Децата искрено му се възхищаваха.
Но той много бързо се умори, изпрати им въздушна целувка, скочи много високо и изчезна.
Никой не се разтревожи. Ситроен вдигна пръста си.
- Знам друго нещо! – каза мъдро той. – Когато намерим бълхи, трябва да ги накараме да ни ухапят три пъти.
- Е, и? – попита Ноел.
- Тогава – отвърна Ситроен –
- Е можем да ставаме толкова малки, колкото си поискаме.
- И да минаваме под вратите?
- То се знае – отговори Ситроен. – Ще можем да ставаме малки като бълхи.
Мечетата се приближиха, това ги бе за интересувало.
- А може ли, като изговаряме думите обратно, да станем големи? – попитаха те в един глас.
- Не – рече Ситроен. – Така сте си много добре. Но ако искате, мога да направя така, че да ви пораснат маймунски опашки.
- Хич не искам – каза мечето на Жоел. – Благодаря!
Мечето на Ноел също отказа. А третото още мислеше.
- Ще си помисля – рече то.
Ноел започна да се прозява.
- Спи ми се. Отивам си в леглото – каза той.
- Аз също – каза Жоел.
След няколко минути те вече спяха. Само Ситроен беше буден, той гледаше ръцете си и намигваше. Когато намигаше по специален начин, му порастваха още два пръста. Утре щеше да научи братята си на това.”
― Boris Vian, quote from Heartsnatcher

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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