“The less people think of you, the more they will reveal to you or in your presence.”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“How was it possible for the world to be so beautiful and so cruel at the same time?”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“I believe the test of government is the contentment of the people.”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“But just as the river is always at the door, so is the world always outside. And it is in the world that we have to live.”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“When illusions are shattered by truth, talent is set free.”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“The painter had achieved what we would all like to do: capture time and make it stand still”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“It's what you do to yourself when you go mad with rage. You have no idea how much you can hurt yourself with your own strength.”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“Don't you know the man whose life you spare will always hate you?”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“I learned embroidery," Kaede said, "But you can't kill anyone with a needle."
"You can," Shizuka said offhandedly. "I'll show you one day.”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“Shame, however, was what I felt seeping through me as though it stained my white bones black.”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“The world is always outside. And it is in the world that we must live.”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“They reminded me of the people of my village, their indomitable spirit in the face of disaster, their unshakable belief that no matter what might befall them, life was basically good and the world benign.”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“Cuando era niño, solía llevar a casa animales del bosque (…) Nunca logré domesticarlos, porque lo único que querían, ciega e irracionalmente, era escapar.”
― Lian Hearn, quote from Across the Nightingale Floor
“gold standard,” which the United States had dropped in 1933. Ever since, the Treasury had been printing money freely to finance first the New Deal and now the war. Howard feared that someday the United States might wind up like Germany in the 1920s, when people had to cart wheelbarrows of money down the street to buy a head of cabbage—the direct result of Germany being forced to deplete its gold stock to pay reparations after World War I.1 The economic chaos that resulted was one of the major factors that had led to Hitler.”
― Alice Schroeder, quote from The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
“Birdy Edwards is here. I am Birdy Edwards!”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Valley of Fear
“In her presence I could dare everything: sincerity, emotion, pathos.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from The Joke
“Just let them sit in the goddam sun. But the world won't let them because there's nothing more dangerous than letting old farts sit in the sun. They might be thinking. Same thing with kids. Keep 'em busy or they might start thinking.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from Teacher Man
“Real happiness provides you the confidence that you never thought was obtainable.”
― Asa Don Brown, quote from Waiting to Live
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.