“…everything has a past. Everything – a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don’t know the past, you can’t understand the present and plan properly for the future.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from Davita's Harp
“In our time... a man whose enemies are faceless bureaucrats almost never wins. It is our equivalent to the anger of the gods in ancient times. But those gods you must understand were far more imaginative than our tiny bureaucrats. They spoke from mountaintops not from tiny airless offices. They rode clouds. They were possessed of passion. They had voices and names. Six thousand years of civilization have brought us to this.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from Davita's Harp
“Did he really believe God wrote stories that were open to one explanation only? A story that knew but one explanation could hardly be interesting and was certainly not worth the trouble of remembering.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from Davita's Harp
“Good-bye, Davita. Be discontented with the world. But be respectful at the same time.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from Davita's Harp
“I like his optimism,' I said. 'I like the way when he and some other rabbis saw a jackal in the ruins of Jerusalem, and the others began to cry, he laughed and said that just as the prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled, so the prophecy of the rebuilding would also be fulfilled. I like that.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from Davita's Harp
“If people realized someone would be sorting through their trash, would they be more careful in what they throw away?”
― Camron Wright, quote from The Rent Collector
“You can’t do over what’s already been done, but you sure can undo it. Not easy, but you can undo it.”
― Madeleine Roux, quote from Sanctum
“He is ever inglorious
His laugh is laborious
His smell is notorious
Impale the herring king!”
― Shannon Hale, quote from Palace of Stone
“Maybe occasionally the gods designed a woman fit for a king or a prince and gave her to an ordinary man. Maybe they did such a thing once in a while, knowing an ordinary man would treasure her more, love her better.”
― Ellen O'Connell, quote from Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold
“I was told once by some country people that a magician should never tell his dreams because the telling will make them come true. But I say that is great nonsense.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
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.