Quotes from Manhattan Transfer

John Dos Passos ·  342 pages

Rating: (3.8K votes)


“Do you know how long God took to destroy the Tower of Babel, folks? Seven minutes. Do you know how long the Lord God took to destroy Babylon and Nineveh? Seven minutes. There’s more wickedness in one block in New York City than there was in a square mile in Nineveh, and how long do you think the Lord God of Sabboath will take to destroy New York City and Brooklyn and the Bronx? Seven seconds. Seven Seconds.”
― John Dos Passos, quote from Manhattan Transfer


“The terrible thing about having New York go stale on you is that there's nowhere else. It's the top of the world.”
― John Dos Passos, quote from Manhattan Transfer


“Weißt du, Jimmy, ich glaube, es wird ganz lustig sein, ein Weilchen in einer Redaktion zu sitzen."
"Ich fände es schon sehr lustig, wenn ich _irgendwo_ sitzen dürfte... Na ja, da bleibe ich eben zu Haus und passe auf das Baby auf."
"Sei nicht so verbittert, Jimmy, es ist ja nur vorübergehend."
"Das ganze Leben ist nur vorübergehend." (S. 250)”
― John Dos Passos, quote from Manhattan Transfer


“There was Babylon and Nineveh; they were built of brick. Athens was gold marble columns. Rome was held up on broad arches of rubble. In Constantinople the minarets flame like great candles round the Golden Horn… Steel, glass, tile, concrete will be the materials of the skyscraper. Crammed on the narrow island the millionwindowed buildings will just glittering, pyramid on pyramid like the white cloudhead above a thunderstorm.”
― John Dos Passos, quote from Manhattan Transfer


“Aint no good place to look for a job, young feller. . . . There’s jobs all right. . . . I’ll be sixty-five years old in a month and four days an I’ve worked sence I was five I reckon, an I aint found a good job yet.”
― John Dos Passos, quote from Manhattan Transfer



“How do I get to Broadway?...I want to get to the center of things.”
― John Dos Passos, quote from Manhattan Transfer


“The terrible thing about having New York go stale on you is that there's nowhere else. It's the top of the world. All we can do is go round and round in a squirrel cage.”
― John Dos Passos, quote from Manhattan Transfer


“Such afternoons the buses are crowded into line like elephants in a circusparade. Morningside Heights to Washington Square, Penn Station to Grant's Tomb. Parlorsnakes and flappers joggle hugging downtown uptown, hug joggling gray square after gray square, until they see the new moon giggling over Weehawken and feel the gusty wind of a dead Sunday blowing dust in their faces, dust of a typsy twilight.”
― John Dos Passos, quote from Manhattan Transfer


About the author

John Dos Passos
Born place: in Chicago, The United States
Born date January 14, 1896
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“I didn't fall for you, you tripped me!”
― Jenny Han, quote from To All the Boys I've Loved Before


“he(Quinn)put his hand out to his friend. “I’ll lay my life down for you.With or Without that piece of paper”
― J.R. Ward, quote from Lover Enshrined


“What I said yesterday didn't mean anything! I love everyone in the flock! Plus, it was the Valium talking!"
"Uh-huh. You just keep telling yourself that. You looove me."
Max: (tries to punch him)
"Pick a tree. I'll go carve our initials in it."
Max: (screams and runs into bathroom)”
― James Patterson, quote from Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports


“His favorite saying was, 'Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum europe vincendarum."

"'Sometimes I have the urge to conquer large parts of Europe'?" Boyd said, sounding a little incredulous. Isabella hadn't, apparently, been the only one who understood her defiance.

She nodded. "Usually he only said it when my brother or I were being particularly horrible.”
― Patricia Briggs, quote from Cry Wolf


“If cats understood technology and had opposable thumbs, they'd rule the world.”
― P.C. Cast, quote from Awakened


Interesting books

And Ladies of the Club
(11.3K)
And Ladies of the Cl...
by Helen Hooven Santmyer
Bad Girls Don't Die
(23.7K)
Bad Girls Don't Die
by Katie Alender
Still Missing
(53.8K)
Still Missing
by Chevy Stevens
The Time of My Life
(15.7K)
The Time of My Life
by Cecelia Ahern
Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year
(6.9K)
Staying Strong: 365...
by Demi Lovato
A Lantern in Her Hand
(4.5K)
A Lantern in Her Han...
by Bess Streeter Aldrich

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.