“To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that’s not how a person with integrity acts.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy
“To allow someone, anyone, to suffer is the greatest sin there is.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy
“What a sad thing men are. Can’t do nothing good without being so weak we have to mess it up. Can’t build something up without tearing it down. It ain’t the Spackle that drove us to the end. It was ourselves.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy
“Roads is never the fastest way to get nowhere,” the woman says. “Don’t ye know that?”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy
“History ain’t so important when yer just trying to survive,” I say, spitting it out under my breath. “That’s actually when it’s most important,” Hildy says,”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy
“But then there’s her eyes and they look at you and don’t brook no arguments, don’t look like they ever doubt themselves, even when they should. Maybe they’re the eyes of a giant after all.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy
“But guessing a thing ain’t knowing a thing.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy
“I think how hope may be the thing that pulls you forward, may be the thing that keeps you going, but that it’s dangerous, too, that it’s painful and risky, that it’s making a dare to the world and when has the world ever let us win a dare?”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy
“But there’s always hope,” Ben says. “You always have to hope.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy
“War is a monster,” he says, almost to himself. “War is the devil. It starts and it consumes and it grows and grows and grows.” He’s looking at me now. “And otherwise normal men become monsters, too.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from Chaos Walking: A Trilogy
“Stupid to speak of blame when the wills of the immortals are involved.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Chosen
“And somewhere from the dim ages of history the truth dawned upon Europe that the morrow would obliterate the plans of today.”
― Jaroslav Hašek, quote from The Good Soldier Švejk
“[Riley] slapped his hands to his face and then dropped them as if in surrender. 'I always say the wrong thing around you. Look, can we start over?'
Over?"
Yes. Over. Wipe the board clean.'
But I would have to go back to hating you and not trusting you' I said
Oh, well don't do that.' He paused and chewed his lip. 'Does that mean you like and trust me now?' "
- Riley and Trella”
― Maria V. Snyder, quote from Inside Out
“He sighed and opened the black box and took out his rings and slipped them on. Another box held a set of knives and Klatchian steel, their blades darkened with lamp black. Various cunning and intricate devices were taken from velvet bags and dropped into pockets. A couple of long-bladed throwing tlingas were slipped into their sheaths inside his boots. A thin silk line and folding grapnel were wound around his waist, over the chain-mail shirt. A blowpipe was attached to its leather thong and dropped down the back of his cloak; Teppic picked a slim tin container with an assortment of darts, their tips corked and their stems braille-coded for ease of selection in the dark.
He winced, checked the blade of his rapier and slung the baldric over his right shoulder, to balance the bag of lead slingshot ammunition. As an afterthought he opened his sock drawer and took a pistol crossbow, a flask of oil, a roll of lockpicks and, after some consideration, a punch dagger, a bag of assorted caltrops and a set of brass knuckles.
Teppic picked up his hat and checked it's lining for the coil of cheesewire. He placed it on his head at a jaunty angle, took a last satisfied look at himself in the mirror, turned on his heel and, very slowly, fell over.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Pyramids
“You don't see anything, do you? You see everything but the goddamn mind; you see all the little specs and crap, but you don't see what goes on, do you?”
― Edward Albee, quote from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
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.