“Loss is like a shrapnel wound, I said, where the piece of metal's got stuck in a place where the surgeons daren't go, so they decide to leave it. It is painful at first, horribly painful, so that you wonder you can live with it. But then the body grows around it, until it doesn't hurt anymore. Not like it used to be. But every now and again there are these twinges when you are not ready for them, and you realize it is still there, and it's always going to be there. It is a part of you. A still, hard point inside.”
― Robert Wilson, quote from A Small Death in Lisbon
“They crossed the Mondego and Dao rivers to Viseu and headed south to Coimbra and Leiria.”
― Robert Wilson, quote from A Small Death in Lisbon
“The chinese character for "strife" is represented by two women under the same roof.”
― Robert Wilson, quote from A Small Death in Lisbon
“The portuguese never put anything behind them except a chair to eat lunch.”
― Robert Wilson, quote from A Small Death in Lisbon
“Eva was a between-the-lines talker. She left the sayable unsaid and said what she meant without saying it.”
― Robert Wilson, quote from A Small Death in Lisbon
“Boldly fruity, but clean and dry. The spice holding from the top to the bottom, as long as an Atlantic cruise.”
― Robert Wilson, quote from A Small Death in Lisbon
“Third step, get to know her surroundings so she could get out of there. Or at least try. That’s what the heroine always did, right? And they said romance novels never taught anyone anything. She’d prove them wrong. And get the heck out of there.”
― Carrie Ann Ryan, quote from Finding Abigail
“I know I shouldn't let him, but it all feels so good, so exciting, that I keep telling myself I'm not doing anything all that wrong.”
― quote from Breathless
“Ti fidi di chi ti è vicino?
Sei pronto a credergli per sempre?
Nessuno è quello che sembra.
Adesso stai per capirlo.”
― Ronald H. Balson, quote from Once We Were Brothers
“In his funeral oration the spokesman of the most artistic and critical of European nations, Ernest Renan, hailed him as one of the greatest writers of our times: ‘The Master, whose exquisite works have charmed our century, stands more than any other man as the incarnation of a whole race,’ because ‘a whole world lived in him and spoke through his mouth.’ Not the Russian world only, we may add, but the whole Slavonic world, to which it was ‘an honour to have been expressed by so great a Master.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Rudin
“In the very midst of this panic came the news that the steamer Central America, formerly the George Law, with six hundred passengers and about sixteen hundred thousand dollars of treasure, coming from Aspinwall, had foundered at sea, off the coast of Georgia, and that about sixty of the passengers had been providentially picked up by a Swedish bark, and brought into Savannah. The absolute loss of this treasure went to swell the confusion and panic of the day. A few days after, I was standing in the vestibule of the Metropolitan Hotel, and heard the captain of the Swedish bark tell his singular story of the rescue of these passengers. He was a short, sailor-like-looking man, with a strong German or Swedish accent. He said that he was sailing from some port in Honduras for Sweden, running down the Gulf Stream off Savannah. The weather had been heavy for some days, and, about nightfall, as he paced his deck, he observed a man-of-war hawk circle about his vessel, gradually lowering, until the bird was as it were aiming at him. He jerked out a belaying pin, struck at the bird, missed it, when the hawk again rose high in the air, and a second time began to descend, contract his circle, and make at him again. The second time he hit the bird, and struck it to the deck. . . . This strange fact made him uneasy, and he thought it betokened danger; he went to the binnacle, saw the course he was steering, and without any particular reason he ordered the steersman to alter the course one point to the east. After this it became quite dark, and he continued to promenade the deck, and had settled into a drowsy state, when as in a dream he thought he heard voices all round his ship. Waking up, he ran to the side of the ship, saw something struggling in the water, and heard clearly cries for help. Instantly heaving his ship to, and lowering all his boats, he managed to pick up sixty or more persons who were floating about on skylights, doors, spare, and whatever fragments remained of the Central America. Had he not changed the course of his vessel by reason of the mysterious conduct of that man-of-war hawk, not a soul would probably have survived the night.”
― William T. Sherman, quote from Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman
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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