“and he began to understand what a wild game we play in life; he began to understand that a thing once done cannot be undone nor changed by saying "I am sorry!”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, quote from The Black Arrow
“I know; I don't care to die either. But when whining mendeth nothing, wherefore whine?”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, quote from The Black Arrow
“A hanging in a good quarrel is an easy death they say, though I could never hear of any that came back to say so.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, quote from The Black Arrow
“I had four blak arrows under my belt,
Four for the greefs that I have felt,
Four for the number of ill menne
That have oppressid me now and then.
One is gone; one is wele sped;
Old Apulyaird is dead.
One is for Maister Bennet Hatch,
That burned Grimstone, walls and thatch.
One for Sir Oliver Oates,
That cut Sir Harry Shelton’s throat.
Sir Daniel, ye shull have the fourt;
We shall think it fair sport.
Ye shull each have your own part,
A blak arrow in each blak heart.
Get ye to your knees for to pray;
Ye are ded theeves, by yea and nay!
JON AMEND-ALL
Of the Green Wood,
And his jolly fellaweship”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, quote from The Black Arrow
“If the barons live at war, ploughfolk must eat roots.” “Nay,”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, quote from The Black Arrow
“and for the first time began to understand the desperate game that we play in life; and how a thing once done is not to be changed or remedied, by any penitence. But”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, quote from The Black Arrow
“Well! marriage is like death, it comes to all.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, quote from The Black Arrow
“Noh, tead, abielu on nagu surm, see jõuab kord kõigile kätte," ütles Dick alistuvalt.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, quote from The Black Arrow
“Sir Oliver—that knows more of law than honesty—I”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, quote from The Black Arrow
“How many memories can come through at once before they are just jumbled words and faces mixed together by years of pain?”
― Rebecca Maizel, quote from Infinite Days
“...there was no such thing as curses. People make and break their own fortunes -they are the masters of their own fate.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Uncommon Criminals
“When the quarrel had finally worn itself out they had found themselves at opposite ends of the earth, though lying side by side in the same bed.”
― O.E. Rølvaag, quote from Giants in the Earth
“When you think about it in the big scheme of things our time together is like a dash of spice in a big cosmic soup - important for richness of flavor but still not quite the main ingredient. The past is over. It can't and shouldn't be reclaimed. All we ever have is now anyway.”
― Alyson Noel, quote from Everlasting
“When I was first aware that I had been laid low by the disease, I felt a need, among other things, to register a strong protest against the word "depression." Depression, most people know, used to be termed "melancholia," a word which appears in English as the year 1303 and crops up more than once in Chaucer, who in his usage seemed to be aware of its pathological nuances. "Melancholia" would still appear to be a far more apt and evocative word for the blacker forms of the disorder, but it was usurped by a noun with a blank tonality and lacking any magisterial presence, used indifferently to describe an economic decline or a rut in the ground, a true wimp of a word for such a major illness.
It may be that the scientist generally held responsible for its currency in modern times, a Johns Hopkins Medical School faculty member justly venerated -- the Swiss-born psychiatrist Adolf Meyer -- had a tin ear for the finer rhythms of English and therefore was unaware of the semantic damage he had inflicted for such a dreadful and raging disease. Nonetheless, for over seventy-five years the word has slithered innocuously through the language like a slug, leaving little trace of its intrinsic malevolence and preventing, by its insipidity, a general awareness of the horrible intensity of the disease when out of control.”
― William Styron, quote from Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
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.