“Too much positive is either scared or stupid or both. Reality is uncertain.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“The urban renewers had struck again. They'd evicted me, a fortune-teller, and a bookie from the corner of Mass. Ave. and Boylston, moved in with sandblasters and bleached oak and plant hangers, and last I looked appeared to be turning the place into a Marin County whorehouse.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“In the bank they did the same kind of stuff the fortune-teller and the bookie had done. But they dressed better.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“Businessmen learn the way businessmen are supposed to be. Professors learn the way professors are supposed to be. Construction workers learn how construction workers are supposed to be. They spend their lives trying to be what they’re supposed to be and being scared they aren’t. Quiet desperation.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“The Mass. Ave. Bridge is open... Some MIT students once measured it by repeatedly placing an undergraduate named Smoot on the ground and marking off his length. Every six feet or so there is still the indication of one smoot, two smoots, painted on the pavement. I could never remember how many smoots long the bridge was.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“Her toenails were painted. It didn’t help much. Never saw a toenail I liked.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“if you lay back and let oblivion roll over you, it will be your fault.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“We’re not ordinary. No one else is like us.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“A way of living better is to make the decisions you need to make based on what you can control. When you can.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“I could not love thee, dear, so much,’ ” I said, “ ‘loved I not honor more.’ ”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“tape on and the car trembled with percussion all the way to Saugus, where Hawk pulled into a Martignetti’s off Route 1 and bought three”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“The point is not to get hung up on being what you’re supposed to be. If you can, it’s good to do what pleases you.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“Then why don’t you get married?” “I’m not sure. Mostly it’s a question of how we’d affect each other, I suppose. Would”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“but what's the use of belonging anywhere if you're invisible?”
― E. Nesbit, quote from The Enchanted Castle
“If people can write to each other across space, why can they not write across time too?”
― Ahdaf Soueif, quote from The Map of Love
“The dirtiest actions should be carried out by the most honest men. D”
― Michael Bar-Zohar, quote from Mossad
“I have been reminded that back in the day, eating was to provide fuel for work, a necessity of life as mundane as bathing or sleeping. Pleasurable, sure, but when did it become such an obsession? We are bombarded daily with adverts, images, ideas and offers, all urging us to eat more, eat better, eat different, eat cheaply, and then ironically the list of diets available to us to help balance the overconsumption are so varied and many that they are too numerous to list. Here’s an exercise: try to name six members of the current cabinet. Most people struggle after three. Now try naming me six diets. Easy, huh? As a food lover and writer, I can say that the eating, preparation and sourcing of food has been a lifelong pleasure. I believe that one of the greatest expressions of love is to cook for someone. For”
― Amanda Prowse, quote from The Food of Love
“Sweet Evelyn, I think, I should have loved you better.
Possessing perfect knowledge I hover above him as he hacks me to bits. I see his rough childhood. I see his mother doing something horrid to him with a broomstick. I see the hate in his heart and the people he had yet to kill before pneumonia gets him at eighty-three. I see the dead kid's mom unable to sleep, pounding her fists against her face in grief at the moment I was burying her son's hand. I see the pain I've caused. I see the man I could have been, and the man I was, and then everything is bright and new and keen with love and I sweep through Sam's body, trying to change him, trying so hard, and feeling only hate and hate, solid as stone.”
― George Saunders, quote from CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
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.