“In fact, life itself is a contradiction if only because birth is the direct cause, in every single case, of death”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation
“I say his version because there is no such thing as a true account of anything. Each sees the world from his own vantage point. Needless to say, a throne is not the best place from which to view anything except the backs of prostrate men.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation
“Is it not better for a man never to have been born?"
"Certaintly not" The response was brisk. "Just to be able to study the sky is reason enough to be alive."
"Unfortunately, I can't see the sky."
"Then listen to music.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation
“It is astonishing to think that millions of people in my time—now, too, I suppose—actually thought that at a given moment in history two human beings had evolved to a higher state than that of all the gods that ever were or ever will be. This is titanism, as the Greeks would say. This is madness.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation
“...,I have never visited any city in the world where I was not told that I just missed the golden age. I seem never to be on time." Cyrus Sitema”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation
“Democritus is studying philosophy here at Athens. This means that he delights in quarrels.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation
“All over Greece, strangers of a certain age will greet one another with the question, "And where were you and what did you do when Xerxes came to Marathon?" Then they exchange lies.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation
“I would not be surprised if elephants are more intelligent than human beings. After all, their heads are larger than ours, and the fact that they do not speak might well be an indication of superiority.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation
“I said it. I like to quote myself. I am not modest.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation
“Să aibă parte de o femeie matură trebuie să fie visul oricărui puşti. Dar cu mine e altceva. Ea mă interesează mai puţin ca iniţiatoare în erotism, cât pur şi simplu ca suflet şi gândire şi memorie de femeie coaptă, de femeie adevărată. Elevele sau studentele nu sunt, de cele mai multe ori, decât nişte mâţe închipuite, învăluite, e drept, în lumina de ambră a ochilor şi într-un fel de nonconformism năuc. Fără trecut, sau fără să şi-l conştientizeze încă, anexe de discotecă al căror erotism, când există, e unul pur social şi estetic, ele strepezesc imaginaţia ca nişte fructe încă necoapte. Cele mai multe nu se coc niciodată : le dispare şarmul şi se adaugă mulţimii de neveste cumsecade, cu o sinceră vocaţie a normalităţii. Ingineraşi, vaporeni, contabili - ei se aleg cu mândreţele de tigrese care unduiesc sub flacăra stroboscoapelor, sub peticele ameţitoare de lumină emise de globul cu oglinjoare.”
― Mircea Cărtărescu, quote from Nostalgia
“He was tall, one of the tallest men she had ever seen. Dressed in jeans, boots and a cotton shirt. Thick black hair grew rakishly long, falling over the collar of his shirt. Intense brown eyes, almost the color of amber, surveyed the diner slowly before coming back to her. Electricity sizzled in the air then, as though invisible currents connected them, forcing her to recognize him on a primitive level. Not that she wouldn’t take notice anyway. He was power, strength, and so incredibly male that her breath caught at the sight of him.”
― Lora Leigh, quote from Elizabeth's Wolf
“When I transformed my random and raw words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into chapters, a semblance of order and sanity appeared where there had been only chaos and insanity.”
― David Sheff, quote from Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
“Jack looked at the paper. Devonsgate had listed all twelve footmen: John, Mark, Luke,
Thomas…Bloody hell, his butler had hired the entire New Testament.”
― Karen Hawkins, quote from How to Abduct a Highland Lord
“Humans have given away all their power to a “they”. You aren’t able to fight the system because without the system none of you can survive.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from The Stone Gods
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.