“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
“Kavita looks peaceful when she's sleeping, when the Morphine finally brings her some comfort. Jasu sits in a chair next to the bed and reaches for her frail hand. With his touch, her eyes flutter open and she licks her dried lips. She sees him and smiles.
“Jani, you’re back,” she says softly.
“I went there, chakli.” He tries to begin slowly, but the words come tumbling out. “I went to Shanti, the orphanage. The man there knows her, he’s met her, Kavi. Her name is Asha now. She grew up in America, her parents are doctors, and she writes stories for newspapers—look, this is hers, she wrote this.”
He waves the article in front of her.
“America.”
Kavita’s voice is barely a whisper. She closes her eyes and a tear drips down the side of her face and into her ear. “So far from home. All this time, she’s been so far from us.”
“Such a good thing you did, chakli.” He strokes her hair, pulled back into a loose bun, and wipes her tears away with his rough fingers. “Just imagine if…” He looks down, shakes his head, and clasps her hand between his. He rests his head against their hands and begins to cry. “Such a good thing.”He looks up at her again. “She came looking for us, Kavi. She left this.”
Jasu hands her the letter. A small smile breaks through on Kavita’s face. She peers at the page while he recites from memory.
“My name is Asha…”
― Shilpi Somaya Gowda, quote from Secret Daughter
“You", he said, "are the single exception that rule". The oldest, deepest, most beautiful flaw in his Silence."Without you, I would be a monster.”
― Nalini Singh, quote from Heart of Obsidian
“The Yaksha asked, 'Who is the guest of all creatures? What is the eternal duty? What, O foremost of kings, is Amrita? And what is this entire Universe?' Yudhishthira answered, Agni is the guest of all creatures: the milk of kine is amrita: Homa (therewith) is the eternal duty: and this Universe consists of air alone.”
― C. Rajagopalachari, quote from Mahabharata
“Too many people learn about war with no inconvenience to themselves. They read about Verdun or Stalingrad without comprehension, sitting in a comfortable armchair, with their feet beside the fire, preparing to go about their business the next day, as usual.
One should really read such accounts under compulsion, in discomfort, considering oneself fortunate not to be describing the events in a letter home, writing from a hole in the mud. One should read about war in the worst circumstances, when everything is going badly, remembering that the torments of peace are trivial, and not worth any white hairs. Nothing is really serious in the tranquility of peace; only an idiot could be really disturbed by a question of salary.
One should read about war standing up, late at night, when one is tired, as I am writing about it now, at dawn, while my asthma attack wears off. And even now, in my sleepless exhaustion, how gentle and easy peace seems!”
― quote from The Forgotten Soldier
“Ambitions are incompatible with consciences, you know. The two strangle one another straightaway and leave an awful mess behind them.”
― Jim Butcher, quote from Academ's Fury
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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