“I’m a Russian. Without the Motherland, I’d be nothing.”
― Simon Sebag Montefiore, quote from Sashenka
“No, that’s not the style of these people,’ explained Maxy. ‘You shouldn’t think of these Bolsheviks as modern politicians. They were religious fanatics. Their Marxism was fanatical; their fervour was semi-Islamic; and they saw themselves as members of a secret military-religious order like the medieval Crusaders or the Knights Templar. They were ruthless, amoral and paranoid. They believed that millions would have to die to create their perfect world. Family, love and friendship were nothing compared to the holy grail. People died of gossip at Stalin’s court. For a man like Satinov, secrecy was everything.”
― Simon Sebag Montefiore, quote from Sashenka
“- Nego, kako ti je žena?
On odmahnu glavom.
- Ja sam duhom daleko od svog doma. Dolazim i odlazim kao avet. Uviđam i sam da sumnjam u sve u šta sam nekada verovao.
- (...) a s kim ti razgovaraš?
- Ni sa kim. Ne sa svojom ženom. Pomislim ponekad kako si ti možda jedina s kojom ne moram da se pretvaram jer nas dvoje se samo napola znamo, nismo bliski prijatelji, shvataš?
Sašenjka se nasmeši.
- Kakav smo mi čudan par!
Zatvorila je oči i pustila da joj vetar i pahuljice snega hlade lice.”
― Simon Sebag Montefiore, quote from Sashenka
“Mi pisci imamo neku tajnu koja nas održava u životu i daje nam nadu, mada znamo da to što pišemo nikad nećemo moći da objavimo. Isak Babelj radi na nečemu tajnom, Miša Bulgakov piše roman o đavolu u Moskvi. Ali niko ih nikad neće čitati. Niko ni mene neće čitati.”
― Simon Sebag Montefiore, quote from Sashenka
“Young Stalin Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar Potemkin: Catherine the Great’s Imperial Partner”
― Simon Sebag Montefiore, quote from Sashenka
“Šta bi bilo kada bih ti sad rekao, bez glupiranja, da kroz ova vrata ulazimo u tajni svet u kojem niko ne može da nas vidi i takne, svet u kome ću te voleti više od samog života? Znam da nije palata. Možda je samo bedna baštenska šupa, ali je i šupa u kojoj želim da te obožavam i volim ne traćeći više ni sekund svog kratkog života u ovom zlokobnom svetu. Možda smešno zvuči, ali došla si u leto mog života. Ja nisam star, ali nisam više ni mlad, i poznajem sebe. Ti si jedina žena mog života, žena koje ću se setiti na samrti. (...) Benja je uze u zagrljaj i ona po njegovom pogledu i čvrstini njegovih usana nasluti da ozbiljno misli ono što je rekao, da je stvarno voli i da je ovaj trenutak, u njihovom intimnom svetu, jedan od onih svetih događaja koji se zbivaju jednom ili dvaput u životu, a nekome se nikada i ne dogode.”
― Simon Sebag Montefiore, quote from Sashenka
“You’re too cute, Katinka, for a historian.”
― Simon Sebag Montefiore, quote from Sashenka
“Nijedan dan, nijedan sat, nijedan minut nije prošao a da ga nije razdirala želja da je vidi, da joj priča, da je dodiruje. Žudeo je da se naslađuje gledajući je, da napoji svoja sećanja, tako da posle, kad više ne bude s njom, može u mislima da je dodirne i oseti. (...) Ali ljubav uvek rađa patnju. (...) Može li to potrajati? Ne smemo gubiti ni trenutka, pomislio je.”
― Simon Sebag Montefiore, quote from Sashenka
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Born place: in London, The United Kingdom
See more on GoodReads
“We've just lost our way, that's all. But what if you could give us a chance to do better? Just one chance? One single move in the great game of history? What's your best shot? What would you consider to be the greatest mistake in world history and, more to the point, what single thing would you do to prevent it?”
― Ben Elton, quote from Time and Time Again
“Skill in any performance whether it be in sports in playing the piano in conversation or in selling merchandise consists not in painfully and consciously thinking out each action as it is performed but in relaxing and letting the job do itself through you. Creative performance is spontaneous and ‘natural’ as opposed to self-conscious and studied.”
― quote from Psycho-Cybernetics
“Hey, baby,” he says, his voice a whisper. “Miss me?”
― Natalie Ward, quote from Losing Me Finding You
“Food equaled utilitarian fuel, pure and simple. The new Soviet citizen was to be liberated from fussy dining and other such distractions from his grand modernizing project. Novy sovetsky chelovek. The New Soviet Man!”
― Anya von Bremzen, quote from Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing
“ليس هناك على الأرض أقدس من دم الإنسان، يا بني، ولذلك سمّيت بلادنا بالمقدّسة.”
― quote from The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist
Elizabeth's Wolf
Beautiful Boy: A Fat...
How to Abduct a High...
The Stone Gods
Adverbs
Rites of Spring: The...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.
