“What does all this mean finally, I kept asking like a college kid. Why does it make me want to cry? Maybe it’s that we are all outsiders, we are all making our own unusual way through a wilderness of
normality that is just a myth.”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“Elegance is really a kind of control.”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“You only hurt people when you tell them the truth about things that they cannot respect or understand”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“Each of us has within him a dark chamber where the real desire flowers; and the horror of it is that they never see the light of another's understanding, those strange blooms. It is as lonely as it is dark, that chambers of the heart.”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“I have this theory actually, that after an absence you discover in that first glimpse what you really think and feel about another person. You know things you couldn't know before”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“I have this theory that actually, after an absence you discover in that first glimpse what you really think and feel about another person. You know things you couldn't know before.”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“She was standing there all right. And I was in love with her. So much for the first glimpse.”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“It's that nobody has ever been able to convince me that anything sexual between consenting individuals is wrong. I mean it's like part of my brain is missing. Nothing disgusts me. It all seems innocent, to do with profound sensations, and when people tell me they are offended by things, I just don't know what they mean.”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“You have the thing all men and women strive for: the lover from whom you do not have to hide anything.”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“El cabello me caía sobre los hombros desnudos como un manto protector. Tenía los pezones duros, y me pregunté si ese extraño, ese conocedor de los entresijos del mundo sexual secreto, había notado que mi entrepierna estaba húmeda.”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“Y el largo vuelo de regreso a casa, los alumnos en el campus, los jóvenes de mirada vidriosa, destruidos por las drogas y las ideas, que ni siquiera se fijaban en las muchachas altas y bronceadas cuyos pechos se transparentaban bajo las finas camisetas de algodón y hablaban de marihuana, sexo, revolución, los derechos de las mujeres en el mayor laboratorio social del mundo.”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“Everything is coming to an end, I thought. But what does that mean? Why do I say things to myself when I don't even know what they mean?”
― quote from Exit to Eden
“Kneel not to me.
The pow'r that I have on you is to spare you;
The malice towards you to forgive you. Live,
And deal with others better.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Cymbeline
“One day might be different from another, but there ain't much difference when they're put together.
September 14, 1911: Writer and teacher William Armstrong wrote celebrated children's books including the Newbery Medal-winning Sounder, about an African American sharecropper family with a loud and loyal hound, inspired by Odysseus' dog Argus. Armstrong was born in Virginia 102 years ago today.”
― William H. Armstrong, quote from Sounder
“The urge for retribution depends upon our not seeing the underlying causes of human behavior.”
― Sam Harris, quote from Free Will
“And this was the surprising thing about life on Berk. It was a bit like the sea itself. One minute it was all storms, and shipwrecks, and desperate escapes from deadly dragons, the next it was as calm, and peacefully restful, as if these things had never happened.”
― Cressida Cowell, quote from A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons
“I don't want to eke out my life like a resource in short supply. The only selfish life is a timid one. To hold back, to withdraw, to keep the best in reserve, both overvalues the self, and undervalues what the self is.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from The Powerbook
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.