“What is past, one cannot change,
so each backward glance is a bit of the present slipping away.”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“If there is no wind, you must learn to row. —Polish Proverb”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“Push not the river; it will flow on its own accord. —Polish Proverb”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“Life is like the moon— now dark, now full. —Polish Proverb”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“No man knows courage,” his father had told him, “who has not known fear.”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“Few Polish citizens left on the Praga side of the River Vistula were allowed to live. The burning of the bridge was fortuitous, however, for the Russians were held at bay, allowing the night to cool their red rage. In the morning, the English ambassador to Poland and the Papal Nuncio crossed the river and secured from Suvorov assurance that the capital would be taken peacefully.”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“There are three things that are difficult to keep hidden: a fire, a cold, and love. —Polish Proverb”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“There's no key to the woods and fields.”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“Wherever you go, you can never leave yourself behind. —Polish Proverb”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“Follow your heart. Indulge your whims. They are usually correct. And when they are not, do not allow the world to judge you overly much.”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“A child, she reasoned, does not pick its parents nor the circumstances of its birth. A”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“The roots of learning are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. —Polish Proverb”
― James Conroyd Martin, quote from Push Not the River
“Activision was promoting an adventure game called Pitfall Harry and had built a little jungle scene in which passersby could swing on a makeshift vine. In another room, a company called Zombie had a metal sphere that shot blue electric bolts through the air. But the id installation had a bit more in store: an eight-foot-tall vagina. Gwar, the scatological rock band that id had hired to produce the display, had pushed their renowned prurient theatrics to the edge. The vagina was lined with dozens of dildos to look like teeth. A bust of O. J. Simpson’s decapitated head hung from the top. As the visitors walked through the vaginal mouth, two members of Gwar cloaked in fur and raw steak came leaping out of the shadows and pretended to attack them with rubber penises. The Microsoft executives were frozen. Then, to everyone’s relief, they burst out laughing.”
― quote from Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
“As smart as I am, it took a boy stuck in his house to teach me that sometimes it doesn't matter where you are at all. It only matters whos with you.”
― John Corey Whaley, quote from Highly Illogical Behavior
“Others letting you down is ice cream and cookies compared with the rejection of your own soul. I don’t know what is sadder, expecting myself to fail or being too scared to dream of success.”
― A.R. Torre, quote from The Girl in 6E
“The moral certitude of the state in wartime is a kind of fundamentalism. And this dangerous messianic brand of religion, one where self-doubt is minimal, has come increasingly to color the modern world of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.”
― Chris Hedges, quote from War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
“... and I submit to you, that science, scientific discovery, especially cosmic discovery, does not become mainstream until the artist embraces the fruits of those discoveries.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson, quote from Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
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.