Quotes from Seven Gothic Tales

Isak Dinesen ·  420 pages

Rating: (2.3K votes)


“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


About the author

Isak Dinesen
Born place: in Rungsted, Denmark
Born date April 17, 1885
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Her gaze met his. "What do you want more than anything?"

Right now, he felt like he could gaze into her green eyes for a century or two. They were amazing, the way they flared with anger, twinkled with humor, or softened with compassion. "I want to be loved, honestly and truly loved, for who I am. And I want to love a woman with all my heart for all my life. I want to ache for her mind, for her body, for her companionship."

Her eyes widened. "Oh." (Toni & Ian)”
― Kerrelyn Sparks, quote from All I Want for Christmas is a Vampire


“Mutta voi, miten ihanaa on hiljaisena hetkenä juuri ennen auringon nousua mennä kotiin nukkumaan kun syömiset on syöty, juomiset juotu, puhumiset puhuttu ja tanssittu jalat väsyksiin.”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Finn Family Moomintroll


“It lasted for a long time, I believe."

"A very long time. It was a great success, but even great successes come to a natural end.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Robots and Empire


“Say it, do it, preach it, shout it, but never, absolutely never, believe your own bullshit.”
― Steve Berry, quote from The Templar Legacy


“Dearest says that is the best kind of goodness; not to think about yourself, but to think about other people.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, quote from Little Lord Fauntleroy


Interesting books

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
(6K)
Stalin: The Court of...
by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Red Sister
(11.8K)
Red Sister
by Mark Lawrence
From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time
(4.5K)
From Eternity to Her...
by Sean Carroll
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
(12.5K)
Bomb: The Race to Bu...
by Steve Sheinkin
Girl Online Going Solo
(7.3K)
Girl Online Going So...
by Zoe Sugg
The Firstborn Advantage: Making Your Birth Order Work for You
(312)
The Firstborn Advant...
by Kevin Leman

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.