Quotes from Push Not the River

James Conroyd Martin ·  496 pages

Rating: (2.7K votes)


“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


Video

About the author

James Conroyd Martin
Born place: in Philadelphia, The United States
Born date June 10, 2018
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“If you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - Carpe - hear it? – Carpe, Carpe Diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.”
― N.H. Kleinbaum, quote from Dead Poets Society


“Drummer, beat, and piper, blow, Harper, strike, and soldier, go. Free the flame and sear the grasses Till the dawning Red Star passes.”
― Anne McCaffrey, quote from The Dragonriders of Pern


“Love isn't about being happy. Be single and be happy. Love is about putting him, his sanity, his happiness, first. If you aren't willing to do that then you aren't really in love.”
― Alessandra Torre, quote from Black Lies


“This beautiful thought, of 'dying close by that which one loves', expressed in a hundred different ways, was followed by a sonnet in which it was found that the soul, separated, after atrocious torments, from the frail body in which it dwelt for twenty-three years, and impelled by that instinct for happiness natural to all that has once existed, would not reascend to heaven to mingle with angelic choirs as soon as it was set free, and in the event of the awful judgment according it forgiveness for its sins, but, happier after death than it had been in life, it would go a few steps from the prison where it had lamented for so long, to be reunited with all that it had loved in the world. And thus, the sonnet's last line went. I shall have found my paradise on earth.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma


“They tell you to do your own thing but they don't mean it. They don't want you to do your thing, not unless it happens to be their thing, too.”
― Robert Cormier, quote from The Chocolate War


Interesting books

The Fall of Five
(49.4K)
The Fall of Five
by Pittacus Lore
Altered Carbon
(57.3K)
Altered Carbon
by Richard K. Morgan
Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
(101.9K)
Maus II: A Survivor'...
by Art Spiegelman
Vain
(29.1K)
Vain
by Fisher Amelie
King's Cage
(59K)
King's Cage
by Victoria Aveyard
Ariel
(43K)
Ariel
by Sylvia Plath

About BookQuoters

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.