Quotes from I Am David

256 pages

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“And his eyes frighten me, too. They're the eyes of an old man, an old man who's seen so much in life that he no longer cares to go on living. They're not even desperate... just quiet and expectant, and very, very lonely, as if he were quite alone of his own free choice.”
― quote from I Am David


“Johannes had once said that violence and cruelty were just a stupid person's way of making himself felt, because it was easer to use your hands to strike a blow than to use your brain to find a logical and just solution to the problem.”
― quote from I Am David


“And it was most important to do what one knew was right, for otherwise the day might come when one could no longer tell the difference between right and wrong.”
― quote from I Am David


“Never let me hear you say it's someone else's fault. It often is, but you must never shirk your own responsibility ... You can't change others, but you can do something about a fault in yourself.”
― quote from I Am David


“There's always something when you're at fault, too, and that fault you must discover and learn to recognize and take the consequences of it.”
― quote from I Am David



“But Johannes had said, "Politeness is something you owe other people, because when you show a little courtesy, everything becomes easier and better. But first and foremost, it's something you owe yourself. You are David.”
― quote from I Am David


“Joy passed, but happiness never completely disappeared; a touch of it would always remain to remind one it had been there. It was happiness that made one smile, then.”
― quote from I Am David


“The sun glistened on a drop of water as it fell from his hand to his knee. David wiped it off, but it left no tidemark: there was no more dirt to rub away. He took a deep breath and shivered. He was David. Everything else was washed away, the camp, its smell, its touch--and now he was David, his own master, free--free as long as he could remain so.”
― quote from I Am David


“Americans were most likely good people...the only thing wrong with them, David thought, was that they spoke English very badly.”
― quote from I Am David


“Before he had come to the town he had known about nothing but death: here he had learnt to live, to decide things for himself; he had learnt what it felt like to wash in clean water in the sunshine until he was clean himself, and what it felt like to satisfy his hunger with food that tasted good; he had learnt the sound of laughter that was free from cruelty; he had learnt the meaning of beauty”
― quote from I Am David



“All suffering has an end, David, if only you wait long enough. Sorrow has its life like people. Sorrow is born and lives and dies. And when it's dead and gone, someone's left behind to remember it. Exactly like people.”
― quote from I Am David


“Violence and cruelty were just a stupid person's way of making himself felt, because it was easier to use your hands to strike a blow then to use your brain to find a logical and just solution to a problem.”
― quote from I Am David


“David thought living in a house was very difficult. It was not the house itself--that was lovely to be in--but the people. What was so difficult about them was that they constantly seemed to expect him to say and do things he would never have though of, and what appeared sensible and natural to him seemed to surprise them...”
― quote from I Am David


“God of the green pastures and the still waters, please don't help me. I want to do it by myself so that You'll know I've found something I can do for You ... I am David. Amen.”
― quote from I Am David


“You could not bribe honest people, but bad people would accept bribery.”
― quote from I Am David



“Violence and cruelty were just a stupid person's way of making himself felt, because it was easier to use your hands to strike a blow than use your brain to find a logical and just solution to a problem.”
― quote from I Am David


“Johannes said greedy people can never be happy, and I would so much like to know what it feels like to be happy. Johannes said that when you very much want something you haven't got, you no longer care for what you have got. I'm not sure I understand, but I suppose he meant that things are only worth having if you think they are.”
― quote from I Am David


“Angelo was a grown man, and here was one thing he was quite free to decide for himself, and yet he was ready to let others make up his mind for him...that could only be stupidity.”
― quote from I Am David


“He'd forgotten the most important condition that made it possible for him to go on living: that he should never again grow fond of anyone”
― quote from I Am David


Popular quotes

“Is something the matter?” she finally asked. Oliver frowned. “Why would you ask that?” “You’re not speaking, and it’s been my experience that you’re never at a loss for something to say.” Laughing, Oliver took one step forward. “If you must know, the only thing the matter at the moment is that you look enchanting this evening, quite like a princess, and your beauty is what stole the words straight from my lips and fogged up my mind.” Harriet suddenly found she was at a loss for words. Oliver grinned and moved across the room, stopping directly in front of her. He drew her hand up and placed a kiss on the knuckles, his gaze and the merest touch of his lips against her gloved hand sending shivers down her spine. “Is something wrong, Miss Peabody?” he asked and continued before she could reply, not that she was certain she would actually have been able to do that. “Why, since I’ve become known to you, it’s been my observation that you’re never without words, and yet, here you are . . . speechless.”
― Jen Turano, quote from After a Fashion


“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be. —C. S. Lewis It”
― Donna VanLiere, quote from The Christmas Shoes


“Jacobi called Lindsay on his Nextel.”
― James Patterson, quote from The 5th Horseman


“Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on an argument about what that proposition means.”
― Joseph J. Ellis, quote from Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation


“Because man is born a rebel, he is unaware that he is one. His constant assertion of self, as far as he thinks of it at all, appears to him a perfectly normal things. He is willing to share himself, sometimes even to sacrifice himself for a desired end, but never to dethrone himself. No matter how far down the scale of social acceptance he may slide, he is still in his own eyes a king on a throne, and no one, not even God, can take that throne from him.”
― A.W. Tozer, quote from The Knowledge of the Holy


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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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