“She'd decided long ago that life was a long journey. She would be strong and she would be weak, and both would be okay.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Why must you look like the rest of us? Why do you have to be the one to change? Change the way we see. Don't change the way you are.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“It was so much easier to fight for another than it was to fight for oneself.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Narrow-mindedness will only get you as far as Nowhere, and once you're there, you're lost forever.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Alice knew that being different would always be difficult; she knew that there was no magic that would erase narrow-mindedness or iron out the inequities in life. But Alice was also beginning to learn that life was never lived in absolutes. People would both love her and rebuff her; they would show both kindness and prejudice. The simple truth was that Alice would always be different—but to be different was to be extraordinary, and to be extraordinary was an adventure. It no longer mattered how the world saw her; what mattered was how Alice saw herself. Alice”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Best to introduce yourself to patience now, so that it might find you when you call upon it later.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Red was ruby, green was fluorescent, yellow was simply incandescent. Color was life. Color was everything.
Color, you see, was the universal sign of magic.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Oh, life had been a lonely one, but she knew how to pass the time.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“The morning arrived the way Alice imagined a whisper would: in tendrils of gray and threads of gold, quietly, quietly. The sky was illuminated with great care and deliberation, and she leaned back to watch it bloom.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Alice would choose to love herself, different and extraordinary, every day of the week.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Love, it turned out, could both hurt and heal.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Studies have shown that thinking and wondering lead to thoughtful decision-making. It's an epidemic.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“She felt most comfortable in nature, where things weren’t required to look like the other in order to live together peacefully.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Alice was an odd girl, even for Ferenwood, where the sun occasionally rained and the colors were brighter than usual and magic was as common as a frowning parent.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“People are so preoccupied with making sense despite it being the most uninteresting thing to manufacture.” He shook his head. “Making magic,” he said, “is far more interesting than making sense.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“She could see all of Ferenwood from here: the rolling hills, the endless explosion of color cascading down and across the lush landscape. Reds and blues: Maroon and ceruleans. Yellow and tangerine and violet and aquamarine. Every hue held a flavor, a heartbeat, a life. She took a deep breath and drew it all in.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Love had made her fearless, and wasn’t it strange? It was so much easier to fight for another than it was to fight for oneself.)”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Alice dropped her head, because sadness had left hinges in her bones.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Suddenly she understood that it is a very hard thing, to be afraid of things, and that it takes up so much time. Suddenly she understood why Mother rarely got around to doing the dishes. “Does”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Mother often said that she could never be bothered to understand why Alice did the things she did, and now, more than ever, Alice thought never being bothered was a very lazy way to love someone.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“The afternoon our story begins, the quiet parts of being alive were the busiest: wind unlocking Windows; rainlight nudging curtains apart; fresh-cut grass tickling unsocked feet. Days like this made Alice want to set off on a great adventure.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Alice jumped from flagstone to flagstone, her face caught in the rainlight glow, her hand grasping for a touch of gold. The towns excitement was contagious, and the air was so thick with promise Alice could almost bite into it.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“He spent the next ten minutes giving a speech about the great day that is the day of their Surrender, and I can’t be bothered to remember it all (it went on for nine minutes too long, if you ask me), but suffice it to say that it was a heart-warming speech that excited the crowd and sent jitters up Alice’s skirts; and anyway, I hope you don’t mind but I’d like to skip ahead to the part where things actually happen.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Mother didn’t care for the oddness of Alice; she wasn’t a parent who was predisposed to liking her children. She didn’t find their quirks endearing.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Alice had hoped to be brave – she'd hoped she was stronger than her fears – but Alice was injured on the inside; and though her anger kept her upright, it couldn't keep her steady, and from moment to moment Alice would slip.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Geduld, Alice. Je kunt maar beter gauw vriendjes worden met geduld, zodat het naar je toe komt als je het later een keer nodig hebt."
- Verdermeer - Tahereh Mafi (blz. 131)”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Plotseling snapte ze dat bang zijn voor dingen heel zwaar is, en dat het vooral veel tijd kost.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Open je hart. Spits je oren. En zeg nooit nee tegen de wereld als die je vraagt om te dansen.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Mijn hart is gewoon zo ongelooflijk kapot, dat ik bang ben dat het niet meer gemaakt kan worden.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Je kunt maar beter gauw vriendjes worden met geduld, zodat het naar je toe komt als je het later een keer nodig hebt.”
― Tahereh Mafi, quote from Furthermore
“Finché l’uomo vive nel suo ambiente e in condizioni normali, gli elementi del curriculum vitae rappresentano per lui periodi importanti e svolte significative della sua vita. Ma appena il caso o il lavoro o le malattie lo separano dagli altri e lo isolano, questi elementi di colpo cominciano a scolorirsi, si inaridiscono e si decompongono con incredibile rapidità, come una maschera di cartone o di lacca senza vita, usata una volta sola. Sotto questa maschera comincia a intravedersi un’altra vita, conosciuta solo a noi, ossia la “vera” storia del nostro spirito e del nostro corpo, che non è scritta da nessuna parte, di cui nessuno suppone l’esistenza, una storia che ha molto poco a che fare con i nostri successi in società, ma che è, per noi, per la nostra felicità o infelicità, l’unica valida e la sola davvero importante.
Sperduto in quel luogo selvaggio, durante le lunghe notti, quando tutti i rumori erano cessati, Daville pensava alla sua vita passata come a una lunga serie di progetti audaci e di scoraggiamenti noti a lui solo, di lotte, di atti eroici, di fortune, di successi e di crolli, di disgrazie, di contraddizioni, di sacrifici inutili e di vani compromessi. Nelle tenebre e nel silenzio di quella città che ancora non aveva visto ma in cui lo attendevano, senza dubbio, preoccupazioni o difficoltà, sembrava che nulla al mondo si potesse risolvere né conciliare. In certi momenti gli pareva che per vivere fossero necessari sforzi enormi e per ogni sforzo una sproporzionata dose di coraggio. E, visto nel buio di quelle notti, ogni sforzo gli sembrava infinito. Per non fermarsi e rinunciare, l’uomo inganna se stesso, sostituendo gli obiettivi che non è riuscito a raggiungere con altri, che ugualmente non raggiungerà; ma le nuove imprese e i nuovi tentativi lo obbligheranno a cercare dentro di sé altre energie e maggiore coraggio. Così l’uomo si autoinganna e col passare del tempo diviene sempre più e senza speranza debitore verso se stesso e verso tutto quello che lo circonda.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Bosnian Chronicle
“A thousand fireworks explode inside me, and I feel them in him too, in his lips on mine, and his hands in my hair, and he way we pull each other closer. Everything else falls away, and in this moment, when we touch, we are light.”
― Jessi Kirby, quote from Things We Know by Heart
“He was part of the infinite. The tree and the rock and the water. The rising of the sun and the running of the deer.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from A God in Ruins
“Fireflies winked, and the darkening bay breathed and sighed like a great dolphin and the thin pure curve of a young moon hung in the green sky...”
― Anne Rivers Siddons, quote from Colony
“We had always known that ours is a small country and that America is very big. But even as a seven-year-old, I was surprised that so many Americans has never noticed us on the map. Perhaps it's like driving a Yugo and realizing that the eighteen-wheeler can's see you.”
― Firoozeh Dumas, quote from Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America
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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