“If you listen long enough to the whispers, you will hear the truth. Until then, I will tell you this: the world is made safe by a woman. She bound the monster up and cast him out, and the man who was left was saved.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“I do fear him,” I said, which was close to the truth. “I fear him as I fear the desert sun and poisonous snakes. They are all part of the life I live. But the sun gives light, and snakes will feed a caravan if they are caught and cooked.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“My sister is no fool and she is not tender-hearted,” I said. “My sister fights for her home, and takes what risks she must. That is why I put myself before her today—why I would not let you have her. My sister burns, and she does not burn for you.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“Good men fall to monsters every day.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“I am yours to command, husband,” I said to him, and met his eyes.
When my mother spoke to our father, she often said that. He liked it, the way she put herself in his hands. Until just now, I had not realized that since my mother was the one who allowed it, she had more power than even he might have realized. Lo-Melkhiin thought I was less than him; but his was not the only tally.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“Always, it seemed, men would overlook unpleasant things for the sake of those that went well. The statues’ eyes for the melodious sounds of the fountain. The deaths of their daughters for the bounty of their trade.
There was great beauty in this qasr, but there was also great ugliness and fear. I would not be like those men who turned their eyes from one to see the other. I would remember what those things cost.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“My sister burns, and she does not burn for you.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“There is life, and there is living.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“The monster tested her, pulling at her soul and rending her spirit. She clung to life, and in the clinging she might have become a monster too, except she chose the path her story would take. She chose white stone walls and a golden crown. She chose to debate words of law, and to never grind her own grain. She chose to fight men every day, and then fight their sons, who thought they knew better than their fathers.<...> If you listen long enough to the whispers, you will hear the truth. Until then, I will tell you this: the world is made safe by a woman.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“There is life, and there is living—and that is what she learned.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“Watch your world burn, light of my heart. Tomorrow we will find another one and burn that too.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“If you are clever and you are good, the monster will not have you.
You should not believe everything you hear.
Good men fall to monsters everyday. Clever men are tricked by their own pride or by pretty words.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“I had spent all the years I had been in Lo-Melkhiin’s body giving power to men who I thought would use it in ways that might serve me. I had given them great art and great thoughts, and they never guessed that they fed a terrible hunger in me that would require feeding until they died trying to sate it. They had done great things and made great tales, but I had been blind. All of this time, I had had access to more power than I had imagined, and I had missed it because I saw with men’s eyes. I had forgotten the girls who scrubbed the floors and spun the yarn. I had forgotten the women who dyed the cloth and worked with henna. I had married three hundred girls, and as much as eaten them all before they were done cooking.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“Have you seen burning bone, my wife? It starts like a roasted goat, but then the meat strips away to feed the fire, and the bone is left naked and alone. It twists and shatters, marrow leaking into the flames, until only the dust is left."
"That is what happens to everything, my lord," I said to him. "If only the fire can be made hot enough."
"Would you like to see it?" he asked.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“She chose to fight men everyday, and then fight their sons, who thought they knew better than their fathers.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“He was the soul of politeness, my husband.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“Our father would return to see his fairest flower gone and only the weed left for him to use as he saw fit”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“She had not answered my question. She had not told me that she loved his eyes or the sound of his voice. She had not said that his touch lit a fire on her skin. Then it came to me: she loved him because he did not seek to change her. If I had made him, or if my father had found him, it did not matter. My sister would have a husband who would not make her sit, veiled and weaving, in his tent. He would not take another wife, as my father had done. She would be his, and he would be hers, alone. This was why she loved him, and it made my heart glad to hear it.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“I had tasted power and I had used it up, but now I would get more of another kind. We would share it, and keep each other from the dark.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“When the dust rises over the desert, the villagers know that Lo-Melkhiin is coming with his guards to choose another wife. He always takes one wife from each village, or each district within a city. And she always dies”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“When the dust rises over the desert, the villagers know that Lo-Melkhiin is coming with his guards to choose another wife. He always takes one wife from each village, or each district within a city. And she always dies.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
“I onda sam shvatila: voli ga jer je ne želi promijeniti. Jesam li ga ja stvorila, ili ga je moj otac proašao, to nije bilo bitno. Moja će sestra imati muža koji je neće tjerati da, zakrivena velom, sjedi u njegovom šatoru i prede. Neće uzeti i drugu ženu, kao što je to bio učnio moj otac. Bit će samo njegova, kao što će i on biti samo njezin. Zato ga voli, a meni se, kas sam to čula, srce ispunilo radošću.”
― E.K. Johnston, quote from A Thousand Nights
E.K. Johnston
Born place: McKillop Township, Canada
See more on GoodReads
“I miss women,” he went on. “I miss that kind of intimacy. But I think whatever people do; they do in search of pleasure. Or trying to get rid of pain or fear, which is the same thing, basically. Everything, everything is really about that. Everything is about bringing your mind to a place where it’s at peace”
― Roland Merullo, quote from A Little Love Story
“Mas como era extraordinária aquela sala cheia de gente — ou melhor, de animais -, a olhar na mesma direcção, para outros animais mascarados e treinados para representar num palco, para animais cobertos de tecido e bocados de peles, ornamentados com pedras e de rostos e garras pintados. Toda a gente acabara de comer um animal de qualquer espécie; as peles que se viam por toda a parte, apesar de a noite estar quente, provinham de animas que tinham vivido, brincado e fornicado em florestas e campos, e os pés de toda a gente estavam cobertos de pele de animais.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“Ishmael was looking at him through narrowed eyes. “This is very important to you, this box.”
“It’s important to the world.”
Ishmael said: “The sun rises, and the sun sets. Sometimes it rains. We live, then we die.” He shrugged.
He would never understand, Wolff thought; but others would.”
― Ken Follett, quote from The Key to Rebecca
“Roarke: “Our engines don't run at the same speed.”
Eve: “What the hell does that mean?”
Roarke: “Just that.”
Eve: “It sounds like something that ought to piss me off. But I can't figure out exactly why. When I do, I might have to pop you one.”
Roarke: “I'll look forward to it. If you don't sleep, eat. You need something in your stomach. And what are you grinning at?”
Eve: “You. You're such a wife.”
Roarke: “Now, I'm pissed off.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Witness in Death
“Le mai le joli mai en barque sur le Rhin
Des dames regardaient du haut de la montagne
Vous êtes si jolies mais la barque s'éloigne
Qui donc a fait pleurer les saules riverains
Or des vergers fleuris se figeaient en arrière
Les pétales tombés des cerisiers de mai
Sont les ongles de celle que j'ai tant aimée
Les pétales flétris sont comme ses paupières
Sur le chemin du bord du fleuve lentement
Un ours un singe un chien menés par des tziganes
Suivaient une roulotte traînée par un âne
Tandis que s'éloignait dans les vignes rhénanes
Sur un fifre lointain un air de régiment
Le mai le joli mai a paré les ruines
De lierre de vigne vierge et de rosiers
Le vent du Rhin secoue sur le bord les osiers
Et les roseaux jaseurs et les fleurs nues des vignes”
― Guillaume Apollinaire, quote from Alcools
How to Marry a Marqu...
Falling into Place
At the Water's Edge
The Many Lives & Sec...
When Bad Things Happ...
Whispering RockBookQuoters 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.
