“Life was good except for―oh, yes, there was always an except.”
― Catherine Cookson, quote from The Black Candle
“Platitudes or otherwise, there were no words to ease the agony of living.”
― Catherine Cookson, quote from The Black Candle
“Fancy feathers make peacocks, but you pluck them and see what's left.”
― Catherine Cookson, quote from The Black Candle
“And, like the prodigal son, he had returned broken in body and also in mind to the house where he had been born, and he and his child had been welcomed with open arms.”
― Catherine Cookson, quote from The Black Candle
“She's only got eight fingers but she's got them stuck in all kinds of pies, and she keeps her thumbs bare for testing new ones.”
― Catherine Cookson, quote from The Black Candle
“Such love is bound to suffer, because it will wake up one day.”
― Catherine Cookson, quote from The Black Candle
“Who wanted to live to a hundred and one? Who wanted to go on living at all at times?”
― Catherine Cookson, quote from The Black Candle
“Anyway, as they say, where there's life, there's hope. So let us eat.”
― Catherine Cookson, quote from The Black Candle
“Try not to worry, for time is a great healer.' Such words were futile.”
― Catherine Cookson, quote from The Black Candle
“Why does everything have to be so hard? [Eragon] wondered.
Because, said Saphira, everyone wants to eat, but no one wants to be eaten.”
― Christopher Paolini, quote from Inheritance
“Adams lay peacefully, his mind clear, by all signs. Then late in the afternoon, according to several who were present in the room, he stirred and whispered clearly enough to be understood, "Thomas Jefferson survives.”
― David McCullough, quote from John Adams
“Actors! The mechanics of cheap melodrama! That isn't death! You scream and choke and sink to your knees but it doesn't bring death home to anyone- it doesn't catch them unawares and start the whisper in their skulls that says- 'One day you are going to die.”
― Tom Stoppard, quote from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
“If there is no snake at your feet, do not lift rocks at the side of the road.”
― Andre Dubus III, quote from House of Sand and Fog
“I will tell you the deeper significance of this, which otherwise might seem a banal hydraulic joke. Caus knew that if one fills a vessel with water and seals it at the top, the water, even if one then opens a hole in the bottom, will not come out. But if one opens a hole in the top, also, the water spurts out below."
"Isn't that obvious?" I said. "Air enters at the top and presses the water down."
"A typical scientific explanation, in which the cause is mistaken for the effect, or vice versa. The question is not why the water comes out in the second place, but why it refuses to come out in the first case."
"And why does it refuse?" Garamond asked eagerly.
"Because, if it came out, it would leave a vacuum in the vessel, and nature abhors a vacuum. Nequaquam vacui was a Rosicrucian principle, which modern science has forgotten."
"Excuse me," Belbo said to Agliè, "but your argument is simply post hoc ergo ante hoc. What follows causes what came before.
You must not think linearly. The water in these fountains doesn't. Nature doesn't; nature knows nothing of time. Time is an invention of the West.”
― Umberto Eco, quote from Foucault's Pendulum
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.