Quotes from The Book of the Dun Cow

Walter Wangerin Jr. ·  256 pages

Rating: (3.1K votes)


“Sorrow spoken lends a little courage to the speaker.”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow


“Her ballad did nothing to make the serpants lovely. Her ballad hid nothing of their dread. But the music itself spoke of faith and certainty; the melody announced the presence of God.”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow


“A grudge may be strong. But a grudge isn't strength!”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow


“How many battles make a war?”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow


“He went wordless, and wordless he sat beside her. He knew the size of her sorrow.”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow



“Aye. He wills that I work his work in this place. Indeed. I am left behind to labor. Right
'And one day he may show his face beneath his damnable clouds to tell me what that work might be; what's worth so many tears; what's so important in his sight that is needs to be done this way...
'O my sons!'Chauntecleer suddenly wailed at the top of his lungs, a light flaring before it goes out: 'How much I want you with me!”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow


“But a good novel is first of all an event; as distinguished from the continuous rush of many sensations and the messy overlapping experiences of our daily lives, it is a composed experience in which all sensations are tightly related, for which there is a beginning and an ending, within which the reader’s perceivings and interpretations are shaped for a while by the internal integrity of all the elements of the narrative.”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow


“WELL, THEN SHAG IT, YOU SUITCASE! GET OVER HERE!”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow


“: “Behold the Rooster who suffers much more than he must. Ah, Chauntecleer, Chauntecleer. Why do you suffer today and tomorrow?” oozed the compassionate voice. “Curse God. Curse him, and all will be done. Or, lest you forget the truth of things, remember: I am Wyrm. And I am here.”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow


“How can the meek of the earth save themselves against the damnable evil which feeds on them?”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow



“Almost as evil as the stench was the silence. Senex, however poorly he had ended his rule, had always remembered the canonical crows. He sang them, to be sure, in a disoriented manner; but he did sing them, keeping his animals that way, banding them, unifying them.

But Cockatrice never crowed the canon. So under him the day lost its meaning and its direction, and the animals lost any sense of time or purpose. Their land became strange to them. A terrible feeling of danger entered their souls, of things undone, of treasures unprotected. They were tired all the day long, and at night they did not sleep. And it was a most pitiful sight to see, how they all went about with hunched shoulders, heads tucked in, limping here and there as if they were forever walking into an ill wind, and flinching at every sound as if the wind carried arrows.”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow


“Her eyes were liquid with compassion—deep, deep, as the earth is deep. Her brow knew his suffering and knew, besides that, worlds more. But the goodness was that, though this wide brow knew so much, yet it bent over his pain alone and creased with it.”
― Walter Wangerin Jr., quote from The Book of the Dun Cow


About the author

Walter Wangerin Jr.
Born place: in Portland, Oregon, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“you have got to be shitting me. You too? Why is it every time someone new comes here, they belong to one of you assholes?”
― K.C. Lynn, quote from Resisting Temptation


“The Enlightenment may have indeed outlived its usefulness, but it is only through Reason's protocols that one can make a coherent case for Reason's limitations. O ye of little skepticism, kindly acknowledge your debt to that idiom on which you so glibly heap scorn.”
― James K. Morrow, quote from The Last Witchfinder


“They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
They charmed it with smiles and soap.”
― Lewis Carroll, quote from The Hunting of the Snark


“it is evident that there is another logical alternative: that there can be societies in which difference is not necessarily equated with inferiority or superiority.”
― Riane Eisler, quote from The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future (Updated With a New Epilogue)


“Love is giving up control. It’s surrendering the desire to control the other person. The two—love and controlling power over the other person—are mutually exclusive. If we are serious about loving someone, we have to surrender all the desires within us to manipulate the relationship.”
― Rob Bell, quote from Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality


Interesting books

Castle in the Air
(29K)
Castle in the Air
by Diana Wynne Jones
Meant to Be
(15.1K)
Meant to Be
by Lauren Morrill
It Happened One Wedding
(12.6K)
It Happened One Wedd...
by Julie James
The Unwanted Wife
(21.6K)
The Unwanted Wife
by Natasha Anders
Storm
(23.6K)
Storm
by Brigid Kemmerer
Ruthless People
(15.3K)
Ruthless People
by J.J. McAvoy

About BookQuoters

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.