“Cleaning is considered a vital part of the training process in all traditional Japanese disciplines and is a required practice for any novice. It is accorded spiritual significance. Purifying an unclean place is believed to purify the mind.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life
“And we are not mountaintop sages who can live by consuming mist.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life
“Kimono, the. Costumes of our profession, are sacred to us. They are the emblems of our calling. Kimono embody beautyas we understand!!!”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life
“So we support the dance but it does not support us.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life
“Non è mai giusto colpire altre persone o causare loro del dolore.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life
“Ricordo ancora dei momenti magnifici, in cui la famiglia era al completo...non immaginavo neppure lontanamente che da lì a breve quegli idilliaci intermezzi sarebbero finiti.
Eppure presto accadde.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life
“Gli abiti che usiamo per la nostra professione per noi sono sacri. Rappresentano l'emblema della nostra vocazione. Realizzati con i tessuti più belli e costosi del mondo, i kimono incarnano la bellezza per come noi la concepiamo. Ciascun kimono è un'opera d'arte unica e colei che lo possiede partecipa attivamente alla sua creazione. In linea generale, si può dire molto di una persona dalla qualità del kimono che indossa: stato economico, gusto, retroterra familiare, personalità. A fronte di piccole variazioni nel taglio, c'è un'enorme varietà di colori e motivi nei materiali usati per realizzare ogni abito. Scegliere un kimono adatto alla situazione in cui verrà indossato è un'arte. Il giusto abbinamento in base alle stagioni è fondamentale. I canoni del gusto tradizionale giapponese dividono l'anno in ventotto stagioni, ciascuna delle quali possiede i propri simboli. I colori e i motivi del kimono e dell'obi dovrebbero rispecchiare la stagione: l'usignolo a fine marzo, per esempio, o il crisantemo nei primi giorni di novembre.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life
“fiction has served to propagate the notion that courtesans ply their trade in the area and that geiko spend the night with their customers. Once an idea like this is planted in the general culture it takes on a life of its own. I understand that there are some scholars of Japan in foreign countries who also believe these misconceptions to be true. But”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life
“He felt great. spa'dassins digladiate; ziffidae and xebecs contend! gol-iard dunking!”
― Iain M. Banks, quote from Excession
“[The Void Which Binds] actual but unaccessible presence in our universe is one of the prime causes for our species elaborating myth and religion, for our stubborn, blind belief in extrasensory powers, in telepathy and precognition, in demons and demigods and resurrection and reincarnation and ghosts and messiahs and so many other categories of almost-but-not-quite satisfying bullshit.”
― Dan Simmons, quote from The Rise of Endymion
“We were four people: the children we'd been, and grown strangers now.”
― Julie Berry, quote from All the Truth That's in Me
“As I stare into the Border collie’s eyes, I think that maybe I should go inside and call the girls. Claire, Cindy, and Jill would be here almost before I hung up the phone. They would hold me, hug me, say all the right things. You’re special, Lindsay. Everybody loves you, Lindsay.”
― James Patterson, quote from 1st to Die
“A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked:
‘Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?’
His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:
I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’
Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special.
‘But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!’
‘That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.’
‘First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’
‘Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.
‘Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.’
‘Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’
‘Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from Like the Flowing River
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.