“Whoa, don't assume, dude," Marco said. "My mom always said, when you assume you make an ass of u and me--”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from Lost in Babylon
“A problem that seems unsolvable always looks different in the light of a new day.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from Lost in Babylon
“To quote Alfred Einstein: ‘a follower tells, but a leader shows.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from Lost in Babylon
“We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from Lost in Babylon
“We are about to study the idea of a computational process. Computational processes are abstract beings that inhabit computers. As they evolve, processes manipulate other abstract things called data. The evolution of a process is directed by a pattern of rules called a program. People create programs to direct processes. In effect, we conjure the spirits of the computer with our spells.
A computational process is indeed much like a sorcerer's idea of a spirit. It cannot be seen or touched. It is not composed of matter at all. However, it is very real. It can perform intellectual work. It can answer questions. It can affect the world by disbursing money at a bank or by controlling a robot arm in a factory. The programs we use to conjure processes are like a sorcerer's spells. They are carefully composed from symbolic expressions in arcane and esoteric programming languages that prescribe the tasks we want our processes to perform.
A computational process, in a correctly working computer, executes programs precisely and accurately. Thus, like the sorcerer's apprentice, novice programmers must learn to understand and to anticipate the consequences of their conjuring. Even small errors (usually called bugs or glitches) in programs can have complex and unanticipated consequences.”
― Harold Abelson, quote from Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
“they rode back she pressed against him, her face on his shoulder, her hands burning his chest like a branding iron.”
― Patrick D. Smith, quote from A Land Remembered
“How can he be your friend if you don't like him?”
― Louis Sachar, quote from There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom
“When you go 108 hours, four and a half days without sleep, your body starts to do strange things.”
― Keary Taylor, quote from Branded
“Probably she said yes. Afterwards she was not sure. She saw his scared gaze lift and stare at the approaching bus. She saw an indecision near to panic seize him, and it occurred to her – which in the long run was an act of near clairvoyance – that he proposed to push her under it. He didn’t, but he did put his next question in Russian – and in the brutal accents of Moscow officialdom.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
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.