“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
“His oldest child from his second marriage, Matthew, stayed up all the night before he was buried, putting his father’s history on a wooden tombstone. He began with his father’s name on the first line, and on the next, he put the years ofhis father’s coming and going. Then all the things he knew his father had been. Husband. Father. Farmer. Grandfather. Patroller. Tobacco Man. Tree Maker. The letters ofthe words got smaller and smaller as the boy, not quite twelve, neared the bottom ofthe wood because he had never made a headstone for anyone before so he had not compensated for all that he would have to put on it. The boy filled up the whole piece ofwood and at the end of the last line he put a period. His father’s grave would remain, but the wooden marker would not last out the year. The boy knew better than to put a period at the end ofsuch a sentence. Something that was not even a true and proper sentence, with subject aplenty, but no verb to pull it all together. A sentence, Matthew’s teacher back in Virginia had tried to drum into his thick Kinsey head, could live without a subject, but it could not live without a verb.”
― Edward P. Jones, quote from The Known World
“Sometimes, Edie, a person's feelings aren't rational. At least, they don't seem that way on the surface. You have to dig a little deeper to understand what lies at the base”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Distant Hours
“This impression came out most for Maggie when, in their easier intervals, they had only themselves to regard, and when her companion’s inveteracy of never passing first, of not sitting till she was seated, of not interrupting till she appeared to give leave, of not forgetting too familiarly that in addition to being important she was also sensitive, had the effect of throwing over their intercourse a kind of silver tissue of decorum. It”
― Henry James, quote from The Golden Bowl
“I’ve got your back. Nothing alive will ever hurt you if I have breath in me. And nothing dead will hurt you if I don’t.” (Kisten)”
― Kim Harrison, quote from For a Few Demons More
“في الحروب، ليس الذين يموتون هم التعساء دائماً. إن الأتعس هم أولئك الذين يتركونهم خلفهم ثكالى، يتامى، ومعطوبي أحلام.”
― Ahlam Mosteghanemi, quote from The Bridges of Constantine
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.