“Things don't just happen, they have reasons. And the reasons have reasons. And the reasons for the reasons have reasons. And then the things that happen make other things happen, so they become reasons themselves. Nothing moves forward in a straight line, nothing is straightforward.”
― Kevin Brooks, quote from Martyn Pig
“It's strange, the lack of emotion, the absence of drama in reality. When things happen in real life, extraordinary things, there's no music, there's no dah-dah-daaahhs. There's no close-ups. No dramatic camera angles. Nothing happens. Nothing stops, the rest of the world goes on.”
― Kevin Brooks, quote from Martyn Pig
“You reach a certain age when reality grabs you by the scruff of the neck and shouts in your face:"Hey, look, this is what life is." And you have to open your eyes and look at it, listen to it, smell it: people who don't like you, things you don't want to do, things that hurt, things that scare you, questions without answers, feelings you don't understand, feelings you don't want but have no control over.
Reality.
When you gradually come to realise that all that stuff in books, films, television, magazines, newspapers, comics - it's all rubbish. It's got nothing to do with anything. It's all made up. It doesn't happen like that. It's not real. It means nothing. Reality is what you see when you look out of the window of a bus: dour faces, sad and temporary lives, millions of cars, metal, bricks, glass, rain, cruel laughter, ugliness, dirt, bad teeth, crippled pigeons, little kids in pushchairs who've already forgotten how to smile ...”
― Kevin Brooks, quote from Martyn Pig
“Alcohol. It sucks the life out of a face and replaces it with its own dumb shine of inanity. It’s up to you. If you want to lose yourself, have a drink.”
― Kevin Brooks, quote from Martyn Pig
“It’s strange, the lack of emotion, the absence of drama in reality. When things happen in real life, extraordinary things, there’s no music…There’s no close-ups. No dramatic camera angles. Nothing happens. Nothing stops, the rest of the world goes on.”
― Kevin Brooks, quote from Martyn Pig
“It would be sheer hell to be privy to thoughts and memories without some power to control and block. I don’t like to pry into personal thoughts. And it hurts,”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Ceremony in Death
“Rundstedt, revered throughout the German regular officer corps as its last archetypal Prussian, refused to deal with detail or to look at small-scale maps, as if the fighting itself were distasteful to him, but spent his days reading detective stories and thrice resigned his command.”
― John Keegan, quote from The Face Of Battle: A Study Of Agincourt, Waterloo And The Somme
“That’s up to you, Jack, but part of doing this kind of work is the willingness to put on blinders. Deal with what’s in front of you. Every terrorist has a mother and father. Maybe kids, maybe people that love him. Hell, six days out of seven he might be a decent citizen, but on that one day he decides to pick up a gun or plant a bomb, he’s a threat. And if you’re the guy standing between him and innocent lives, the threat is all you can afford to worry about. You get what I’m saying?”
― Tom Clancy, quote from Dead or Alive
“ما أصلح هذه السيدة!
الحق يقال انها تعيش في زهد وورع؛
ولكنه التقدم في السن هو الذي دفعها الى ذلك.
إنها تتنسك ولا تسمح لأحد بأن يمس جسدها.
لقد تمتعت بمحاسنها ما استطاعت أن تجذب القلوب وتغريها؛
ولكنها حين رأت ذبول عينيها وزوال بهجتها
زهدت في الدنيا التي أعرضت عنها ،
وأخفت جمالها الذاوي وراء نقاب الحكمة الجليل.
تلك هي تقلبات ذوات الغنج في عصرنا هذا:
يشق عليهن هجر الظرفاء المحبين لهن
فلا يجدن ملاذا في ظلام همومهن
إلا باحتراف التقى والفضيلة
ولقد بلغت قسوة تلك النساء الصالحات
ان رحن ينددن بكل شيء ولا يتجاوزن عن شيء:
فهن ينتقدن جهارا سلوك كل إنسان،
لا عن تقوى وصلاح ولكن بدافع من الحسد
الذي يأبى على الآخرين الاستمتاع بلذات
فطمهن تقادم السن عنها”
― Molière, quote from Tartuffe
“Not everyone, the Collector was aware, is improved by the job he does in life; some people are visibly disimproved.”
― J.G. Farrell, quote from The Siege of Krishnapur
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.