“Love and freedom are such hideous words. So many cruelties have been done in their name.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“Everything is in the way the material is composed.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“They had no previous connection whatever with Connemara; but they saw connections where others who should have seen them simply looked the other way.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“They had far more in common than either realised. One was born Catholic, the other Protestant. One was born Irish, the other British. But neither was the greatest difference between them. One was born rich and the other poor.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“That each man is the sum of his choices is nothing less than the truth. And each, perhaps, is also something else.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“Any assemblage comprising human beings, any family, any party, any tribe, any nation, will bind itself together not by what it shares but ultimately by what it fears, which is often so much greater. Perhaps it abhors the outsider as camouflage for its own alarms; dreading what it would do to itself were the binding to fall asunder.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“It is not a matter of ends justifying means: but of the creation of new means and new ends.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“How the prisoner and the immigrant are treated by the government, how the poor are treated and those without influence: this is secretly how the government would like to treat us all.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“Politics' the polite word for antediluvian prejudices, the rags put on by enmity and tribal resentment.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“It was mankind and not the Almighty that had ordered the universe; only a man could look at an accident and call it a creation with Himself at the centre.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“...but as his father used to say when he had a few drinks taken, you couldn't expect bloody miracles when you were talking about God.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“Truly the angels are come among us every day. Our difficulty is so often that in our vanity and worldliness we so utterly fail to recognise them for what they are.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“We still tell each other that we are lucky to be alive, when our being alive has almost nothing to do with luck, but with geography, pigmentation, and international exchange rates.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“Boredom is a bit of a bore, to say the least.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“Isn't it fun when one's friends get exactly what suits them?”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominsummer Madness
“. . . Do you want to share a black cab?’
Black cabs were an extravagance that Neve couldn’t afford, not this far away from payday, but that wasn’t the reason why she declined. ‘No, thank you. I’m perfectly all right with catching the tube.’
‘OK, tube it is,’ Max agreed, because he was quite obviously emotionally tone deaf and couldn’t sense the huge ‘kindly bugger off’ vibes that Neve was sure she was emitting.”
― Sarra Manning, quote from You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
“The Earl and Countess of Langford!"
That announcement caused an immediate reaction among the inhabitants of the ballroom, who began looking at one another in surprise and then turned to the balcony, but it was nothing compared to the reaction among the small group of seven people who'd been keeping a vigil of hope. A jolt went through the entire group; hands reached out blindly and were clasped tightly by other hands; faces lifted to the balcony, while joyous smiles dawned brightly and eyes misted with tears.
Attired in formal black evening clothes with white waistcoat and frilled white shirt, Stephen Westmoreland, Earl of Langford, was walking across the balcony. On his arm was a medieval princess clad in a pearl-encrusted ivory satin gown with a low, square bodice that tapered to a deep V at the waist. A gold chain with clusters of diamonds and pearls in each link rode low on her hips, sawying with each step, and her hair tumbled in flaming waves and heavy curls over her shoulders and back.”
― Judith McNaught, quote from Until You
“Even when you do the right thing, sometimes there are dire consequences. Second-guessing every step prevents any forward momentum. Trust yourself, forgive yourself and move on.”
― A.G. Howard, quote from Ensnared
“In this world, there is very little I believe in, Pup. But I believe we belong together."
"You don't believe in God?" I asked.
"No, Pup. The only thing I have faith in, is you.”
― T.M. Frazier, quote from Tyrant
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.