Quotes from River God

Wilbur Smith ·  664 pages

Rating: (28.8K votes)


“I was sitting in the Temple of Karnak on the Nile, as the sun was going down, and I was all alone, and the great Hypostyle Hall was full of shadows and ghosts of the past, and suddenly I heard this little voice saying "my name is Taita, write my story"… and if you believe that you'll believe anything.”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God


“Yet such is the perversity of human nature that I hungered for what I could never have and dreamed of the impossible.”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God


“when it comes to fashion, even the most sensible woman is not to be trusted.”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God


“Out of the chaos and darkness of Nun rose Ammon-Ra, He-Who-Creates-Himself. I watched Ammon-Ra stroke his generative member, masturbating and spurting out his seminal seed in mighty waves that left the silver smear that we know as the Milky Way across the dark void. From this seed were generated Geb and Nut, the earth and the heaven.”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God


“As they slithered up the muddy bank, scores of tiny silver fish that had been feasting on the open wounds were slow to relinquish their hold and were drawn out with the carcasses. Stranded upon the mud-banks, they flopped and quivered like stars that had fallen to earth.”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God



“Sometimes you are garrulous, Taita.’ Pharaoh was less than captivated by my lecture on the palace architecture. ‘Get on”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God


“Taita,’ she called to me, ‘sing with me!’ And when I obeyed she smiled with pleasure. My voice was one of the many reasons that, whenever she was able, she kept me near her; my tenor complemented her lovely soprano to perfection. We sang one of the old peasant love songs that I had taught her, and which was still one of her favourites: My heart flutters up like a wounded quail when I see my beloved’s face and my cheeks bloom like the dawn sky to the sunshine of his smile”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God


“chariots that I would design with”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God


“The fact that I had been on the point of making a similar heroic gesture was quite ignored, and this only increased my irritation.”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God


“She is the epitome of injustice, is my mistress. I never sulk, I am no glutton, and at that time I was barely thirty years of age, although to a fourteen-year-old anyone above twenty is an ancient, and I admit that, when it comes to food, I do have the refined tastes of a connoisseur.”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God



“Nevertheless, I had recommended a diet of bull’s testicles fried in honey and counselled him to find the most beautiful virgin in Egypt and take her to his marriage-bed within a year of the first flowering of her woman’s moon.”
― Wilbur Smith, quote from River God


About the author

Wilbur Smith
Born place: in Kabwe, Zambia
Born date January 9, 1933
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“A guy who treats his mom well, treats his wife well.”
― Sarah Mlynowski, quote from Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have)


“I brought her flowers one dusky Tuesday evening when the light was perfect. I pointed out the irony of that romantic old tradition— the severed genitalia of another species, offered as a precopulatory bribe—and then I recited my story just as we were about to fuck.

To this day, I still don't know what went wrong.”
― quote from Blindsight


“Roosevelt wrote, “Tell Osborn I have already lived and enjoyed as much of life as any nine other men I know; I have had my full share, and if it is necessary for me to leave my bones in South America, I am quite ready to do so.”
― Candice Millard, quote from The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey


“...victory does not come to men who listen to their fears.”
― Bernard Cornwell, quote from Death of Kings


“But the tour did remind me that my life had been bigger than just that one moment. One girl. One set of words on paper. That I had gone through other things before-good and terrible, funny and awful-and I had survived.”
― Kimberly McCreight, quote from Reconstructing Amelia


Interesting books

My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
(91.9K)
My Horizontal Life:...
by Chelsea Handler
Marcelo in the Real World
(16.5K)
Marcelo in the Real...
by Francisco X. Stork
As You Wish
(6.8K)
As You Wish
by Jackson Pearce
Dragon Wing
(23K)
Dragon Wing
by Margaret Weis
This Dark Endeavor
(10.3K)
This Dark Endeavor
by Kenneth Oppel
Proxy
(8.7K)
Proxy
by Alex London

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.