“He was said to ride hallooing through the night, to be ready to shoot, hunt, or swim anywhere in any weather, to be able to drink half a dozen young lieutenants from nearby garrisons under the table, to wake up his occasional guests by firing a pistol through their bedroom windows, to have seduced every peasant girl in all the villages, to have released a fox in a lady’s drawing room.”
― Robert K. Massie, quote from Dreadnought
“But I should think our patriotism was warped and stunted indeed if it did not embrace the Greater Britain beyond the seas—the young and vigorous nations carrying everywhere a knowledge of the English tongue and English love of liberty and law. With these feelings, I refuse to speak or think of the United States as a foreign nation. They are our flesh and blood.… Our past is theirs. Their future is ours.…”
― Robert K. Massie, quote from Dreadnought
“At dinner one night at Osborne House, the Queen entertained a famous admiral whose hearing was impaired. Politely, Victoria had asked about his fleet and its activities; then, shifting the subject, she asked about the admiral’s sister, an elderly dowager of awesome dignity. The admiral thought she was inquiring about his flagship, which was in need of overhaul. “Well, ma’am,” he said, “as soon as I get back I’m going to have her hauled out, roll her on her side and have the barnacles scraped off her bottom.” Victoria stared at him for a second and then, for minutes afterward, the dining room shook with her unstoppable peals of laughter.”
― Robert K. Massie, quote from Dreadnought
“Lord Salisbury’s basic educational philosophy was that higher authority could, at best, have only a marginal effect; real desire to learn had to come from within. “N. has been very hard put to it for something to do,” he wrote of a son who had been left alone with him for a few days at Hatfield. “Having tried all the weapons in the gun-cupboard in succession—some in the riding room and some, he tells me, in his own room—and having failed to blow his fingers off, he has been driven to reading Sydney Smith’s Essays and studying Hogarth’s pictures.” Lady Salisbury did not share her husband’s detached approach. “He may be able to govern the country,” she said, “but he is quite unfit to be left in charge of his children.”
― Robert K. Massie, quote from Dreadnought
“There is something restful in the unconsciousness of animals—unconscious, that is, of all the things that matter so much to us and do not matter at all to them.”
― Robert K. Massie, quote from Dreadnought
Robert K. Massie
Born place: in Lexington, The United States
Born date January 1, 1929
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“But there is another realm where we can always find something true, the fireside of a friend, where we shed our little conceits and find warmth and understanding, where small selfishnesses are impossible and where wine and books and talk give a different meaning to existence.
There we have made something that no falseness can touch. We are at home.”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown
“پاییز امسال یک کلاغ سپید پیدایش شد. همیشه با کمی فاصله پشت سر بقیه پرواز می‌کند و روی هر درختی بنشیند همجنس‌هایش از آن درخت پرهیز می‌کنند. درک نمی‌کنم که چرا بقیهٔ کلاغ‌ها دوستش ندارند. به چشم من پرنده‌ای به‌خصوص زیباست، ولی برای همجنس‌هایش انزجارانگیز است. می‌بینم که تنها روی کاج خودش چمباتمه می‌زند و به دشت خیره می‌شود؛ بطالتی غمگین که نمی‌باید وجود می‌داشت، کلاغی سپید. آن‌قدر آن‌جا می‌نشیند تا دستهٔ بزرگ کلاغ‌ها پرواز می‌کنند، آن‌وقت من کمی غذا برایش می‌برم. آن‌قدر رام است که می‌توانم نزدیکش شوم. گاهی وقت‌ها تا می‌بیند دارم می‌آیم روی زمین جست و خیز می‌کند. از کجا بداند چرا طرد شده است. زندگی دیگری را نمی‌شناسد و همیشه طردشده باقی خواهد ماند. چنان تنهاست که از آدمیزاد کم‌تر می‌ترسد تا از برادران سیاهش. شاید آن‌قدر از او منزجرند که حتی راضی نیستند با وسوسه منقارشان سوراخ سوراخش کنند. هر روز در انتظار کلاغ سپید می‌نشینم و او را به سوی خود می‌خوانم و او با دقت از میان چشم‌های سرخ‌رنگش براندازم می‌کند. برایش کار چندانی از دستم برنمی‌آید. آشغال‌های من شاید زندگی‌ای را طولانی می‌کنند که نباید طولانی شود. ولی من می‌خواهم کلاغ سپید زنده بماند. گاهی در عالم رؤیا می‌بینم که یک کلاغ سپید دیگر در جنگل هست و آن دو یکدیگر را پیدا خواهند کرد. رؤیایم را باور ندارم، فقط آرزو می‌کنم چنین باشد.”
― Marlen Haushofer, quote from The Wall
“Anger is simply momentary madness, and sometimes there is strength in silence. After all, he is only throwing words, not stones.”
― Jeff Shaara, quote from Rise to Rebellion
“He set out to destroy me, but he fell in love with me instead. I fell in love with him, and that's what destroyed me in the end.”
― J.M. Darhower, quote from Monster in His Eyes
“You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your perception...you see what is, where most people see what they expect.”
― Tsitsi Dangarembga, quote from Nervous Conditions
Branded by Fire
A Mercy
Cast in Fury
Ring
Divine By Choice
The Home and the Wor...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.
