“That's what innocence is, you know. A blissful oblivion of what's coming, of what you'll lose and what you'll gain, and what kind of person you'll grow up to be.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“Time is not your friend. It doesn't care if you live fast or die slow, if you are or if you aren't. It was here before you arrived and it will go on after you leave. Time doesn't care who wins or who loses, if your life span is full or empty, honorable or shameful. Time is indifferent. It simply doesn't give a shit.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“See, guys freak out. They hit critical mass and blast nuclear, white-hot anger out over the world like walking flamethrowers. But girls freak in. They absorb the pain and bitterness and keep right on sponging it up until they drown.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“Ignorance of the outcome doesn't exempt you from the consequences.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“It's just that instead of erupting and annihilating our tormentors, we destroy ourselves instead.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“We mutinied quietly, using every lesson we’d been taught by every person who’d ever used us for their own benefit.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“Yeah, I know I've changed. Nothing gets to me anymore.
Well, okay, except for stuff in the past. Back then I was all innocent and trusting and didn't know anything. Now I know plenty and you can't fucking touch me.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“We're not afraid of the dark. Our nightmares were born on sultry, summer afternoons.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“Maybe it's true that shared trauma brings people closer together-a common hardship, a battle to survive-because when times are quiet people relax and go their own separate ways. They're lulled into believing they've got everything under control and don't need what they did before.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“No step is a safe one, so it's safer to take none at all.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“I tore the crusts off my grilled cheese sandwich and set them aside to throw out for the birds. Their motives were pure -- hunger, thirst, shelter -- and they didn't mind leftovers.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“You told us once not to be in such a hurry to grow up, but I don't see any way we could have avoided it. There was always someone out there ready to carve away another chunk of our innocence. Maybe because theirs was already gone and they couldn't stand the sight of our ignorant happiness. Because that's what innocence is, you know. A blissful oblivion of what's coming, of what you'll lose and what you'll gain, and what kind of person you'll grow up to be.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“Being user friendly doesn't mean you're going to be loved.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“... real life isn't like the movies. The victim doesn't usually win. She just endures.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“So sometimes what takes you down can be used to raise you up again.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.”
― Henry David Thoreau, quote from Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
“No, no- the sky will grow dark, cold rain will fall and all trace of the right way will be blotted out. You will be all alone. And still you will have to go on. There will be ghosts in the dark and voices in the air, disgusting prophecies coming true I wouldn’t wonder and absent faces present on every side, as the man said. And still you will have to go on. The last bridge will fall behind you and the last lights will go out, followed by the sun, the moon and the stars; and still you will have to go on. You will come to regions more desolate and wretched than you ever dreamed could exist, places of sorrow created entirely by that mean superstition which you yourself have put about for so long. But still you will have to go on”
― Richard Adams, quote from Shardik
“Forget who I really am, who I really want to be.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.”
― Flannery O'Connor, quote from Collected Works: Wise Blood / A Good Man is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear it Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays and Letters
“Last time she had been here, the room had been pastel, romantic and soft. Now it was icily white. It was urban, out of a slick magazine, as if some cold, successful woman lived here with two possessions and an empty refrigerator.”
― Caroline B. Cooney, quote from The Voice on the Radio
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.