“If someone throws aside their pride and begs with all their heart, and if they do so in vain, then they are never quite the same person afterwards. Something in them dies, and something else comes to life.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“Everybody betrayed her, so why expect otherwise? But it turned out that distrust could fool you and endanger you, just as trust could.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“Mother was like this sometimes. Conversations became riddles with traps in them, and your answers had consequences.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“Looking at the rich and powerful was dangerous, like peering into the sun.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“Habits, places and faces grew into you over time, like tree roots burrowing into stone work.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“Lord Fellmotte was not a man. He was an ancient committee. A parliament of deathly rooks in a dying tree.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“Even when she slept, her anxieties did not.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“Before her escort could react, she sprinted out from their little pool of lantern-light into the darkness, her feet pounding the soft, treacherous clods of the field. The guards called after her for a while, but did not pursue, In a lost city, how could they chase down every lost soul who became a little more lost?”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“The minister was kind when you met him in the street, but terrifying in the pulpit. From the rapt faces of the other listeners, Makepeace could tell that there must be great truths shining in him, and love like a cold white comet.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“His gaze made her feel like a mouse in owl-country.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“I trust you, she had often told him. But was that true?
No, she realized, with a feeling like grief. All these years, even while she plotted with James, in her heart of hearts she had been waiting for him to betray her. When at last she had looked into his eyes and seen a host of dead enemies staring back, her mind had filled with a storm. But there had been an eye to that storm, a quiet core where a calm, relieved voice was saying: Ah, there it is at last. No more waiting for the sword to fall.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“The Bible says we should know a tree by the fruit it bears," Makepeace replied, a little sharply. "If you burn my hand off, what should I think of you?”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows
“Orgasms … nature’s way of saying, ‘Yeah, life sucks ass, but here, have some candy.”
― Kristen Proby, quote from Forever with Me
“Hope is a psychological mechanism unaffected by external realities.”
― Gene Wolfe, quote from Shadow and Claw
“A man who preferred to dress like a permanent tourist was just what a guide passionately looked for all his life. You may want to ask why I became a guide or when. I was a guide for the same reason as someone else is a signaler, porter, or guard. It is fated thus. Don’t laugh at my railway associations. The railways got into my blood very early in life. Engines with their tremendous clanging”
― R.K. Narayan, quote from The Guide
“The fuel for a great fire is all round them, ready to consume the evil of Plexus; we just have to wait for the spark.”
― Damian Wampler, quote from Sevara: Dawn of Hope
“The next morning we reach the Cilician Gates, and look out over one of the most beautiful views I know. It is like standing on the rim of the world and looking down on the promised land, and one feels much as Moses must have felt. For here, too, there is no entering in. ... The soft, hazy dark blue loveliness is a land one will never reach; the actual towns and villages when one gets there will be only the ordinary everyday world—not this enchanted beauty that beckons you down.”
― quote from Come, Tell Me How You Live
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.