“كأن أحدهم بعث بإشارة سرية تخبرهم أن الحياة ببساطة ليست قواعد ومحظورات وقيود، بل مشاعر أقل عقلانية وأقل رشداً وأكثر حرية مما ظلوا يعتقدونه حتى هذه اللحظة”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“لا شئ أخطر من رجل لا يخضع للطاغية”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“لحظة واحدة مكتملة قد تحوي أكثر إلي ما لا نهاية مما سبقها من سنوات وعقود غير مكتملة”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“على المرء أن يتقبل الأحداث ويدعها تأخذ مسارها فحسب”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“إن كل شئ يذهب، ما نفعله، وما نرغب فيه، وما نحبه، وما نقوله، النساء والعلاقات ، يتراكم تراب الزمن علي كل ما فعلناه، كل ما أثارنا ذات مرة .. لكن الكلمات وحدها تبقي”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“لم أكتفِ بعد من الضحك علي الحماقة البشرية”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“أن تعيش يعني أحياناً أن تنتظر”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“يريد الناس الحب مجاناً، وبدون التزامات إن أمكن”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“ألا تظن أيها الغريب أن ثمة نوعاً من الرجال تكمن كل قوة جاذبيته، كل مميزاته وكل سحره، في عجزه عن أن يكون سعيداً؟”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“الحاضر ليس سوى استمرار لمحادثة بدأت منذ زمن طويل”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“Moxie gave me a small smile. "Why do you always say that- which here means?"
"I'll probably outgrow it," I said.”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?
“Making good use of that room?” Lucius asked them, having a laugh with the trollop at his side. Oscar stood unwavering in the center of the hall, forcing Lucius to skirt around him.
“You’re a pig,” Camille replied, but he only squealed and snorted like a sow.
“Either of you figure out yet how we’re going to get home?” Lucius asked. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m perfectly content here for the time being.”
A pair of sloppy-looking men stumbled through the front door, obviously drunk, and howling like wolves. Oscar stepped up beside Camille, blocking her from their view. His shoulders and chest were the perfect shield against whatever misguided attentions the men might show her.
“When did you become concerned about the three of us sticking together?” she asked Lucius. “We haven’t set eyes on you since you disappeared into the orlop deck of the Londoner.”
Lucius nodded over his shoulder. “I’m being nursed back to health, can’t you see?”
She glared at him. Why someone like Lucius had survived the shipwreck instead of a worthier person like her father angered her. Maybe she really was cursed.
“You don’t have a plan, do you?” Lucius asked Oscar, who continued to block Camille from the two men anxiously waiting by the front door for someone to greet them. Lucius snorted a laugh. “Should’a guessed as much.”
Oscar took a step forward, pressing Camille between his chest and Lucius’s.
“What do you mean by that?”
Lucius laced his fingers together and bowed them, cracking his knuckles. “Just that everyone knew you were only good for dishing out orders that came from someone else.”
Camille placed one hand on Oscar’s chest and the other on Lucius and shoved them apart.
“Stop it,” she said. “I liked it better when you were out of sight, Lucius.”
― Angie Frazier, quote from Everlasting
“I'd rather be in danger with you than be safe without you.”
― Fuyumi Ono, quote from The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow
“There is always, for some reason, an element of sadness mingled with my thoughts of human happiness, and, on this occasion, at the sight of a happy man I was overcome by an oppressive feeling that was close upon despair. It was particularly oppressive at night. A bed was made up for me in the room next to my brother’s bedroom, and I could hear that he was awake, and that he kept getting up and going to the plate of gooseberries and taking one. I reflected how many satisfied, happy people there really are! ‘What a suffocating force it is! You look at life: the insolence and idleness of the strong, the ignorance and brutishness of the weak, incredible poverty all about us, overcrowding, degeneration, drunkenness, hypocrisy, lying... Yet all is calm and stillness in the houses and in the streets; of the fifty thousand living in a town, there is not one who would cry out, who would give vent to his indignation aloud. We see the people going to market for provisions, eating by day, sleeping by night, talking their silly nonsense, getting married, growing old, serenely escorting their dead to the cemetery; but we do not see and we do not hear those who suffer, and what is terrible in life goes on somewhere behind the scenes... Everything is quiet and peaceful, and nothing protests but mute statistics: so many people gone out of their minds, so many gallons of vodka drunk, so many children dead from malnutrition... And this order of things is evidently necessary; evidently the happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burdens in silence, and without that silence happiness would be impossible. It’s a case of general hypnotism. There ought to be behind the door of every happy, contented man some one standing with a hammer continually reminding him with a tap that there are unhappy people; that however happy he may be, life will show him her laws sooner or later, trouble will come for him—disease, poverty, losses, and no one will see or hear, just as now he neither sees nor hears others. But there is no man with a hammer; the happy man lives at his ease, and trivial daily cares faintly agitate him like the wind in the aspen-tree—and all goes well.”
― Anton Chekhov, quote from Racconti
“the cat unsheathes its claws
the world turns”
― Sylvia Plath, quote from Plath: Poems
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.