“Hu’s heart clanged like fifteen buckets in a single well.”
― Shi Nai'an, quote from Outlaws of the Marsh
“When I tell you you’ll fart and pee in your pants with terror.”
― Shi Nai'an, quote from Outlaws of the Marsh
“The old woman’s face was wreathed in smiles.”
― Shi Nai'an, quote from Outlaws of the Marsh
“Truly, flowers open, only to be blown down by the wind.”
― Shi Nai'an, quote from Outlaws of the Marsh
“Li Gui called out, "Sir, if you kill me you will kill two persons."
"How do you make that out?" asked Li Kui, staying the blow.
"At home I support my mother who is ninety years of age, and this is my only means of helping her in her old age," said Li Gui. "I never injure people, but only make them afraid. If you kill me, my old mother will die of starvation."
Li Kui who never twinkled his eyes in chopping off people's heads, paused and thought when he heard this. "Here am I trying to succour my old mother, and yet killing a man who supports his old mother. Heaven will not allow me to live if I do this. No! No! I will forgive this man.
(J.H. Jackson translation)”
― Shi Nai'an, quote from Outlaws of the Marsh
Shi Nai'an
Born place: Suzhou, China
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“The wise speak only of what they know”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, quote from The Two Towers
“I might never have realized who I really was or have gotten answers to the relentless questions that had driven me to the Cove without those quiet hours spent with Fairlight in the mountains. I do not know why it is that an intimate contact with wildlife and a personal observation of nature helps so much in this self-discovery. But that it is so, I have seen in other people's lives as well as my own....even a few bricks and macadam are a shield between us and the wisdom that nature has to give.”
― Catherine Marshall, quote from Christy
“I came to the conclusion that unrealized hopes, even small ones, were always wrenching.”
― Nicholas Sparks, quote from The Wedding
“Dear daughter, I won't try to call my feeling for Arty love. Call it focus. My focus on Art was an ailment, noncommunicable, and, even to me all these years later, incomprehensible. Now I despise myself. But even so I remember, in hot floods, the way he slept, still as death, with his face washed flat, stony as a carved tomb and exquisite. His weakness and his ravening bitter needs were terrible, and beautiful, and irresistible as an earthquake. He scalded or smothered anyone he needed, but his needing and the hurt that it caused me were the most life I ever had. Remember what a poor thing I have always been and forgive me.
He saw no use for you and you interfered with his use of me. I sent you away to please him, to prove my dedication to him, and to prevent him from killing you...
My job was to come back [from the convent] directly, with nothing leaking from beneath my dark glasses, to give Arty his rubdown and then paint him for the next show, nodding cheerfully all the while, never showing anything but attentive care for his muscular wonderfulness. Because he could have killed you. He could have cut off the money that schooled and fed you. He could have erased you so entirely that I never would have had those letters and report cards and photos, or your crayon pictures, or the chance to spy on you, and to love you secretly when everything else was gone.”
― Katherine Dunn, quote from Geek Love
“I houseclean my books every spring and throw out those I'm never going to read again like I throw out clothes I'm never going to wear again.”
― Helene Hanff, quote from 84, Charing Cross Road
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The Boy Most Likely...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.
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