“I followed him up the stairs. I was a fornicator, of unnatural appetite, in thrall to an Atheist. I repeated the words in my head and tried to feel the shock of them, but they remained strange and cruel, far removed from Ferris and me. It was simpler to say I was in love.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“Speak to me, Jacob, do not play the tyrant.
Speak to me.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“I wondered at him, so wise and so foolish, to have lived with me all these months and not know that the worst storms break inside a man.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“But what virtue I do have is in me and of me. Men deny the good that comes from themselves, calling it God. So do they with their won evil, calling it the Devil.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“Are you afraid of dying, Ferris?'
'I'm afraid of not living.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“The Devil had granted my wish to watch him sleep, but granted it in his usual cruel fashion, making a pain of a pleasure. Yet pleasure there was. I still desired to watch over him, be his dragon against Botts.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“You talked once of bodily dignity.’
‘I’ve seen heads shot off.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“Why did You bid me drown the letter? I have lost something that he touched, and the destruction of it has gained You nothing, for now I no longer read the words, I hear them, as if he implored me face to face. Speak to me, Jacob, do not play the tyrant. Speak to me.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“I dig and plough at your command,' I replied, 'but you will not tell me how to shit.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“Sin is our condition," I said.
"Say rather that love is our rightful condition."
"You talk like--you are a good man! But how can you be good without God?"
He grinned. "Not so good, neither. But what virtue I do have is in me and of me. Men deny the good that comes from themselves, calling it God. So they do with their own evil, calling it the Devil."
I tried to see how this might be.
"There is no Hell, Jacob."
"And the Bible?"
"Was written by men like ourselves."
He was frightening. At the idea of there being no Hell I had felt a breath of something like freedom, but it was illusion. I marvelled at his foolhardiness, feared it, and loved it.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“How did men make themselves loved, I wondered. I had passed all my life with men who were loved but I seemed never to have learnt the lesson.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“Whatever makes a man a beast also renders him pitiable. But it behoves us to be wary of these bestial men despite our compassion, for they frequently turn on their friends.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“Violent love eats up what it does love, and it is mere appetite. I scribbled on the bottom of this before sending it back: I would sooner cut my own flesh than do you a hurt. You should not have tried to get between us! But only come to see me, and another time I will stand and let me beat to a mummy.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“I mean that repeated offences, even when they secure forgiveness, drive out love. And from that I came to say that one may compel obedience but never love.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“Quiet. My body melted heavily into the chair; I heard a cart go up the street. The room grew suddenly big with meaning. Something was about to happen, was happening: each object in the room seemed perfect of its kind, its kind being just its one self. The moment split into Eternity and I went with it: I had neither skin nor bones, but flowed into the world, sacred along with everything else, and was lost.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“Behold,' said the Voice, 'earthly beauty. It is nothing but seeming, for to the uninstructed eye the world appears fruitful and sweet, yet in it is nothing but a pile of skulls, showing where others were lost as they went before.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“I wondered how many times I would be told 'Be joyous' before I died. Can a man arrange the sorrows and joys of his life to the Christian calendar?”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“I pictured Becs and myself together, squabbling, but always over little things, while I rotted away at the core from love of Ferris.
It was hopeless.
‘Here.’ I laid my hands on the table, palms up, and jerked my head at them, ‘put yours on top.’
Ferris did not move.
‘Please,’ I said.
He laid his cold hands on mine and I curled my fingers, folding his within them.
‘Now,’ I said, ‘I’ve neither accepted nor refused. Speak it out plainly, tell me and I’ll do it.’
He cried, ‘Don’t put it onto me! Choose for yourself.’
‘This is choosing. Tell Aunt I will do whatever you’ll have me do, and that’s my answer.’ I kept hold of his fingers. We stayed there silent and motionless for some time, while the candles burnt down.
At last he said quietly, ‘It is a lot to give up.’
‘Well. My history is bad enough without bigamy,’ I replied, at which he smiled but made no reply. The candles were half burnt. I took one and rose.
‘Goodnight, Ferris.’
‘Goodnight, Jacob.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“Will you still walk with me?’
‘Would you walk with a bad angel?”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“All I could do was to hold on tight to the sides of the chair, and keep myself from sucking his fingers. ‘Would”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“Violent love eats up what it does love, and is mere appetite.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“I took up the letter. On seeing the first line I knew it directly, but could not hold back from reading the whole thing, not once but many times, for it was the only love letter I had received in my life.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“God cuts out our path, makes a groove in the clay with His finger, and we poor blind ants slide down into it.”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
“I studied the shape of my friend’s hands, and how he clasped them. I could smell his skin and hair in the cold air of the church, and stood aching, my face a devout mask stretched over a rotten soul. On”
― Maria McCann, quote from As Meat Loves Salt
Maria McCann
Born place: Liverpool, England, The United Kingdom
See more on GoodReads
“So I might have to marry Alec when I'm grown," Illia was prattling across to Seregil. "I hope that won't hurt your feelings too much."
Seregil slapped a hand over his heart like a troubadour in a mural. "Ah, fair maiden, I shall slay a thousand evil dragons for you, and lay their steaming black livers at your dainty feet, if only you will restore me to your favor."
"Livers!" Illia buried her face against Alec's shoulder with an outraged giggle.
"You wouldn't bring me livers, would you, Alec?"
"Of course not," Alec scoffed. "What a disgusting present. I'd bring you the eyeballs for a necklace, and all their scaly pointed tongues to tie your braids with.”
― quote from Stalking Darkness
“Because time is a drop in the ocean, and you cannot measure off one drop against another to see which one is bigger, which one is smaller.”
― Elif Shafak, quote from The Bastard of Istanbul
“Likely the milpa cannot be replicated on an industrial scale. But by studying its essential features, researchers may be able to smooth the rough ecological edges of conventional agriculture. “Mesoamerica still has much to teach us,” Wilkes said.”
― Charles C. Mann, quote from 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
“Durante nuestro viaje se realizaron dos celebraciones para honrar el talento de sendas personas. Todos los miembros de la tribu reciben este reconocimiento mediante una fiesta especial, pero no tiene nada que ver con la edad ni los cumpleaños; con ella se reconoce el carácter único de ese talento y su contribución a la vida. Según sus creencias, el paso del tiempo cumple el propósito de permitir que las personas se vuelvan mejores, que expresen más y mejor su propio ser. Así pues, si eres mejor persona este año que el anterior, y sólo tu lo sabes con seguridad, debes ser tu quien convoque la fiesta. Cuando tú dices que estás preparado, todos lo aceptan.”
― Marlo Morgan, quote from Mutant Message Down Under
“HERE LIES BROM
Who was a Dragon Rider
And like a father
To me.
May his name live on in glory.”
― Christopher Paolini, quote from Inheritance Cycle 4-Book Hard Cover Boxed Set (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, Inheritance)
Caraval
The Jewel in the Cro...
The Confessions of N...
Wasted: A Memoir of...
The Dark Divine
Ninth KeyBookQuoters 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.
