“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
“Always do what you're afraid to do.”
― E. Lockhart, quote from We Were Liars
“When did the body first set out on its own adventures? Snowman thinks; after having ditched its old travelling companions, the mind and the soul, for whom it had once been considered a mere corrupt vessel or else a puppet acting out their dramas for them, or else bad company, leading the other two astray. it must have got tired of the soul’s constant nagging and whining and the anxiety-driven intellectual web-spinning of the mind, distracting it whenever it was getting its teeth into something juicy or its fingers into something good. It had dumped the other two back there somewhere, leaving them stranded in some damp sanctuary or stuffy lecture hall while it made a beeline for the topless bars, and it had dumped culture along with them: music and painting and poetry and plays. Sublimation, all of it; nothing but sublimation, according to the body. Why not cut to the chase?
But the body had its own cultural forms. It had its own art. Executions were its tragedies, pornography was its romance.”
― Margaret Atwood, quote from Oryx and Crake
“21He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” 22Judas (not Iscariot) *said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” 23Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”
― quote from The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ
“She had loved them all, her children. Loved each one the best, but for different reasons.”
― Rosamunde Pilcher, quote from The Shell Seekers
“I, too, feel the need to reread the books I have already read," a third reader says, "but at every rereading I seem to be reading a new book, for the first time. Is it I who keep changing and seeing new things of which I was not previously aware? Or is reading a construction that assumes form, assembling a great number of variables, and therefore something that cannot be repeated twice according to the same pattern? Every time I seek to relive the emotion of a previous reading, I experience different and unexpected impressions, and do not find again those of before. At certain moments it seems to me that between one reading and the next there is a progression: in the sense, for example, of penetrating further into the spirit of the text, or of increasing my critical detachment. At other moments, on the contrary, I seem to retain the memory of the readings of a single book one next to another, enthusiastic or cold or hostile, scattered in time without a perspective, without a thread that ties them together. The conclusion I have reached is that reading is an operation without object; or that its true object is itself. The book is an accessory aid, or even a pretext.”
― Italo Calvino, quote from If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
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.