“Sometimes being a good mother gets in the way of being a good person.”
― quote from A Woman of Independent Means
“Life causes estrangement enough—why do we add to it out of misplaced pride?”
― quote from A Woman of Independent Means
“I know now one must plan one’s old age as surely as one plans any other stage of life. The tragedy of Cousin Josie’s life is that she never knew what she wanted at any age—only what she did not want. She never wanted to marry nor to pursue a career, and in life, unlike grammar, double negatives do not produce an affirmative.”
― quote from A Woman of Independent Means
“Would that we could soar forever beyond the reach of earth, away from the dangers that await us the moment we alight.”
― quote from A Woman of Independent Means
“Es irracional creer —e incluso querer, sin duda— que se puedan tener todas las experiencias de la vida con la misma persona. Somos mucho más complicados y muy capaces de ser leales de por vida a muchas personas distintas de cualquier edad y sexo. ¿Por qué se empeña la sociedad en restringir al hombre y a la mujer a una sola relación de esa clase para siempre? Espero no romper jamás una promesa que haya hecho, pero si en este momento estuviera libre y sin compromiso, nunca volvería a prometer dedicación exclusiva a nadie.”
― quote from A Woman of Independent Means
“La vejez tendría que ser la recompensa de una vida de mucho trabajo, pero no será más que un castigo si insistimos en seguir haciendo lo mismo de siempre, midiendo los logros del presente por el baremo de los del pasado y quedándonos cortos sin remedio.”
― quote from A Woman of Independent Means
“Algunas veces, ser buena madre está reñido con ser buena persona.”
― quote from A Woman of Independent Means
“Free women," said Anna, wryly. She added, with an anger new to Molly, so that she earned another quick scrutinizing glance from her friend: "They still define us in terms of relationships with men, even the best of them.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Golden Notebook
“Does identity matter anyway? I have my doubts. We are what we do, not what we think. Only the interactions count (there is no problem with free will here; that’s not incompatible with believing your actions define you). And what is free will anyway? Chance. The random factor. If one is not ultimately predictable, then of course that’s all it can be.”
― Iain M. Banks, quote from The Player of Games
“Now you may not know this”—Lincoln shut his eyes—“but when I first ran for the Illinois legislature, I came out, more or less, for female suffrage; not exactly the most popular position to take back then, and in that part of the world.” “It is still not the most popular issue anywhere in the world, thank God.” “Well, Mrs. Frémont comes to see me late at night—right off the cars from the West—and threatens me to my face with an uprising against the government, led by the Frémonts and their radical friends. So I called her, in the nicest way, I thought, ‘Quite a lady politician,’ and she was madder than a wet hen and went and told everyone that I’d threatened her!” Lincoln sighed. “Is it possible that female suffrage may not be the answer to every human problem?”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Lincoln
“I...I sang," she whispered, "if that matters," and Karou felt her heart pulled to pieces. This Misbegotten warrior, fiercest of them all, had crouched in an icy stream bed to sing a chimera soul into her canteen, because she hadn't known what else to do.
The singing wouldn't have mattered, but she wasn't going to tell Liraz that. If Ziri's soul was in that canteen, Karou would happily learn whatever song Liraz had sung and make it part of her resurrection ritual forever, just so that the angel would never feel that she'd been foolish.”
― Laini Taylor, quote from Dreams of Gods & Monsters
“Such is the cost of immortality. No person is whole. No person is free. Over time, some have determined that the only way to live is to die. In death, a man or a woman is free of the weight of the past [and the future].”
― Alan Lightman, quote from Einstein's Dreams
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.