Quotes from A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

“Every place is a goldmine. You have only to give yourself time, sit in a teahouse watching the passers-by, stand in a corner of the market, go for a haircut. You pick up a thread – a word, a meeting, a friend of a friend of someone you have just met – and soon the most insipid, most insignificant place becomes a mirror of the world, a window on life, a theatre of humanity.”
― Tiziano Terzani, quote from A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

“Per i prossimo dieci anni la tua vita sarà orribile, avrai grandi problemi e niente ti andrà bene", dice l'indovino. "E poi?", chiede ansioso il cliente. "Poi? Poi ci farai l'abitudine!”
― Tiziano Terzani, quote from A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

“La mobilità sociale ha aperto a tutti la possibilità di aspirare a qualsiasi cosa, ma con ciò nessuno è più "predestinato" a nulla. È forse per questo che la gente è sempre più disorientata e incerta sul senso della propria vita.”
― Tiziano Terzani, quote from A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

“Vladimir conosceva la vita e aveva una visione chiara di come andava il mondo. Tutto quel che era buono, ordinato, bello, pulito per lui era «normal». La libertà di darsi da fare? «Normal.» Amare le donne? «Normal.» Quello che non era più «normal» era la Russia perché non c’era più ordine, perché fra mafiosi, gangster e poliziotti non c’è più differenza e con la mano faceva il gesto: «tutti uguali», gli uni come altri, tutti mischiati. Indicava le mostrine di un ufficiale e diceva: «Mafia; no normal». «Democracy?» si domandava retoricamente e si rispondeva: «No normal. Popolo russo ha bisogno di dittatore. Grande dittatore per Russia è normal. Stalin per Russia è normal». Non credo lo dicesse solo perché Stalin era, come lui, un georgiano. Lo diceva perché con il fallimento del comunismo e la caduta dell’Impero sovietico, la gente come lui non sa in che cosa sperare, non vede attorno a sé nessuno di grande cui affidare la propria sorte.”
― Tiziano Terzani, quote from A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

“I vincitori invece credono di non aver nulla da imparare.”
― Tiziano Terzani, quote from A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

“Die Nacht, die Stimmung auf dem Schiff und wieder dieses völlige Losgelöstsein von der gewöhnlichen Welt hatten mir jenes rauschhafte Freiheitsgefühl erweckt, das meine Droge ist.”
― Tiziano Terzani, quote from A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

“detto tibetano: «Se c’è venerazione, anche il dente d’un cane emette luce».”
― Tiziano Terzani, quote from A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

“Dalla Cina di Mao all’India di Gandhi e alla Cambogia di Pol Pot, tutti gli esperimenti di autarchia, di sviluppo non capitalista, con caratteristiche nazionali, sono falliti. I più per giunta, facendo milioni di vittime.”
― Tiziano Terzani, quote from A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

About the author

Popular quotes

“I never found beauty in longing for the impossible and never found the possible to be beyond my reach.”
― Ayn Rand, quote from Atlas Shrugged

“The wounds received in battle bestow honor, they do not take it away...”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, quote from Don Quixote

“That’s the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.”
― Philip Pullman, quote from The Golden Compass

“She wanted something else, something different, something more. Passion and romance, perhaps, or maybe quiet conversations in candlelit rooms, or perhaps something as simple as not being second.”
― Nicholas Sparks, quote from The Notebook

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”
― J.K. Rowling, quote from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

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.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.