“Ne mogu ja - kaže - dobri čovječe, ozdraviti, jer ja i nisam bolestan, nego sam ovakav, a od sebe se ne može ozdraviti.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“Tako obično biva. Oni koje želimo da vidimo ne dolaze u časovima kad na njih mislimo i kad ih najviše očekujemo, a pojavljuju se u nekom trenutku kad smo mislima najdalje od njih. I našoj radosti zbog ponovnog viđenja tada treba malo vremena da se digne s dna, gde je potisnuta, i pojavi na površini.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“Ja! - Teška riječ, koja u očima onih pred kojima je kazana određuje naše mjesto, kobno i nepromjenjivo, često daleko ispred ili iza onog što mi o sebi znamo, izvan naše volje i izvan naših snaga. Strašna riječ koja nas, jednom izgovorena, zauvijek vezuje i poistovjećuje sa svim onim što smo zamislili i rekli i sa čim nikad nismo ni pomišljali da se poistovjetimo, a u stvari smo, u sebi, već odavno jedno.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“„Тако обично бива. Оне које желимо да видимо не долазе у часовима кад на њих мислимо и кад их највише очекујемо, а појављују се у неком тренутку кад смо мислима најдаље од њих. И нашој радости због поновног виђења треба тада времена да се дигне са дна, где је потиснута, и појави на површини...”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“Kod ljudi koji nam postanu bliski mi sve te pojedinosti prvog dodira sa njima obično zaboravljamo; izgleda nam kao da smo ih vazda znali i kao da su oduvek sa nama bili. Od svega toga u sećanju iskrsne ponekad samo neka nepovezana slika.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“Iz iskustva je znao kako štetni, i po društvo i pojedinca opasni mogu biti ljudi koji zbog svoje ograničenosti neograničeno veruju u svoju pamet i pronicjivost i u tačnost svakog svog suda i zaključka.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“Misli dobro, pa će dobro i biti.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“Od svega što ima i jeste,ja sam hteo da napravim sredstvo kojim bih savladao i osvojio svet, a sada je taj svet od mene načinio svoje sredstvo.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“Ima takvih ljudi koji se nečega plaše ili stide, nešto žele da sakriju. I upravo zbog toga oni svojim pogledom stalno nastoje da privuku i zadrže tuđi pogled, u želji da ga vežu za svoje oči i da mu tako ne dopuste da ide dalje i da razgleda i ispituje crte njihova lica ili delove tela ili odeću na njima.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“A što može da očekuje od tih ljudi? Možda sažaljenje? To je jedino što mu ne treba i što mu nikad nije trebalo. Saučešće koje su mu ponekad pokazivali rijetki dobri i plemeniti ljudi za njega je samo mjera njegove zle sreće i besprimjernog poniženja. I za pokojnike sažaljenje je teško i uvredljivo, a kako ga je tek snositi još zdrav i svjestan svega, živ gledati u oči živim ljudima, da bi u njima pročitao samo jedno: sažaljenje?”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“Nešto od ljudske istine ostane uvek za one koji ih strpljivo slušaju ili čitaju.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“Ako hoćeš da znaš kakva je neka država i njena uprava, i kakva im je budućnost, gledaj samo da saznaš koliko u toj zemlji ima čestitih i nevinih ljudi po zatvorima, a koliko zlikovaca i prestupnika na slobodi. To će ti najbolje kazati.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“Tako obicno biva. Oni koje zelimo da vidimo ne dolaze u casovima kad na njih mislimo i kad ih najvise ocekujemo, a pojavljuju se u nekom trenutku kad smo mislima najdalje od njih.”
― Ivo Andrić, quote from Prokleta avlija
“and he, Hugh Person....began to undress her in the motels of his mind”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from Transparent Things
“A word about my personal philosophy. It is anchored in optimism. It must be, for optimism brings with it hope, a future with a purpose, and therefore, a will to fight for a better world. Without this optimism, there is no reason to carry on. If we think of the struggle as aclimb up a mountain, then we must visualize a mountain with no top. We see a top, but when we finall yreach it, the overcast rises and we find ourselves merely on a bluff. The mountain continues on up. Now we see the "real" top ahead of us, and strive for it, only to find we've reached another bluff, the top still above us. And so it goes on, interminably.
Knowing that the mountain has no top, that it is a perpetual quest from plateau to plateau, the question arises, "Why the struggle, the conflict, the heartbreak, the danger, the sacrifice. Why the constant climb?" Our answer is the same as that which a real mountain climber gives when he is asked why he does what he does. "Because it's there." Because life is there ahead of you and either one tests oneself in its challenges or huddles in the valleys of a dreamless day-to-day existence whose only purpose is the preservation of a illusory security and safety. The latter is what the vast majority of people choose to do, fearing the adventure into the known. Paradocically, they give up the dream of what may lie ahead on the heighs of tomorrow for a perpetual nightmare - an endless succession of days fearing the loss of a tenuous security.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, quote from Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
“..I always recognize the foces that will shape my life. I let them do their work. Sometimes they tear through my life like a hurricane. Sometimes they simply shift the ground under me, so that I stand on different earth, and something or someone has been swallowed up. I steady myself, in the earthquate. I lie down, and let the hurricane pass over me. I never fight. Afterwards I look around me, and I say, 'Ah, so this at least is left for me. And that dear person has also survived.' I quietly inscribe on the stone tablet of my heart the name which has gone forever. Th inscription is a thing of agony. Then I start on my way again.”
― Josephine Hart, quote from Damage
“It has never been matter of wonder to me that human resolutions are liable to change; one passion gives them birth, another may destroy them.”
― Antoine François Prévost, quote from Manon Lescaut
“Billy didn't need someone to pour him his drinks, he needed someone to tell him that living isn't poetry. It isn't prayer. To tell him and convince him. And none of us could do it because every one of us thought that as long as Billy believed it was, as long as he kept himself believing it, then maybe it could still be true.”
― Alice McDermott, quote from Charming Billy
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.