Quotes from A Letter of Mary

Laurie R. King ·  339 pages

Rating: (14.8K votes)


“The hand of bone and sinew and flesh achieves its immortality in taking up a pen. The hand on a page wields a greater power than the fleshly hand ever could in life.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“The dead have a claim on us even heavier than that of the living, for they cannot hear our explanations, and we cannot ask their forgiveness.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“Moments of pure relaxation were rare for me. There was always the nagging of books unread, work undone, time a-wasting.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“Everyone is allowed a weakness, even women of the twentieth century.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“I am getting old, Russell. Gone are the days when I could scramble about on the moors all day and curl up happily at night with a thin blanket and a stone for a pillow. Three nights on floorboards and one night without sleep following three days at strenuous labour make me aware that I am no longer a callow youth.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary



“Suddenly, it occurred to me that my feelings towards the little man were distinctly maternal. Good God, I thought, how utterly revolting, and I turned my mind firmly to the problem at hand.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“You see why I married her, Mycroft? The exquisite juxtaposition of ladylike threads and backhanded compliments proved irresistible.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“You translate it, please. I have worked hard to forget what Greek I once knew.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


About the author

Laurie R. King
Born place: in Oakland, California, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“It's so crude' complained her mother, who believed in Good Taste the way Sunday worshipers believed in the Immaculate Conception. She wasn't quite sure what it was but she was sure it was important.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from Art and Lies


“From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to our shortcomings than to our strenghts.”
― Tom Rath, quote from Strengths Finder 2.0


“It's not easy being the Chosen One. Just ask Buffy Summers. Ask Harry Potter. And ask Zoey Redbird, the latest in this list of "lucky" candidates picked by fate to save the world from darkness- and oh yeah, find romance, keep their friends and maybe not flunk every class. In their spare time of course.”
― P.C. Cast, quote from Nyx in the House of Night: Mythology, Folklore and Religion in the PC and Kristin Cast Vampyre Series


“There come times in our lives when we do things that we don't understand. We confuse ourselves, we might even logically oppose our impulses, and yet we act on them anyway.




There are some things that we feel that we absolutely must do. We might know that they're wrong, or pointless, or gravely punishable, and yet we do them anyway. These actions are not born of anger or emotion - we are perfectly sober. It's rather inexplicable. When the time comes, we can't stop ourselves, and so we cannot blame ourselves.”
― Isamu Fukui, quote from Truancy


“One shouldn't expect anyone to be complete at any given moment.”
― Tracy Kidder, quote from Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness


Interesting books

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
(43.7K)
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
(21.6K)
Red Notice: A True S...
by Bill Browder
Three Dark Crowns
(35K)
Three Dark Crowns
by Kendare Blake
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE
(46.1K)
Into the Water
(119.7K)
Into the Water
by Paula Hawkins
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
(8.8K)
Imagined Communities...
by Benedict Anderson

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.