“Books only change the world if the world is capable of digesting them.”
― quote from Q
“...having already understood everything that you will understand henceforward and until the end of your days." -Q”
― quote from Q
“Le botteghe degli stampatori mi hanno sempre attirato. I libri hanno un fascino particolare.”
― quote from Q
“When a faith stubbornly maintained comes into contact with learning, the product of that encounter is always something magnificent, whether it be for good or ill.”
― quote from Q
“I smile. No plan can take everything into account. Other people will raise their heads, others will desert. Time will go on spreading victory and defeat among those who pursue the struggle.
I sip with satisfaction. We deserve the warmth of baths. May the days be aimless.
Do not advance the action according to a plan.”
― quote from Q
“No one imagines keeping the powerful low for long, apart from anything because if the peasants governed and the lords worked the land, everyone would quickly die of hunger, because everyone gets the hands they deserve.”
― quote from Q
“Io faccio il mio mestiere, capito? Io sono un libraio, vado in giro, vedo un sacco di gente, vendo i libri, scopro talenti nascosti sotto le montagne di carta… io propago idee. Il mio mestiere è il più rischioso del mondo, capito? Sono responsabile della diffusione dei pensieri, magari di quelli più scomodi.”
― quote from Q
“Margharete von Osnabrück […] ha sputato in faccia ai predicatori e pisciato in testa a quelli che andavano a prenderla. Sapeva quello che l’aspettava, ma non ha voluto tacere. Ha urlato a tutta la città, mentre la trascinavano via, che le donne di Münster non hanno combattuto al fianco dei loro uomini per diventare volgari concubine. […]
è morta uccidendoli con le parole. L’hanno seguita in tante, hanno preferito morire insultando i tiranni piuttosto che accettare le loro leggi.”
― quote from Q
“Ursula is something I will never feel again: she is Melancholy, cut into the soul and flesh.”
― quote from Q
“You're wrong Heinrich. While it might seem easy to believe, you and I aren't actually the same. You've been fighting someone else's war, you've been obeying orders, you've been carrying out a part in his plan. You've served other people all your life, for a goal that you won't even see accomplished: that's your defeat.”
― quote from Q
“La memoria. Sacca piena di cianfrusaglie che rotolano fuori per caso e finiscono col meravigliarti, come se non fossi stato tu a raccoglierle, a trasformarle in oggetti preziosi.”
― quote from Q
“Vedi? Il denaro non lo puoi rovesciare: comunque lo giri ti mostra sempre una faccia.”
― quote from Q
“nothing furnishes a room like books”
― Terry Fallis, quote from The Best Laid Plans
“You feel you're learning everything about love as you watch him, from the other side. He imagines you leaving your cozy London world for a man in his thirties who has no real job, who still travels on buses, who's never found a firm footing with his life. The poet, the dreamer, and you would have fallen for it once. But you're too old, now. You just want to fuck.”
― Nikki Gemmell, quote from The Bride Stripped Bare
“Self-righteousness is the inevitable fruit of simple moral judgments.”
― David Halberstam, quote from The Fifties
“If we had better hearing, and could discern the descants of sea birds, the rhythmic tympani of schools of mollusks, or even the distant harmonics of midges hanging over meadows in the sun, the combined sound might lift us off our feet.”
― Lewis Thomas, quote from The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
“A closed circle of opinion or ideas into which discontent or opposition is never allowed—or allowed only within circumscribed and stylized limits—loses its capacity to respond energetically or imaginatively to new challenges.”
― Tony Judt, quote from Ill Fares the Land
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.