Quotes from A Thread of Grace

Mary Doria Russell ·  442 pages

Rating: (11.6K votes)


“When the preponderance of human beings choose to act with justice and generosity and kindness, then learning and love and decency prevail. When the preponderance of human beings choose power, greed, and indifference to suffering, the world is filled with war, poverty, and cruelty.”
― Mary Doria Russell, quote from A Thread of Grace


“No matter how dark the tapestry God weaves for us, there's always a thread of grace.”
― Mary Doria Russell, quote from A Thread of Grace


“The world is filled with unreasonable hate. What's wrong with unreasonable love?”
― Mary Doria Russell, quote from A Thread of Grace


“Shall I tell you why young men love war? . . . In peace, there are a hundred questions with a thousand answers! In war, there is only one question with one right answer. . . . Going to war makes you a man. It is emotionally exciting and morally restful.”
― Mary Doria Russell, quote from A Thread of Grace


“You know what I think? Ten percent of any group of human beings are shitheads. Catholics, Jews. Germans, Italians. Pilots, priests. Teachers, doctors, shopkeepers. Ten percent are shitheads. Another ten percent -- salt of the earth! Saints! Give you the shirts off their backs. Most people are in the middle, just trying to get by.”
― Mary Doria Russell, quote from A Thread of Grace



“God save us from idealists! They dream of a world without injustice, and what crime won't they commit to get it! I swear, Mirella, I'll settle for a world with good manners.”
― Mary Doria Russell, quote from A Thread of Grace


“...and yet, in the end, did Klara Hitler's sickly son ever fire a gun? One hollow, hateful little an. One last awful thought: all the harm he ever did was done for him by others.”
― Mary Doria Russell, quote from A Thread of Grace


“Distressing to be hated because of lies, isn't it." (Mirella)
"Especially when there are so many legitimate reasons to be hated." (Schramm)”
― Mary Doria Russell, quote from A Thread of Grace


“There's a saying in Hebrew, 'No matter how dark the tapestry God weaves for us, there's always a thread of grace.”
― Mary Doria Russell, quote from A Thread of Grace


“I suppose I should warn you, Padre. In the absence of male supervision, my mother has become a revolutionary." ~Renzo Leoni”
― Mary Doria Russell, quote from A Thread of Grace



About the author

Mary Doria Russell
Born place: in The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question of what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. If one feels that there is nothing 'we' can do -- but who is that 'we'? -- and nothing 'they' can do either -- and who are 'they' -- then one starts to get bored, cynical, apathetic.”
― Susan Sontag, quote from Regarding the Pain of Others


“science must be understood as a social phenomenon, a gutsy, human enterprise, not the work of robots programed to collect pure information.”
― Stephen Jay Gould, quote from The Mismeasure of Man


“And the next moment the fierce wind comes screaming, whirling the needle-pointed dust, stifling all hope. And you know then that what has not happened will never happen. That hope is an end within itself. And the fierce wind is an echo of angry childhood and of a very scared boy looking out the window—remembering my dead dog outside by the wounded house as the gray Texas dust gradually covered her up—and thinking: It isnt fair! Why cant dogs go to Heaven?”
― John Rechy, quote from City of Night


“I am troubled, immeasurably
by your eyes.
I am struck by the feather
of your soft reply.
The sound of glass
speaks quick, disdain
and conceals
what your eyes fight
to explain.”
― Jim Morrison, quote from Wilderness: The Lost Writings, Vol. 1


“The person your child becomes is a product of two things. The first is his life experience. The second is how he interacts with that experience.”
― quote from Shepherding a Child's Heart


Interesting books

The Rose & the Dagger
(37K)
The Rose & the Dagge...
by Renee Ahdieh
La voz de los muertos
(191.5K)
La voz de los muerto...
by Orson Scott Card
A Thousand Letters
(9.8K)
A Thousand Letters
by Staci Hart
Bear, Otter, and the Kid
(8.6K)
Bear, Otter, and the...
by T.J. Klune
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
(13.6K)
The Watchmaker of Fi...
by Natasha Pulley
They Both Die at the End
(20.5K)
They Both Die at the...
by Adam Silvera

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.