“I'm a lost soul. We do wail.”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from Jack of Shadows
“I wonder as to the value of consciousness,” said Jack, “if it does not change the nature of a beast.”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from Jack of Shadows
“But that is the way it is with all oracles, Jack. When that which is foreseen comes to pass, the inquirer is no longer the same person he was when he posed the question. It is impossible to make a man understand what he will become with the passage of time; and it is only a future self to whom a prophecy is truly relevant.”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from Jack of Shadows
“As he was cast over the edge, he was able to turn and look upward. Falling, he saw a dark figure in the sky that grew even as his eyes passed over it. Of course, he thought, he has finally looked upon the sunrise and been freed … Wings folded, his great, horned countenance impassive, Morningstar dropped like a black meteor. As he drew near, he extended his arms full length and opened his massive hands. Jack wondered whether he would arrive in time.”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from Jack of Shadows
“Пощадата, както имах възможност да науча от личен опит, е точно онова, което ти отказват, когато най-много се нуждаеш от него. Ала когато ти самият държиш козовете, същите тези хора вдигат шум до небето за да я получат.”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from Jack of Shadows
“Soul,” said Jack, turning toward it again, “you’ve been listening. Do you have any suggestions?” “I have only one desire.” “What is that?” “To be united with you. To go through life with you, comforting and cautioning, and—” “Wait a moment,” said Jack, raising his hand. “What does it require for you to be united with me?” “Your consent.” Jack smiled. He lit a cigarette, his hands trembling slightly. “What if I were to withhold my consent?” he asked. “Then I would become a wanderer. I would follow you at a distance, unable to comfort you and caution you, unable—” “Great,” said Jack. “I withhold my consent. Get out of here.” “Are you joking? That’s a hell of a way to treat a soul. Here I am, waiting to comfort and caution you, and you kick me out. What will people say? ‘There goes Jack’s soul,’ they’ll say, ‘poor thing.”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from Jack of Shadows
“Unlike the other darkside Lords, whose places of power were fixed geographical localities where they reigned supreme, Jack’s was more a tenuous one, and liable to speedy cancellation, but it existed wherever light and objects met to make a lesser darkness. With”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from Jack of Shadows
“A prisoner of he who has already slain you once, he thought. No doubt near to his place of power, in a cage built just for me. Bad. Bad. There”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from Jack of Shadows
“There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.”
― Herman Melville, quote from Moby Dick: or, the White Whale
“passage to a limit should always be the last operation, not the first.”
― E.T. Jaynes, quote from Probability Theory: The Logic of Science
“There exists no greater or more painful anxiety for a man who has freed himself from all religious bias, than how he shall soonest find a new object or idea to worship. But man seeks to bow before that only which is recognized by the greater majority, if not by all his fellow-men, as having a right to be worshipped; whose rights are so unquestionable that men agree unanimously to bow down to it. For the chief concern of these miserable creatures is not to find and worship the idol of their own choice, but to discover that which all others will believe in, and consent to bow down to in a mass.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor
“Cancer treatment receives so much more funding than malaria treatment because malaria is such a cheap problem to solve that rich countries no longer suffer from it. (It was eliminated from the United States in 1951.) The fact that cancer treatment receives so much more funding than malaria treatment means that, on the margin, each of us can provide a far greater benefit for other people by funding the most effective malaria treatments in the developing world than we can by funding the most effective cancer treatments in the developed world. In”
― William MacAskill, quote from Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference
“But you cannot go through the Door of Destiny without passing through the Hall of Haters.”
― T.D. Jakes, quote from Destiny: Step into Your Purpose
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.