Quotes from Memoirs of a Geisha

“This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Adversity is like a strong wind. I don't mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“He was like a song I'd heard once in fragments but had been singing in my mind ever since.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Grief is a most peculiar thing; we’re so helpless in the face of it. It’s like a window that will simply open of its own accord. The room grows cold, and we can do nothing but shiver. But it opens a little less each time, and a little less; and one day we wonder what has become of it.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“I don't know when we'll see each other again or what the world will be like when we do. We may both have seen many horrible things. But I will think of you every time I need to be reminded that there is beauty and goodness in the world.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“I dont think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Sometimes," he sighed, "I think the things I remember are more real than the things I see. ”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“If you aren't the woman I think you are, then this isn't the world I thought it was.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Hopes are like hair ornaments. Girls want to wear too many of them. When they become old women they look silly wearing even one.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“I had to wonder if men were so blinded by beauty that they would feel privileged to live their lives with an actual demon, so long as it was a beautiful demon.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Sometimes we get through adversity only by imagining what the world might be like if our dreams should ever come true.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Can't you see? Every step I have taken, since I was that child on the bridge, has been to bring myself closer to you. ”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“If a few minutes of suffering could make me so angry, what would years of it do? Even a stone can be worn down with enough rain.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“I never seek to defeat the man I am fighting, " he explained. "I seek to defeat his confidence. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals - true equals - only when they both have equal confidence.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Water is powerful. It can wash away earth, put out fire, and even destroy iron.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“From this experience, I understood the danger of focusing only on what isn't there. What if I came to the end of my life and realized that I'd spent every day watching for a man who would never come to me? What an unbearable sorrow it would be, to realize I'd never really tasted the things I'd eaten, or seen the places I'd been, because I'd thought of nothing but the Chairman even while my life was drifting away from me. And yet if I drew my thoughts back from him, what life would I have? I would be like a dancer who had practiced since childhood for a performance she would never give.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“If you have experienced an evening more exciting than any in your life, you're sad to see it end; and yet you still feel grateful that it happened.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course of victory.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“We can never flee the misery that is within us.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“If you keep your destiny in mind, every moment in life becomes an opportunity for moving closer to it.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Waiting patiently doesn't suit you. I can see you have a great deal of water in your personality. Water never waits. It changes shape and flows around things, and finds the secret paths no one else has thought about.
[Mameha]”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Of course, a sign doesn't mean anything unless you know how to interpret it.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“We none of us find as much kindness in this world as we should.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“Was life nothing more than a storm that constantly washed away what had been there only a moment before, and left behind something barren and unrecognizable?”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“You cannot say to the sun, 'More sun,' or to the rain, 'Less rain.' To a man, geisha can only be half a wife. We are the wives of nightfall. And yet, to learn kindness after so much unkindness, to understand that a little girl with more courage than she knew, would find her prayers were answered, can that not be called happiness? After all these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

“I could no more have stopped myself from feeling that sadness than you could stop yourself from smelling an apple that has been cut open on the table before you.”
― Arthur Golden, quote from Memoirs of a Geisha

About the author

Popular quotes

“No one can leave someone they have good sex with. They can try, but they always go back. We’re simple souls like that, aren’t we?”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from The Snowman

“When an experiment was to begin, all women were excluded for fear their irrational natures would influence the result, and an air of fervent concentration descended.”
― Iain Pears, quote from An Instance of the Fingerpost

“You are pure flame. I touch you and I ignite. I kiss you and I burn to have more. You consume me… like no other woman before you, and, I am certain, like no other ever could again.”
― Lara Adrian, quote from Midnight Rising

“It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I

“Full circle, from to tomb of the womb to the womb of the tomb, we come”
― Joseph Campbell, quote from The Hero With a Thousand Faces

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.