“- I'm so busy doing what I must do that I don't have time for what I ought to do... and I never get a chance to do what I want to do!
- Son, that's universal. The way to keep that recipe from killing you is occasionally to do what you want to do anyhow.”
“The way to find justice is to deal fairly with other people and not worry about how they deal with you.”
“Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none; men cannot live together without them.”
“Once a man gets a reputation as a liar, he might as well be struck dumb, for people do not listen to the wind.”
“He was finding it ruinously expensive to be rich.”
“Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none; men cannot live together without them. From an anthropologist's view, 'justice' is a search for workable customs.”
“I’m so busy doing what I must do that I don’t have time for what I ought to do . . . and I never get a chance to do what I want to do!” “Son, that’s universal. The way to keep that recipe from killing you is occasionally to do what you want to do anyhow. Which is right now.”
“...most things are right or wrong only in their backgrounds; few things are good or evil in themselves.”
“Freedom is a hard habit to break.”
“it is evident that there is another logical alternative: that there can be societies in which difference is not necessarily equated with inferiority or superiority.”
“Love is giving up control. It’s surrendering the desire to control the other person. The two—love and controlling power over the other person—are mutually exclusive. If we are serious about loving someone, we have to surrender all the desires within us to manipulate the relationship.”
“Just being a good person doesn’t necessarily entitle you to a good life.”
“Remember what the poet Shakespeare said, Jeeves? 'Exit hurriedly, pursued by a bear.' You'll find it in one of his plays.”
“That's the trouble with caring about anybody, you begin to feel overprotective. Then you begin to feel crowded.”
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.