“For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“I gave them hope, and so turned away their eyes from death”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“Time, as it grows old, teaches all things.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“PROMETHEUS: 'Oh, it is easy for the one who stands outside the prison-wall of pain to exhort and teach the one who suffers”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“Your speech is pompous sounding, full of pride, as fits the lackey of the Gods. You are young and young your rule and you think the tower in which you live is free from sorrow: from it have I not seen two tyrants thrown? The third, who now is king, I shall yet live to see him fall, of all three most suddenly, most dishonored. Do you think I will crouch before your Gods, -so new-and tremble? I am far from that.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“When one is wise, it's wisest to seem foolish.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word — every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“I take my cue from deeds, not words.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“Sorrow with me, Sorrowful one!
Tell me, whose voice proclaims
Things true and sad,
Naming by all their old, unhappy names,
What drove me mad--”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“There is no sickness worse for me that words that to be kind must lie.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“For obstinacy standing alone is the weakest of all things in one whose mind is not possessed by wisdom.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“I beg you, alight and join your sorrow with mine: misfortune wanders everywhere, and settles now upon one and now upon another.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“Un sabio, sí, era un sabio quien por primera vez alzó en su mente y con su lengua expresó que la boda con un igual es lo mejor, con mucho, y que ni con quienes por su riqueza viven en la molicie ni con quienes por su linaje están ensoberbecidos, cuando uno es un jornalero, ha de ambicionar casarse...”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“Do not labor uselessly at what helps not at all.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“This is a sickness rooted and inherent in the nature of a tyranny: that he that holds it does not trust his friends.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“Time in its aging course teaches all things.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“Trust my folly then, since it is best
for a man truly wise to be thought a fool.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound
“It was during that journey to Via Orazio that I began to be made unhappy by my own alienness. I had grown up with those boys, I considered their behavior normal, their violent language was mine. But for six years now I had also been following daily a path that they were completely ignorant of and in the end I had confronted it brilliantly. With them I couldn’t use any of what I learned every day, I had to suppress myself, in some way diminish myself. What I was in school I was there obliged to put aside or use treacherously, to intimidate them. I asked myself what I was doing in that car. They were my friends, of course, my boyfriend was there, we were going to Lila’s wedding celebration. But that very celebration confirmed that Lila, the only person I still felt was essential even though our lives had diverged, no longer belonged to us and, without her, every intermediary between me and those youths, that car racing through the streets, was gone. Why then wasn’t I with Alfonso, with whom I shared both origin and flight? Why, above all, hadn’t I stopped to say to Nino, Stay, come to the reception, tell me when the magazine with my article’s coming out, let’s talk, let’s dig ourselves a cave that can protect us from Pasquale’s driving, from his vulgarity, from the violent tones of Carmela and Enzo, and also—yes, also—of Antonio?”
― quote from My Brilliant Friend
“There is all the difference in the world, however, between two kinds of assistance through government that seem superficially similar: first, 90 percent of us agreeing to impose taxes on ourselves in order to help the bottom 10 percent, and second, 80 percent voting to impose taxes on the top 10 percent to help the bottom 10 percent—William Graham Sumner's famous example of B and C deciding what D shall do for A.”
― Milton Friedman, quote from Free to Choose: A Personal Statement
“Can you understand what the rats are saying?"
"No. But I can kill them."
"Why?"
"Because they are never satisfied. They are like bad politicians and imperialists and rich people."
"How?"
"They eat up property. They eat up everything in sight. And one day when they are very hungry they will eat us up.”
― Ben Okri, quote from The Famished Road
“Truth always leaves a pleasure asking questions.”
― Allan Gurganus, quote from Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
“Kelly was starting to have serious second thoughts about the whole assignment. Like all war correspondents, she supposed. Being on the ground was very different to sitting in the office anticipating being on the ground. Especially with the appearance of that red cloud.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, quote from The Reality Dysfunction
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.