Quotes from As Meat Loves Salt

“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

About the author

Popular quotes

“To lead a life so wholly happy, so wholly unexamined that she could be dying, could be betrayed, could be besieged on all sides and never even know it.”
― Paullina Simons, quote from The Girl In Times Square

“Alone among unsympathetic companions, I hold certain views and standards timidly, half ashamed to avow them and half doubtful if they can after all be right. Put me back among my Friends and in half an hour - in ten minutes - these same views and standards become once more indisputable. The opinion of this little circle, while I am in it, outweighs that of a thousand outsiders: as Friendship strengthens, it will do this even when my Friends are far away. For we all wish to be judged by our peers, by the men "after our own heart." Only they really know our mind and only they judge it by standards we fully acknowledge. Theirs is the praise we really covet and the blame we really dread.”
― C.S. Lewis, quote from The Four Loves

“How does one end a moment like this? It would kill her to feel him pull away. She had to be first. In a moment. One moment more. Yes. Now”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from Luncheon of the Boating Party

“To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books.”
― Manly P. Hall, quote from Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic, and Ro

“– Мисля, че аз най-добре мога да преценя какво им е нужно.
- Не – каза Жакмор. – Те най-добре могат да преценят.
- Това е абсурдно – отсече Клемантин. – Тези деца са изложени на постоянни рискове, както, между другото, и всички деца.
- Те имат средства за защита, каквито вие нямате – каза Жакмор.
- В края на краищата вие не ги обичате така, както ги обичам аз и не изпитвате това, което изпитвам аз.
Жакмор замълча за миг.
- Много естествено – каза накрая той. – Как бих могъл да ги обичам по този начин?
- Само една майка може да разбере това – рече Клемантин.
- Но птиците умират в клетка – каза Жакмор.
- Много добре си живеят – отвърна Клемантин – Това е дори единственото място, където човек може прилично да се грижи за тях.
- Добре – каза Жакмор. – Виждам, че не може нищо да се направи.
Той стана.
- Трябва да се сбогувам с вас. Сигурно повече няма да се видим.
- Когато свикнат – рече тя, - може би ще мога да се отбивам от време на време в селото. Всъщност изобщо не разбирам вашите възражения, след като и вие в крайна сметка ще се затворите по същия начин.
- Но аз не затварям другите – отвърна Жакмор.
- Моите деца и аз сме едно цяло – каза Клемантин. – Аз толкова ги обичам.
- Имате странно разбиране за света.
- Същото мислех и за вас. В моето няма нищо странно. Светът това са те.
- Не, не, вие бъркате. Вие искате да бъдете техният свят! И в този смисъл разбирането ви е унищожително.

Той стана и излезе от стаята. Клемантин го проследи с поглед. Не изглежда щастлив, си помисли я. Сигурно майка му му е липсвала.”
― Boris Vian, quote from Heartsnatcher

Interesting books

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.