“Happy endings are reserved strictly for the fiction shelves of bookstores”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“The true test of life isn't how you cope when everything is going in your favour; it's how you deal with things that could destroy you, if you let them.”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“Of course, you're always a cynic before you fall in love yourself...”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“I've never seen anyone get so excited by breakfast before."
"Are you serious? It's the most important meal of the day. Sometimes, at bedtime, I plan what I'm going to make for breakfast and then get so excited I can't sleep.”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“Another round later and I was undeniably drunk. I could feel my head swimming and was yelling "INK INK THAT'S THE NOISE A SQUID MAKES", while laughing hysterically at myself.”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“The true test of life isn't how you cope when everything is going in your favor;it's how you deal with things that could destroy you,if you let them.”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“Most of the time, life is all “What’s next?” “Who’s next?” “Where the HELL am I going, please?” But on anniversaries, you take the time to stop and look back and it’s like watching a play of your past dance across your memory. At”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“Learning anything interesting?"
"Not really. Psychology sounds a lot more interesting than it actually is."
Dad looked at me over the paper. "I'm afraid that's the same with most things in life.”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“There are the times when the only appropriate thing to do is stop crying, let it go, with light and love in your heart, and to continue living your life to the best of your ability.”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“I can't, guys," I said. "Tonight I'm making a cherry pie from scratch.”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“Nobody really likes coffee. They just pretend to because drinking coffee makes them feel like a proper adult.”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“Isn't [Caffe Nero] a bit 'commercial' for an anti-establishment rock star like yourself?"
He dropped my hand and dug into his pocket. "But I've got a loyalty card," he protested. "And I've got enough stamps to get you a free coffee.”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“He had not stopped looking into her eyes, and she showed no signs of faltering. He gave a deep sigh and recited:
"O sweet treasures, discovered to my sorrow." She did not understand.
"It is a verse by the grandfather of my great-great-grandmother," he explained. "He wrote three eclogues, two elegies, five songs, and forty sonnets. Most of them for a Portuguese lady of very ordinary charms who was never his, first because he was married, and then because she married another man and died before he did."
"Was he a priest too?"
"A soldier," he said.
Something stirred in the heart of Sierva María, for she wanted to hear the verse again. He repeated it, and this time he continued, in an intense, well-articulated voice, until he had recited the last of the forty sonnets by the cavalier of amours and arms Don Garcilaso de la Vega, killed in his prime by a stone hurled in battle.When he had finished, Cayetano took Sierva María's hand and placed it over his heart. She felt the internal clamor of his suffering.
"I am always in this state," he said.
And without giving his panic an opportunity, he unburdened himself of the dark truth that did not permit him to live. He confessed that every moment was filled with thoughts of her, that everything he ate and drank tasted of her, that she was his life, always and everywhere, as only God had the right and power to be, and that the supreme joy of his heart would be to die with her. He continued to speak without looking at her, with the same fluidity and passion as when he recited poetry, until it seemed to him that Sierva María was sleeping. But she was awake, her eyes, like those of a startled deer, fixed on him. She almost did not dare to ask:
"And now?"
"And now nothing," he said. "It is enough for me that you know."
He could not go on. Weeping in silence, he slipped his arm beneath her head to serve as a pillow, and she curled up at his side. And so they remained, not sleeping, not talking, until the roosters began to crow and he had to hurry to arrive in time for five-o'clock Mass. Before he left, Sierva María gave him the beautiful necklace of Oddúa: eighteen inches of mother-of-pearl and coral beads.
Panic had been replaced by the yearning in his heart. Delaura knew no peace, he carried out his tasks in a haphazard way, he floated until the joyous hour when he escaped the hospital to see Sierva María. He would reach the cell gasping for breath, soaked by the perpetual rains, and she would wait for him with so much longing that only his smile allowed her to breathe again. One night she took the initiative with the verses she had learned after hearing them so often. 'When I stand and contemplate my fate and see the path along which you have led me," she recited. And asked with a certain slyness: "What's the rest of it?"
"I reach my end, for artless I surrendered to one who is my undoing and my end," he said.
She repeated the lines with the same tenderness, and so they continued until the end of the book, omitting verses, corrupting and twisting the sonnets to suit themselves, toying with them with the skill of masters. They fell asleep exhausted. At five the warder brought in breakfast, to the uproarious crowing of the roosters, and they awoke in alarm. Life stopped for them.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Of Love and Other Demons
“Some people feel love in their hearts, Julie. Some of us feel it all way into our souls. We're the ones who can't forget.”
― Judith McNaught, quote from Paradise
“Sometimes when we forget to do things for others, it's because we're too wrapped up in our own problems.”
― John Green, quote from Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances
“Because it seems to me that to be human you have to be able to compromise.”
― William Boyd, quote from Any Human Heart
“Horace, when you get older, try to avoid being saddled with an apprentice. Not only are they a damned nuisance, but apparently they constantly feel the need to get the better of their masters. They’re bad enough when they’re learning. But when they graduate, they become unbearable. [The Kings of Clonmel Pg.268]”
― John Flanagan, quote from The Kings of Clonmel
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.