“And how do you undo damage that’s been built into the foundations? With houses, it’s easier to pull the whole thing down and start again. You can’t do that with people.”
― Nicci French, quote from Secret Smile
“it was like glass sandpaper being rubbed on my skin.”
― Nicci French, quote from Secret Smile
“Better to start too slowly and build up,” said a piece of text in italics, “than start too quickly and give up.”
― Nicci French, quote from Secret Smile
“If you call the day after, you’re maybe a bit desperate because, since the first day is out of the question, the second day is really the first day, so you’re calling on the first day. If they’re going to call, people call on the third day.”
― Nicci French, quote from Secret Smile
“Within families, you’re stuck with the character they think you are, whatever you do. You become a war hero and all that your parents ever talk about is something supposedly funny you used to do when you were in nursery school.”
― Nicci French, quote from Secret Smile
“That’s what you were trying to say, isn’t it? I mean, I think … mostly we’re too busy living to stop and notice we’re alive. But that sometimes we do. And that that makes the rest of it matter.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Death: The Time of Your Life
“Many things are mechanical and should remain mechanical. But mechanical thoughts, mechanical feelings—that is what has to be studied and can and should be changed. Mechanical thinking is not worth a penny. You can think about many things mechanically, but you will get nothing from it.”
― P.D. Ouspensky, quote from The Fourth Way
“Ben Franklin advises his grandson not to let even the American Revolution interrupt his studies, urging of young adulthood, "This is the time of life in which you are to lay the foundations of your future improvement and of your importance among men. If this season is neglected, it will be like cutting off the spring from the year.”
― H.W. Brands, quote from The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
“pay somebody to go to school for me.”
― James Patterson, quote from Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life
“طالما لم يوضع الوهم في مواجهة مع الحقيقة, فلا يظهر على أنه وهم, وطالما لا توضع الحياة "في الكذب" في مواجهة الحياة "في الحقيقة" فلا يوجد احتمال أن ينكشف زيفها. وما أن يصبح هذا الاحتمال وارداً فإن وجودها يصبح مهددا من جذوره وبالكامل. ولا يهم حجم المساحة التي تحتلها هذه الإمكانية. فإن قوتها ليست في جانبها المادي, لكن في الضوء الذي تصدره دعامات النظام والتي تنقض على اساسها الهش: فبائع الخضراوات لم يهدد تركيبة السلطة بشخصه وبقوته الحقيقية, لكن هددها بأبعاد ما فعله, وتجاوزه إياه, بما أشعه على البيئة المحيطة به - وبالطبع بالنتائج الغير محسوبة التي ستسفر انتشار هذه الأشعة.”
― Václav Havel, quote from The Power of the Powerless
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.