Quotes from Burial Rites

“To know what a person has done, and to know who a person is, are very different things.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“I can turn to that day as though it were a page in a book. It’s written so deeply upon my mind I can almost taste the ink.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“It’s not fair. People claim to know you through the things you’ve done, and not by sitting down and listening to you speak for yourself.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“Any woman knows that a thread, once woven, is fixed in place; the only way to smooth a mistake is to let it all unravel.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“Blíndur er bóklaus ma∂ur. Blind is a man without a book.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“I was worst to the one I loved best.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“They will see the whore, the madwoman, the murderess, the female dripping blood into the grass and laughing with her mouth choked with dirt. They will say “Agnes” and see the spider, the witch caught in the webbing of her own fateful weaving. They might see the lamb circled by ravens, bleating for a lost mother. But they will not see me. I will not be there.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“The treachery of a friend is worse than that of a foe.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“I don't want to be remembered, I want to be here!”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“They see I’ve got a head on my shoulders, and believe a thinking woman cannot be trusted.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“Memories shift like loose snow in a wind, or are a chorale of ghosts all talking over one another. There is only ever a sense that what is real to me is not real to others, and to share a memory with someone is to risk sullying my belief in what has truly happened.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“I cannot think of what it was not to love him. To look at him and realise I had found what I had not known I was hungering for. A hunger so deep, so capable of driving me into the night, that it terrified me.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“She invented her own language to say what everyone else could only feel.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“I remain quiet. I am determined to close myself to the world, to tighten my heart and hold what has not yet been stolen from me. I cannot let myself slip away. I will hold what I am inside, and keep my hands tight around all the things I have seen and heard, and felt.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“Of all the names, one is a mistake. One is a nightmare. The stair you miss in the darkness.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“It was only later that I suffocated under the weight of his arguments, and his darker thoughts articulated. It was only later that our tongues produced landslides, that we became caught in the cracks between what we said and what we meant, until we could not find each other, did not trust the words in our own mouths.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“God has had His chance to free me, and for reasons known to Him alone, He has pinned me to ill fortune, and although I have struggled, I am run through and through with disaster; I am knifed to the hilt with fate.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“They will say ‘Agnes’ and see the spider, the witch caught in the webbing of her own fateful weaving. They might see the lamb circled by ravens, bleating for a lost mother. But they will not see me. I will not be there.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“Everything I said was taken from me and altered until the story wasn’t my own.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“She made mistakes and others made up their minds about her. People around here don’t let you forget your misdeeds. They think them the only things worth writing down.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“I preferred to read than talk with the others.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“It was not hard to believe a beautiful woman capable of murder, Margret thought.As it says in the sagas, Opt er flago i fogru skinni. A witch often has fair skin.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“I prefer a story to a prayer.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“Θα χαθείς. Δεν υπάρχει τελευταία κατοικία, δεν υπάρχει κηδεία, δεν υπάρχει ταφή, μόνο ένα ασταμάτητο σκόρπισμα, ένα ταξίδι που σπάει σε χίλια άλλα άσκοπα, ένα ταξίδι που σε πάει παντού χωρίς να σου προσφέρει δρόμο για να γυρίσεις στο σπίτι, αφού δεν υπάρχει σπίτι, υπάρχει μόνο αυτό το κρύο νησί και ο σκοτεινός εαυτός σου ίσα που κρατιέται πάνω του, ώσπου ν' αρχίσεις κι εσύ να ουρλιάζεις σαν τον αέρα και να μιμείσαι τη μοναξιά του”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“Sleep came to me like a thin tide of water. It would lap against my body but never submerge me.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“What else is God good for other than a distraction from the mire we’re all stranded in?”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“No matter if you tried to do what was best. No matter if your innermost self whispers, ‘I am not as you say!’—how other people think of you determines who you are.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“Now comes the darkening sky and a cold wind that passes right through you, as though you are not there, it passes through you as though it does not care whether you are alive or dead, for you will be gone and the wind will still be there...”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“No doves come from ravens’ eggs”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

“He knew me as one knows the seasons, knows the tide.”
― Hannah Kent, quote from Burial Rites

Video

About the author

Popular quotes

“It is hard to feel affection for something as totally impersonal as the atmosphere, and yet there it is, as much a part and product of life as wine and bread. Taken all in al, the sky is a miraculous achievement. It works, and for what it is designed to accomplish it is as infallible as anything in nature. I doubt whether any of us could think of a way to improve on it, beyond maybe shifting a local cloud from here to there on occasion. The word 'chance' does not serve to account well for structures of such magnificence...
We should credit it for what it is: for sheer size and perfection of function, it is far and away the grandest product of collaboration in all of nature.
It breathes for us, and it does another thing for our pleasure. Each day, millions of meteorites fall against the outer limits of the membrane and are burned to nothing by the friction. Without this shelter, our surface would long since have become the pounded powder of the moon. Even though our receptors are not sensitive enough to hear it, there is comfort in knowing the sound is there overhead, like the random noise of rain on the roof at night.”
― Lewis Thomas, quote from The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher

“The absence of trust is clearly inimical to a well-run society. The great Jane Jacobs noted as much with respect to the very practical business of urban life and the maintenance of cleanliness and civility on city streets. If we don't trust each other, our towns will look horrible and be nasty places to live. Moreover, she observed, you cannot institutionalize trust. Once corroded, it is virtually impossible to restore.”
― Tony Judt, quote from Ill Fares the Land

“Part of what we pick up in looking at Jesus in the gospel is a way of viewing the whole world. That worldview informs all our values and deeply shapes our thinking and decision-making. Another part of what we absorb is greater confidence in Jesus' counsel and his promises. This has its own powerful effect on what we fear and desire and choose. Another part of what we take up from beholding the glory of Christ is greater delight in his fellowship and deeper longing to see him in heaven. This has its own liberating effect from the temptations of this world. All these have their own peculiar way of changing us into the likeness of Christ. Therefore, we should not think that pursuing likeness to Christ has no other components than just looking at Jesus. Looking at Jesus produces holiness along many different paths.”
― John Piper, quote from God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself

“If God truly were inside you, could you bear to look at it? Necdet says.”
― Ian McDonald, quote from The Dervish House

“Alas my love you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously;
And I have loved you oh so longer
Delighting in your company.
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
Greensleeves was my heart of joy,
And who but my Lady Greensleeves.”
― Paula Brackston, quote from The Witch's Daughter

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.