“A theatre is the most important sort of house in the world, because that's where people are shown what they could be if they wanted, and what they'd like to be if they dared to and what they really are”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“I'll have to calm down a bit. Or else I'll burst with happiness”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“There's no need to imagine that you're a wondrous beauty, because that's what you are.”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“The spirit of adventure sped through his soul on mighty wings.”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“Isn't it fun when one's friends get exactly what suits them?”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“We'll always keep our bangles in brown pond water in the future. They're so much more beautiful that way”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“Robes, dresses, frocks. They hung in endless rows, in hundreds, one beside the other all around the room - gleaming brocade, fluffy clouds of tulle and swansdown, flowery silk, night-black velvet with glittering spangles everywhere like small, many-coloured blinker beacons.”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“The Snork Maiden looked around her. Then she leaned forward and whispered in the Fillyjonk’s outstretched ear: “First you must turn seven times around yourself, mumbling a little and stamping your feet. Then you go backward to a well, and turn around, and look down in it. And then, down in the water, you’ll see the person you’re going to marry!” “And how do you get him up from there?” asked the Fillyjonk excitedly.”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“Because we’re going to stay here a little while and calm down until I’ve learned your names. Light my pipe, someone!”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“How nice it feels to be good," she thought quietly.”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“Today we tell girls to grow up to be or do whatever they want. But the cultural pressure to become a mother remains very strong; rare is she who doesn’t at least occasionally succumb to the nagging fear that if she remains childless, she’ll live to regret it.”
― Kate Bolick, quote from Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own
“Native nations were often matrilineal: that is, clan identity passed through the mother, and a husband joined a wife’s household, not vice versa. Matrilineal does not mean matriarchal, which, like patriarchal, assumes that some group has to dominate—a failure of the imagination.”
― Gloria Steinem, quote from Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
“So the criminals win, that's what you're saying? For now they do. But it's a long game, Jamison. And I always play for the long game.”
― David Baldacci, quote from The Last Mile
“Genel olarak biz Ruslarda; Almanların, özellikle Fransızların başı yıldızlara eren akılsız romantiklerini bulamazsınız. Yer yerinden oynasa, bütün Fransa barikatlarda can verse gene de bir yararı olmaz; Fransız, nezaket için olsun istifini bozmadan, ömrünün sonuna dek, aptalcasına, yıldızların şarkısını söylemeyi sürdürür. Biz Rusların yurdunda böyle aptalların bulunmadığını biliyoruz, bizleri Almanlardan ayıran da budur zaten. İşte bu yüzdendir ki, bizde yüzde yüz saf, bası yıldızlarda gezen yaratıklar aranmamalıdır. Akıllarını Kostancoğlularıyla, Pyotr İvanoviç Amcalarla bozarak, onlarda ülkümüzü aramak ahmaklığını gösteren çağımızın birtakım "işgüzar" yazarlarıyla eleştirmenlerdir ki, bizim romantiklerimizi Almanların, Fransızların bası göğe eren romantikleriyle bir tutmaya kalkışmışlardır. Oysa, bizim romantiklerimizin özellikleri Avrupa'nın bası gökte gezen romantiklerinin özellikleriyle taban tabana karşıttır, hiçbir Avrupa ölçüsü bizimkilere uygulanamaz.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double
“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
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.