Quotes from Night of the Soul Stealer

“You can't just be reading books all the time and leave the writting of them to others.”
― Joseph Delaney, quote from Night of the Soul Stealer

“Why does it have to be like this?' I asked bitterly. 'Why does life have to be so short, with all the good things passing quickly. Is it worth living at all?”
― Joseph Delaney, quote from Night of the Soul Stealer

“Why does it have to be like this? Why does life have to be so short, with all the good things passing quickly. Is it worth living at all?”
― Joseph Delaney, quote from Night of the Soul Stealer

“Whatever it cost, I had to do what was right. Better oblivion. Better to be nothing than live to experience that.”
― Joseph Delaney, quote from Night of the Soul Stealer

“You’re shivering with cold. I’ll make you a cup of hot soup to warm your bones. That’ll have to do for now – I’ll cook you a nice big meal later.’ I was trembling more than shivering, upset by what had happened in Morgan’s room, but gradually I began to calm down. I did as I was told and warmed my hands at the fire, watching my boots begin to steam. ‘It’s good to see you’ve still got all your fingers!’ Meg said. I smiled. ‘Where’s Mr Gregory?’ I asked, wondering if he’d been called away on spook’s business. I hoped he had because that would mean he was fit and well again. ‘He’s still in bed. He needs all the rest he can get.’ ‘So he’s not that much better yet?’ ‘He’s improving slowly,’ Meg answered. ‘But it’ll take time. These things can’t be rushed. Try not to disturb or burden him too much. He needs to rest and sleep as much as he can.’ She brought across a steaming cup of hot chicken”
― Joseph Delaney, quote from Night of the Soul Stealer

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Popular quotes

“Everything in the room is like that: unnecessarily solid, abnormally heavy and dangerously sharp.”
― Christopher Isherwood, quote from Goodbye to Berlin

“But I do exist. Remember that . . . This is not Avalon now, t'Larien, and today is not yesterday. It is a dying Festival world, a world without a code, so each of us must cling tightly to whatever codes we bring with us. (Jaan Vikary)”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from Dying of the Light

“How is it that from beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness?—from the covenant of peace a simile of sorrow? But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from Berenice

“Potatoes have much more staying power than caviar.”
― Mark Helprin, quote from Freddy and Fredericka

“The Bostonians is special because it never was ‘titivated’ for the New York edition, for its humour and its physicality, for its direct engagement with social and political issues and the way it dramatized them, and finally for the extent to which its setting and action involved the author and his sense of himself. But the passage above suggests one other source of its unique quality. It has been called a comedy and a satire – which it is. But it is also a tragedy, and a moving one at that. If its freshness, humour, physicality and political relevance all combine to make it a peculiarly accessible and enjoyable novel, it is also an upsetting and disturbing one, not simply in its treatment of Olive, but also of what she tries to stand for. (Miss Birdseye is an important figure in this respect: built up and knocked down as she is almost by fits and starts.) The book’s jaundiced view of what Verena calls ‘the Heart of humanity’ (chapter 28) – reform, progress and the liberal collectivism which seems so essential an ingredient in modern democracy – makes it contentious to this day. An aura of scepticism about the entire political process hangs about it: salutary some may say; destructive according to others. And so, more than any other novel of James’s, it reminds us of the literature of our own time. The Bostonians is one of the most brilliant novels in the English language, as F. R. Leavis remarked;27 but it is also one of the bleakest. In no other novel did James reveal more of himself, his society and his era, and of the human condition, caught as it is between the blind necessity of progress and the urge to retain the old. It is a remarkably experimental modern novel, written by a man of conservative values. It is judgemental about people with whom its author identified, and lenient towards attitudes hostile to large areas of James’s own intellectual and personal inheritance. The strength of the contradictions embodied in the novel are a guarantee of the pleasure it has to give.”
― Henry James, quote from The Bostonians

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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.