“Do you know a cure for me?"
"Why yes," he said, "I know a cure for everything. Salt water."
"Salt water?" I asked him.
"Yes," he said, "in one way or the other. Sweat, or tears, or the salt sea.”
― Isak Dinesen, quote from Seven Gothic Tales
“The real difference between God and human beings, he thought, was that God cannot stand continuance. No sooner has he created a season of a year, or a time of the day, than he wishes for something quite different, and sweeps it all away. No sooner was one a young man, and happy at that, than the nature of things would rush one into marriage, martyrdom or old age. And human beings cleave to the existing state of things. All their lives they are striving to hold the moment fast....Their art itself is nothing but the attempt to catch by all means the one particular moment, one light, the momentary beauty of one woman or one flower, and make it everlasting.”
― Isak Dinesen, quote from Seven Gothic Tales
“For really, dreaming is the well-mannered people's way of committing suicide.”
― Isak Dinesen, quote from Seven Gothic Tales
“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea”
― Isak Dinesen, quote from Seven Gothic Tales
“Where, My Lord, is music bred—upon the instrument or within the ear that listens? The loveliness of woman is created in the eye of man.”
― Isak Dinesen, quote from Seven Gothic Tales
“She had what the Councillor knew, in the technical language of the ballet, as "ballon", a lightness that is not only the negation of weight, but which actually seems to carry upwards and make for flight, and which is rarely found in thin dancers - as if the matter itself had here become lighter than air, so that the more there is of it the better it works.”
― Isak Dinesen, quote from Seven Gothic Tales
“Perhaps to them the first condition for anything having real charm was this: that it must not really exist.”
― Isak Dinesen, quote from Seven Gothic Tales
“Truth, like time, is an idea arising from, and dependent upon, human intercourse.”
― Isak Dinesen, quote from Seven Gothic Tales
“The sharks had, in fact, remained a constant presence throughout the men's ordeal, even during the daylight hours. Not long after [navy pilot] Gwinn showed up, a massive shark attack--involving an estimated thirty fish--had, in about fifteen minutes, taken some sixty boys perched on a floater net.”
― Doug Stanton, quote from In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
“You’re very good at the flirting thing. Very confident for your age.”
“I don’t know about that. I’ve never really had to wor—“
“Work at it,” I finished for him, quirking my eyebrow at him. “Confident or arrogant…”
His laughing eyes narrowed on me. “You think you’re pretty smart.”
“No. I know I’m pretty smart.”
“Now who’s arrogant?”
I chuckled but shrugged. “Well, I have reason to be. I’m awesome.”
― Samantha Young, quote from Into the Deep
“-لماذا لا يحق لنا أن ننتقد ونعتبر الناس مغفلين ومعتوهين؟ بذريعة أننا سنبدو غائظين وغيورين؟ يتصرف الجميع على أننا متساوون، على أننا أثرياءـ مثقفون، أقوياء، بيض، صفر، وسيمون، ذكور، سعداء، بصحة جيدة، لدينا سيارة ضخمة.. ولكن هذا ليس صحيحًا. وبالتالي، لدي الحق في أن أحتج وأن أكون على مزاج سيء، وألا أبتسم بسذاجة طيلة الوقت، وأدلي برأيي حينما أرى أمورًا غير طبيعية ومجحفة، وحتى شتم بعض الناس. هذا حقي في الإعتراض.
- أوافقك الرأي، ولكن… هذا متعب. ربما علينا أن نفعل شيئًا أفضل من هذا، أليس كذلك؟
- أنت محق. من الغباء أن نهدر طاقتنا في أمور لا تستحق عناء ذلك. من الأفضل أن نوفر قوانا للتسلية.”
― Martin Page, quote from How I Became Stupid
“This was my choice, Fia. I made the right choice so you didn't have to make a wrong one.”
― Kiersten White, quote from Perfect Lies
“Later when, dude? Like when you’re thirty-five? You are twenty-two now, if you have to take any risks, this is going to be the time. I mean imagine you’re thirty-five with kids and family, you wouldn’t want to leave your job then, man. There would be too much at stake then, right?”
― Varun Agarwal, quote from How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company
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.
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