“Anyone up for a little breaking and entering?”
― Matthew Cody, quote from Powerless
“These days she always moved like that, as if she were made of glass in a house full of hard edges.”
― Matthew Cody, quote from Powerless
“You know, as you get older the gray matter starts to fail on you and your memories get all fuzzy—they disappear into mist.”
― Matthew Cody, quote from Powerless
“I don’t remember much from my childhood, but I do remember staring out that window and dreaming. I bet I had wonderful dreams….”
― Matthew Cody, quote from Powerless
“She might even have a doll hidden on her somewhere. Well,”
― Matthew Cody, quote from Powerless
“The ICC [Interstate Commerce Commission] illustrates what might be called the natural history of government intervention. A real or fancied evil leads to demands to do something about it. A political coalition forms consisting of sincere, high-minded reformers and equally sincere interested parties. The incompatible objectives of the members of the coalition (e.g., low prices to consumers and high prices to producers) are glossed over by fine rhetoric about “the public interest,” “fair competition,” and the like. The coalition succeeds in getting Congress (or a state legislature) to pass a law. The preamble to the law pays lip service to the rhetoric and the body of the law grants power to government officials to “do something.” The high-minded reformers experience a glow of triumph and turn their attention to new causes. The interested parties go to work to make sure that the power is used for their benefit. They generally succeed. Success breeds its problems, which are met by broadening the scope of intervention. Bureaucracy takes its toll so that even the initial special interests no longer benefit. In the end the effects are precisely the opposite of the objectives of the reformers and generally do not even achieve the objectives of the special interests. Yet the activity is so firmly established and so many vested interests are connected with it that repeal of the initial legislation is nearly inconceivable. Instead, new government legislation is called for to cope with the problems produced by the earlier legislation and a new cycle begins.”
― Milton Friedman, quote from Free to Choose: A Personal Statement
“A man must be able to hold his drink because drunkenness is sometimes necessary in this difficult life.”
― Ben Okri, quote from The Famished Road
“I started thinking of my absentee diamond. My thumb and little finger kept reaching for their pet and sidekick.”
― Allan Gurganus, quote from Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
“Interpretation through the filters of ideology has always been one of our race's curses.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, quote from The Reality Dysfunction
“Love, is always insufficient, always a lie. Love, you are the clean shit of my soul. Stupid love, silly love. ”
― William Kennedy, quote from Ironweed
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.