“He would never be able to emulate Richard's last gesture of defiance--gallant, glorious, and quite mad.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from Lionheart
“Forget the threat of Hell's infernal flames. The true torture would condemn a man to wait and wait and wait - for an eternity”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from Lionheart
“How fragile life was, how fleeting their days on earth, and how fickle was Death, claiming the young as often as the old, the healthy as often as the ailing, cruelly stealing away a baby’s first breath, a mother’s fading heartbeat.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from Lionheart
“Men always think God favors their cause. I am sure Ya’qūb of Aleppo never doubted it, either.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from Lionheart
“Soldiers have many vices, but vanity is not amongst them. How could it be? What man is going to worry about his hair when he might lose his head?”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from Lionheart
“War was war and soldiers were the same the world over, although killing came easier to some than others.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from Lionheart
“He would never be able to emulate Richard’s last gesture of defiance—gallant, glorious, and quite mad.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from Lionheart
“It was as if a blade had shucked his heart like an oyster and stolen the beauty within. He said his heart never started beating again, it just started working and I never understood the difference, not until I was much older anyway, when I learnt that coming back from the dead is not quite the same as coming back to life.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways
“A Persian, a Turk, an Arab, and a Greek were traveling to a distant land when they began arguing over how to spend the single coin they possessed among themselves. All four craved food, but the Persian wanted to spend the coin on angur; the Turk, on uzum; the Arab, on inab; and the Greek, on stafil. The argument became heated as each man insisted on having what he desired. A linguist passing by overheard their quarrel. “Give the coin to me,” he said. “I undertake to satisfy the desires of all of you.” Taking the coin, the linguist went to a nearby shop and bought four small bunches of grapes. He then returned to the men and gave them each a bunch. “This is my angur!” cried the Persian. “But this is what I call uzum,” replied the Turk. “You have brought me my inab,” the Arab said. “No! This in my language is stafil,” said the Greek. All of a sudden, the men realized that what each of them had desired was in fact the same thing, only they did not know how to express themselves to each other. The four travelers represent humanity in its search for an inner spiritual need it cannot define and which it expresses in different ways. The linguist is the Sufi, who enlightens humanity to the fact that what it seeks (its religions), though called by different names, are in reality one identical thing. However—and this is the most important aspect of the parable—the linguist can offer the travelers only the grapes and nothing more. He cannot offer them wine, which is the essence of the fruit. In other words, human beings cannot be given the secret of ultimate reality, for such knowledge cannot be shared, but must be experienced through an arduous inner journey toward self-annihilation. As the transcendent Iranian poet, Saadi of Shiraz, wrote, I am a dreamer who is mute, And the people are deaf. I am unable to say, And they are unable to hear.”
― Reza Aslan, quote from No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam
“Let me just be in the ground.
Let me just be in the ground and go to sleep.”
― Joan Didion, quote from Blue Nights
“The only sustenance that matters is the love in my dog’s eyes and the hope of meeting people who dare to truly live.”
― quote from The Only Girl in the World: A Memoir
“Harry, si tuviera que quedarme con una sola de todas sus lecciones, ¿cuál sería?
-Le devuelvo la pregunta.
-Para mi sería la importancia de saber caer.
-Estoy completamente de acuerdo con usted. La vida es una larga caida, Marcus. Lo más importante es saber caer.”
― Joël Dicker, quote from La verdad sobre el caso Harry Quebert
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.