“The only good cage is an empty cage.”
“But perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that there are no walls between humans and the elephants except those that we put up ourselves, and that until we allow not only elephants, but all living creatures their place in the sun, we can never be whole ourselves.”
“They taught me that all life forms are important to each other in our common quest for happiness and survival. That there is more to life than just yourself, your own family, or your own kind.”
“There is nothing more energizing than inhaling the tang of wilderness, loamy after rain, pungent with the richness of earth shuddering with life, or taking in the brisk dry cleanness of winter.”
“The wrong way to go about this is to say: Well, researchers have ‘proved’ that animals only understand fifty words or something similarly absurd. Or that communication with other species is an illusion. Communication is not the preserve of humans; it is the one thing that is truly universal.”
“But perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that there are no walls between humans and the elephants except those we put up ourselves, and that until we allow not only elephants, but all living creatures their place in the sun, we can never be whole ourselves.”
“tangled and eternal as Appalachian feuds – are internecine”
“In our noisy cities we tend to forget the things our ancestors knew on a gut level: that the wilderness is alive, that its whispers are there for all to hear - and to respond to.”
“This is not just primitive rural superstition; [juju] is practiced by all kinds of people, from illiterate herd boys to multi-dregreed university professors. If you don't understand the power of this belief, you will never truly grasp the rich albeit often incomprehensible spirituality of Africa.”
“Years later I was in the Sudan on a conservation project when I heard an incredible story on good authority that sounded similar to my own. During the twenty-year war between northern and southern Sudan elephants were being slaughtered both for ivory and meat and so large numbers migrated to Kenya for safety. Within days of the final ceasefire being signed, the elephants left their adopted residence en masse and trekked the hundreds of miles back home to Sudan. How they knew that their home range was now safe is just another indication of the incredible abilities of these amazing creatures.”
“Hatter was dressed in his outlandish clothes again and her heart beamed with pride. “You know,” she said, “you’re all sorts of perfect.” He smiled, but she saw pleasure in his eyes.”
“the king of kind hearts and polite fellows”
“في أغلب الأحيان نحن نرتبط بالله كي ننتقم من الحياة ، كي نعاقبها ، كي نخبرها بأننا نستطيع الاستغناء عنها ، وأننا وجدنا ما هو أفضل منها . كما أننا نتعلق بالله رعباً من البشر ، في نوع من الاقتصاص منهم ، رغبة في جعلهم يفهمون أننا وقد وجدنا حظوة لدى غيرهم ، فإن صحبتهم لم تعد ضرورية لنا ، وأننا إذا كنا نزحف أمامه فكي لا نضطر إلى الزحف أمامهم . دون هذا العنصر الوضيع ، الموث ، الماكر ، يفقد إيماننا قوته بل قد لا يظهر حتى خطوطه الأولى .”
“Woe is Merit, the immortal vampire with the never-gray hair and long legs and hot blond boyfriend.”
“It was possible, maybe, to have facts in your mind that weren't facts at all. You could build a whole life's story on false assumptions. You could make truths out of untruths and untruths out of truths. Until you spoke them, really said them out loud or checked for sure, you may not have known which were which.”
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.
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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.