Quotes from Library of Souls

“No one can hurt you as badly as the people you love.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“It had become one of the defining truths of my life that, no matter how I tried to keep them flattened, two-dimensional, jailed in paper and ink, there would always be stories that refused to stay bound inside books. It was never just a story. I would know: a story had swallowed my whole life.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“To some it might’ve seemed callous, the way she boxed up her pain and set it aside, but I knew her well enough now to understand. She had a heart the size of France, and the lucky few whom she loved with it were loved with every square inch—but its size made it dangerous, too. If she let it feel everything, she’d be wrecked. So she had to tame it, shush it, shut it up. Float the worst pains off to an island that was quickly filling with them, where she would go to live one day.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“An opportunist disguised as a friend can be every bit as dangerous as an outright enemy.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“And it occured to me, standing there, just breathing with her, quiet settling around us, that those might be the three most beautiful words in the English language. We have time.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Maybe," she said. "Maybe. But now you're making promises you might not be able to keep, and that's how people in love get very badly hurt.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Early in life we recognize certain talents in ourselves, and we focus on those to the exclusion of others. It’s not that nothing else is possible, but that nothing else was nurtured.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“She had this amazing capacity to turn sadness into anger and anger into action, which meant nothing ever kept her down for long.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Doubt is the pinprick in the life raft.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“What a beautiful day to go to hell”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Emma laughed darkly. "It's a completely mad idea, I know. But my brain is a hope-making engine."
"I'm so glad," I said. "Mine is a worst-case-scenario generator."
"We need each other, then."
"Yes. But we already knew that, I think.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“These strange-looking people weren’t peculiars. They were nerds. We were very much in the present.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“I felt like one of those mythical heroes who fights his way back from the underworld only to realize that the world above is every bit as damned as the one below.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“There was, in fact, a street sign to that effect—the first I’d seen in all of Devil’s Acre. Louche Lane, it read in fancy handwritten script. Piracy discouraged.
“Discouraged?” I said. “Then what’s murder? Frowned upon?”
“I believe murder is ‘tolerated with reservations.’ ”
“Is anything illegal here?” Addison asked.
“Library late fines are stiff. Ten lashes a day, and that’s just for paperbacks.”
“There’s a library?”
“Two. Though one won’t lend because all the books are bound in human skin and quite valuable.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Maybe lots of people go through life never knowing they’re peculiar.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“There was something sweet about holding a tangible thing that had been touched and marked upon by someone I loved.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Ahh,” Sharon said airily from the corner, “the sweet lies lovers tell …”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“my brain is a hope-making engine.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Early in life we recognize certain talents in ourselves, and we focus on those to the exclusion of others. It's not that nothing else is possible, but that nothing else was nurtured.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“I was the perfect automaton: blessed with ability but cursed with ignorance.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“The trouble with the merely unwise/deeply stupid line is that you often don’t know which side you’re on until it’s too late.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“I hate fleeing as much as anyone,” I said, “but Emma and I look like nineteenth-century axe murderers, and you’re a dog who wears glasses. We’re bound to be noticed.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Just a story. It had become one of the defining truths of my life that, no matter how I tried to keep them flattened, two-dimensional, jailed in paper and ink, there would always be stories that refused to stay bound inside books. It was never just a story. I would know: a story had swallowed my whole life.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Just because I’m a capitalist doesn’t mean I’m a black-hearted bastard.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Never mind compassion! Fie on loyalty! If you’re as intelligent and ambitious a fellow as I think you are, then you’ll recognize an extraordinary opportunity for advancement when you see one.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“She had a heart the size of France, and the lucky few whom she loved with it were loved with every square inch—but its size made it dangerous, too. If she let it feel everything, she’d be wrecked. So she had to tame it, shush it, shut it up. Float the worst pains off to an island that was quickly filling with them, where she would go to live one day.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“I didn’t want to kill the hollow any more than I wanted to kill a strange animal. In the course of leading this creature around by the nose, I had gotten close enough to understand that there was more than just void inside it. There was a tiny spark, a little marble of soul at the bottom of a deep pool. It wasn’t hollow—not really.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Just a story. It had become one of the defining truths of my life that, no matter how I tried to keep them flattened, two-dimensional, jailed in paper and ink, there would always be stories that refused to stay bound inside books. It was never just a story.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“Why did we have more than we knew what to do with, while they had less than they needed to stay alive?”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

“I believe murder is ‘tolerated with reservations.’ ” “Is anything illegal here?” Addison asked. “Library late fines are stiff. Ten lashes a day, and that’s just for paperbacks.” “There’s a library?” “Two. Though one won’t lend because all the books are bound in human skin and quite valuable.”
― Ransom Riggs, quote from Library of Souls

About the author

Popular quotes

“...you are defined by how you live your life, not whom you live it with, and certainly not by what you gave up to be with that person.”
― Greg Behrendt, quote from It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy

“Tus hijas están y viven como metidas en alacenas. Pero ni tú ni nadie puede vigilar por el interior de los pechos. BERNARDA.”
― Federico García Lorca, quote from La casa de Bernarda Alba

“Top Trumps appeared to be a game in which you got cards, and the cards had a picture (in this case, of a horse), and told you all kinds of stats for that horse, how fast it was, how big it was, etc. Whoever had the better horse won both the cards. You repeated this until someone had all the cards. So, basically it was exactly like high school, except it only took three minutes. Which was really a bit more humane, if you thought about it.”
― Maureen Johnson, quote from The Last Little Blue Envelope

“Every creative story is different. And every creative story is the same. There was nothing. Now there is something. It's almost like magic.”
― Jonah Lehrer, quote from Imagine: How Creativity Works

“Love is the kind of thing that's already happening by the time you notice it, that's how it works, and no matter how old you get, that doesn't change. Except that you can break it up into two entirely distinct types -- love where there's an end in sight and love where there isn't.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, quote from Goodbye Tsugumi

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

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.