“We're all mad, the whole damned race. We're wrapped in illusions, delusions, confusions about the penetrability of partitions, we're all mad and in solitary confinement.”
― William Golding, quote from Darkness Visible
“The way towards simplicity is through outrage.”
― William Golding, quote from Darkness Visible
“You don't even care enough about us to hate us, do you?”
― William Golding, quote from Darkness Visible
“History is the nothing people write about a nothing.”
― William Golding, quote from Darkness Visible
“We have to face it at last. We're not all human.”
― William Golding, quote from Darkness Visible
“We think we know."
"Know? That's worse than an atom bomb, and always was.”
― William Golding, quote from Darkness Visible
“Heaven lies around us in our infancy.”
― William Golding, quote from Darkness Visible
“Ο κόσμος απλωνόταν έξω από το κεφάλι της, προς κάθε κατεύθυνση, εκτός από μια. Κι αυτή η μια ήταν η μόνη ασφαλής, γιατί ήταν δικιά της κι έβγαζε στο πίσω μέρος του κεφαλιού, εκεί, που σκοτάδι βαθύ σα νύχτα απλωνόταν (...) και θέλησε να δραπετεύσει, να βγει έξω στο φως του ήλιου, να γίνει όπως όλοι οι άλλοι. Μα δεν υπήρχε φως του ήλιου αυτή την ώρα. Έτσι και εκείνη το έφτιαξε μόνη της και το γέμισε με ανθρώπους που δεν είχαν σήραγγες στο πίσω μέρος του κεφαλιού τους' ανθρώπους χαρούμενους, εύθυμους, ανθρώπους που δεν ήξεραν.”
― William Golding, quote from Darkness Visible
“The old church tower and garden wall
Are black with autumn rain
And dreary winds foreboding call
The darkness down again”
― Emily Brontë, quote from The Complete Poems of Emily Bronte [with Biographical Introduction]
“A society that puts equality—in the sense of equality of outcome—ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.9”
― Thomas Sowell, quote from The Quest for Cosmic Justice
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
― Nelson Mandela, quote from Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
“P.S. I know you have gone to see the water, and you should see it, Etta, you should, but, in case there are other reasons you’ve left, in case there are things you have discovered or undiscovered that you didn’t want to tell me in person, in that case, you can always tell me here. Tell me here and we can never mention it outside of paper and ink (or pencil).”
― Emma Hooper, quote from Etta and Otto and Russell and James
“It is important for long-range stability that peaceful countries be well armed and well organized in self-defense.”
― Freeman Dyson, quote from Disturbing the Universe
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.