“Its really most remarkable how the human race is so seldom satisfied with what its got. Give a man the world and he's pining for the moon.”
― Susan Howatch, quote from Penmarric
“There’s a pattern. Never, never doubt that there’s a pattern. There’s a pattern always. Everywhere. In everyone.”
― Susan Howatch, quote from Penmarric
“but a show of force by the mightiest nation on earth isn’t going to do anything except convince them that their attitudes are worth holding on to. Soon they’ll be martyrs and world opinion will think the British Empire nothing but a big bully too fond of waving the big stick.”
― Susan Howatch, quote from Penmarric
“could not even manage to reply. “It’s because I think it of vital importance that such scenes should be avoided in the future that I suggest we separate permanently with a view to seeking a divorce when it becomes possible for us to do so. I have no grounds for divorcing you, as I’m sure you realize, but if I leave you now and insist on remaining at Allengate without your consent you will eventually be able to seek a divorce on the grounds of adultery coupled with desertion. I believe the period of desertion has to be at least two years, so we would have to wait before commencing proceedings, but unfortunately since you cannot divorce me for adultery alone there’s no other alternative open to us. Now, I know divorce will mean a considerable amount of scandal and I’m sure a great many people will disapprove and be shocked, but I dare say most of the criticism will fall upon me and frankly I’m willing to endure a great deal to terminate this situation in the most expedient way available. You know and I know that our marriage is irrevocably finished. My one concern now is that we act in a way most beneficial to the children, and in my opinion”
― Susan Howatch, quote from Penmarric
“I’m too much of a coward to be an atheist,” I said. “I couldn’t bear not to believe in anything. I have to believe there’s God,”
― Susan Howatch, quote from Penmarric
“Nobody is more of a patriot than I am, but I’ve very little confidence in politicians and even less confidence in wars.”
― Susan Howatch, quote from Penmarric
“A handgun at two hundred feet is the same thing as crossing your fingers and making a wish.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man
“In the fluid world of 1919, it was possible to dream of great change, or have nightmares about the collapse of order.”
― Margaret MacMillan, quote from Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
“So why get upset over him leaving when he said he was going to all along? It was quite simple, so simple that Emmy suspected every woman on the planet instinctively understood the concept even when no man was able to wrap his brain around it: She didn't necessarily want him to stay, she just wanted him to want to stay.”
― Lauren Weisberger, quote from Chasing Harry Winston
“When I was outdoors, walking, like now, what I saw gave me nothing. Snow was snow, trees were trees. It was only when I saw a picture of snow or of trees that they were endowed with meaning. Monet had an exceptional eye for light on snow, which Thaulow, perhaps technically the most gifted Norwegian painter ever, also had. It was a feast for the eyes, the closeness of the moment was so great that the value of what gave rise to it increased exponentially, an old tumbledown cabin by a river or a pier at a holiday resort suddenly became priceless, the paintings were charged with the feeling that they were here at the same time as us, in this intense here and now, and that we would soon be gone from them, but with regard to the snow, it was as if the other side of this cultivation of the moment became visible, the animation of this and its light so obviously ignored something, namely the lifelessness, the emptiness, the non-charged and the neutral, which were the first features to strike you when you entered a forest in winter, and in the picture, which was connected with perpetuity and death, the moment was unable to hold its ground.”
― Karl Ove Knausgård, quote from Min kamp 2
“It's all a matter of perspective. And maybe we thought we were living one story, when if we look at it a little different, we can reframe everything - all out memories and attributes and experiences - and see that we're actually living a different story.”
― Kiersten White, quote from The Chaos of Stars
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.