“Knowledge is dangerous. Once you know something, you can't get rid of it. You have to carry it. Always.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“There was no normal. There never had been. "Normal" and "natural" were the biggest lies we'd ever created.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“Nothing’s worse than a story without an end.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“No, Paige. I am trying to help you.”
“Go to hell.”
“I already exist on a level of hell.”
“Exist on one that isn't near mine.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“I would never see him again. But as I watched the tunnel race before my eyes, I was certain of one thing: I did trust him. Now I had only to trust in myself.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“They'd branded me like some kind of animal. Lower than an animal. A number.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“You cannot kill death. What fire can scald the sun? Who can drown the ocean?”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“I looked at him and he looked at me. A moment. A choice. My choice. His choice.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“There are certain things in life that you never forget. Things that dig deep, things that nest in the hadal zone.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“I don't know. I just want you with me.
I had never said those words aloud. Now that I could taste my freedom I wanted him to share it with me. But he couldn't change his life for me. And I couldn't sacrifice my life to be with him.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“I do not know what I can do for this world but I will not let any harm come to you.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“His thumbs ran over my cheeks. Our foreheads touched. My dreamscape scorched. He set fire to the poppies.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“Not all of us know what we are. Some of us die without ever knowing. Some of us know, and never get caught. But we're out there.
Trust me.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“My father thought I would lead a simple life; that I was bright but unambitious, complacant with whatever work life threw at me.
My father, as usual, was wrong.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“I like to imagine there were more of us in the beginning. Not many, I suppose. But more than there are now.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“Because I don’t know whether honesty is better than happiness. Do we sacrifice honesty in order to be happy?”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“This was what my spirit longed to do, to wander in strange lands. It couldn't stand being trapped in one body all the time. It had wanderlust.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“if I never returned-if you never see me again-it will mean that everything is alright. That I have ended her. But if I return, it will mean I have failed. That there is still danger. And then I will find you”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“I do.” He was clearly amused by my disdain. “We have only been speaking for two minutes, Paige. Try not to waste all your sarcasm in one breath.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“I thought of all the years I had spent thinking about him, wondering if he would ever come back to me. And I thought of him now, pictured his smile, how he looked after me, and it was useless: I just wanted him. I put my head in my arms and cried.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“But if there was a heaven this is what it would have felt like. Touching the aether with my bare hands I could never have anticipated this, not from him.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“You saved me, Nick. Sooner or later I would have lost my mind. I had to know, or I would have always felt like an outsider. You made me feel like I was part of something, part of a lot of things actually. I'll never be able to repay you for that.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“I brought you back because I could not find the strength to fight her without you but for that same reason I will do everything in my power to see you safely to the Citadel.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“You may not believe it, but it is what I desire the most in the world. This place has afflicted me with a terrible wanderlust. I long for the fire, for the sights you have seen. Yet here I am, two hundred years after I arrived. Still a prisoner, though I masquerade as a king.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“He wouldn't have understood if I'd told him why I spend my time with criminals. He didn't know that I belonged with them. More than I belonged with him.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“Perhaps I feel safest when I think of nothing.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“Paige, you will have two tasks tonight,” he said, turning to face me. “Both will test the limits of your sanity. Will you believe me if I tell you that they will help you?”
“Not likely,” I said, “but let's get on with it.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“It was raining that day. My last day at work.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Bone Season
“While I pressed the tissue to my face, Beck said, “Can I tell you something? There are a lot of empty boxes in your head, Sam.”
I looked at him, quizzical. Again, it was a strange enough concept to hold my attention.
“There are a lot of empty boxes in there, and you can put things in them.” Beck handed me another tissue for the other side of my face.
My trust of Beck at that point was not yet complete; I remember thinking that he was making a very bad joke that I wasn’t getting. My voice sounded wary, even to me. “What kinds of things?”
“Sad things,” Beck said. “Do you have a lot of sad things in your head?”
“No,” I said.
Beck sucked in his lower lip and released it slowly. “Well, I do.”
This was shocking. I didn’t ask a question, but I tilted toward him.
“And these things would make me cry,” Beck continued. “They used to make me cry all day long.”
I remembered thinking this was probably a lie. I could not imagine Beck crying. He was a rock. Even then, his fingers braced against the floor, he looked poised, sure, immutable.
“You don’t believe me? Ask Ulrik. He had to deal with it,” Beck said. “And so you know what I did with those sad things? I put them in boxes. I put the sad things in the boxes in my head, and I closed them up and I put tape on them and I stacked them up in the corner and threw a blanket over them.”
“Brain tape?” I suggested, with a little smirk. I was eight, after all.
Beck smiled, a weird private smile that, at the time, I didn’t understand. Now I knew it was relief at eliciting a joke from me, no matter how pitiful the joke was. “Yes, brain tape. And a brain blanket over the top. Now I don’t have to look at those sad things anymore. I could open those boxes sometime, I guess, if I wanted to, but mostly I just leave them sealed up.”
“How did you use the brain tape?”
“You have to imagine it. Imagine putting those sad things in the boxes and imagine taping it up with the brain tape. And imagine pushing them into the side of your brain, where you won’t trip over them when you’re thinking normally, and then toss a blanket over the top. Do you have sad things, Sam?”
I could see the dusty corner of my brain where the boxes sat. They were all wardrobe boxes, because those were the most interesting sort of boxes — tall enough to make houses with — and there were rolls and rolls of brain tape stacked on top. There were razors lying beside them, waiting to cut the boxes and me back open.
“Mom,” I whispered.
I wasn’t looking at Beck, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw him swallow.
“What else?” he asked, barely loud enough for me to hear. “The water,” I said. I closed my eyes. I could see it, right there, and I had to force out the next word. “My …” My fingers were on my scars.
Beck reached out a hand toward my shoulder, hesitant. When I didn’t move away, he put an arm around my back and I leaned against his chest, feeling small and eight and broken.
“Me,” I said.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, quote from Forever
“Here had lived someone else who knew that the only thing waiting at home was a sense of loneliness.
Sometimes it is comforting.
Most often, it isn't.”
― Jim Butcher, quote from Storm Front
“Since this was a formal undead gathering, there would be food—all kinds—drinks, dancing, and festivities, while those in power pondered whether or not to slaughter half the people around them. In other words, like a high-school prom.”
― Jeaniene Frost, quote from Destined for an Early Grave
“There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic
“Vais encontrar muita gente pela vida fora que diz as palavras certas na altura certa. Mas, ao fim e ao cabo, é pelas suas acções que os deves julgar. São as acções e não as palavras que contam.”
― Nicholas Sparks, quote from The Rescue
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.