“If we were always conscious of the fact that people precious to us are frighteningly mortal, hanging not even by a thread, but by a wisp of gossamer, perhaps we would be kinder to them and more grateful for the love and friendship they give to us.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“Her beauty is not just—or even primarily—physical. In her face, I see her wisdom, her compassion, her courage, her eternal glory. This other beauty, this spiritual beauty—which is the deepest truth of her—sustains me in times of fear and despair, as other truths might sustain a priest enduring martyrdom at the hands of a tyrant. I see nothing blasphemous in equating her grace with the mercy of God, for the one is a reflection of the other. The selfless love that we give to others to the point of being willing to sacrifice our lives for them, is all the proof I need that human beings are not mere animals of self-interest; we carry within us a divine spark, and if we chose to recognize it, our lives have dignity, meaning, hope. In her it is spark is bright, a light that heals rather than wounds me.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“He once told me that an August evening was "as hot as three toads in a Cuisinart," a comparison that left me blinking two days later.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“Hand-to-hand combat with three hundred pounds of screaming monkey menace is not my idea of a fair fight. My idea of a fair fight is one unarmed, toothless, nearsighted old monkey versus me with a Blackhawk attack helicopter.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“He's got a chloroform-soaked rag in one hand, and before Judy realizes what's happening, the dude is all over her like fat on cheese.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“We are the most alive and closest to the meaning of existence when we are most vulnerable, when experience has humbled us and has cured the arrogance which, like a form of deafness, prevents us from hearing the lessons that this world teaches.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“With friends, this is a cool world; without friends, it would be unbearably cold.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“To say that I am living on borrowed time would be
not merely a cliché but also an understatement. My
entire life has been a heavily mortgaged enterprise.
But so is yours. Eventual foreclosure awaits all of
us. More likely than not, I’ll receive my notice before
you do, though yours, too, is in the mail.
Nevertheless, until the postman comes, be happy.
There is no other rational response but happiness.
Despair is a foolish squandering of precious time.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“I must exist in shadows, while you live under exquisitely blue skies, and yet I don't hate you for the freedom that you take for granted-although I do envy you.
I don't hate you because, after all, you are human, too, and therefore have limitations of your own. Perhaps you are homely, slow-witted or too smart for your own good, deaf or mute or blind, by nature given to despair or to self-hatred, or perhaps you are unusually fearful of Death himself. We all have burdens. On the other hand, if you are better-looking and smarter than I am, blessed with five sharp senses, even more optimistic than I am, with plenty of self-esteem, and if you also share my refusal to be humbled by the Reaper. . . well, then I could almost hate you if I didn't know that, like all of us in this imperfect world, you also have a haunted heart and a mind troubled by grief, by loss, by longing.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“If we were always conscious of the fact that people precious to us are frighteningly mortal, hanging not even by a thread but by a wisp of gossamer, perhaps we would be kinder to them and more grateful for the love and friendship they give us.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“The cataract of grief is a longer drop than Niagara, and I guess I've not reached the river of acceptance at the bottom.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“Between a man and woman in love, no lie is small or harmless.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“There is no other rational response but happiness. Despair is a foolish squandering of precious time.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“I am my own worst enemy. This, more than any other trait, proves my fundamental humanity.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“This side of Eden, whether we realize it or not, we feel the stain on our souls, and at every opportunity, we try to scrub it away with steel-wool guilt.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Seize the Night
“I hope she can’t tell that I’m appraising her and that I’m completely worried by what I see. She’s excitable and strange. She’s ten. What do people do during the day when they’re ten? She runs her fingers along the window and mumbles, “This could give me bird flu,” and then she forms a circle around her mouth with her hand and makes trumpet noises. She’s nuts. Who knows what’s going on in that head of hers, and speaking of her head, she most definitely could use a haircut or a brushing. There are small tumbleweeds of hair resting on the top of her head. Where does she get haircuts? I wonder. Has she ever had one before? She scratches her scalp, then looks at her nails. She wears a shirt that says I’M NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL. BUT I CAN BE! I’m grateful that she isn’t too pretty, but I realize this could change.”
― Kaui Hart Hemmings, quote from The Descendants
“It is not our high purposes alone that make us moving creatures, but our humble needs and cravings.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Ghost Writer
“time is simply an illusion, and the gifted live on,”
― Jamie Magee, quote from Insight
“And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn't seem broken at all.”
― Jodi Lynn Anderson, quote from Tiger Lily
“No fear is unbearable, she concluded, unless you've got time on your hands and a healthy imagination.”
― Arturo Pérez-Reverte, quote from La reina del sur
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.