“Most of us are called on to perform tasks far beyond what we can do. Our capabilities seldom match our aspirations, and we are often woefully unprepared. To this extent, we are all Assistant Pig-Keepers at heart.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“Neither refuse to give help when it is needed,... nor refuse to accept it when it is offered.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“In some cases we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“By all means," cried the bard, his eyes lighting up. "A Fflam to the rescue! Storm the castle! Carry it by assault! Batter down the gates!"
"There's not much of it left to storm," said Eilonwy.
"Oh?" said Fflewddur, with disappointment. "Very well, we shall do the best we can.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I'm trying to make myself invisible."
"That's an odd thing to attempt.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I can't make sense out of that girl," he said to the bard, "Can you?"
"Never mind," Fflewddur said, "We aren't really expected to.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“You know how chickens are, imagining the world coming to an end one moment, then pecking corn the next.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“Are you slow-witted? I'm so sorry for you. It's terrible to be dull and stupid.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I can't stand people who say 'I told you so.' That's worse than somebody coming up and eating your dinner before you have a chance to sit down.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“No, no," said Taran slowly, "It would be folly to think of attacking them." He smiled quickly at Fflewddur. "The bards would sing of us," he admitted, "but we'd be in no position to appreciate it.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I have never known courage to be judged by the length of a man's hair. Or, for the matter of that, whether he has any hair at all.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“Do you not believe that animals know grief and fear and pain? The world of men is not an easy one for them.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“She was the most confusing person he had ever met”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“Gwydion stood as a wolf at bay, his green eyes glittering, his teeth bared.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I know it isn't nice to vex people on purpose—it's like handing them a toad—but this is much too good to miss and I may never have another chance at it.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“Surely you can entrust your task to your friends."
"No," said Taran, after a long pause, "I have taken it on myself through my own choice."
"If that is so," answered Medwyn, "then you can give it up through your own choice.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“It would be a shame if you were killed. I should be very sorry. I know I wouldn't like it to happen to me.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
“I knew something was wrong when you started being so polite.”
― Lloyd Alexander, quote from The Book of Three
Lloyd Alexander
Born place: in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The United States
Born date January 30, 1924
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“It is rather odd to find Dunbar referring to dance as useless: ‘dancing, a phenomenon that probably ranks, along with smiling and laughter’, he writes, ‘as one of the most futile of all human universals’.126 I say it is odd because he of all people ought to be able to see past its apparent uselessness to the individual, to its supposed usefulness to the group. Perhaps he does, and calls it ‘futile’ tongue in cheek. But I'd rather agree with him, nonetheless, that smiling, laughter and dance are – gloriously – useless: how many of us really believe that when we dance, laugh, or smile we do so ultimately because of some dreary utility to the group to which we belong? Perhaps there is no end in view. Perhaps these spontaneous behaviours are pointless, with no purpose beyond themselves, other than that they express something beyond our selves. Perhaps, indeed, the fact that so many of our distinguishing features are so ‘useless’ might make one think. Instead of looking, according to the manner of the left hemisphere, for utility, we should consider, according to the manner of the right hemisphere, that finally, through intersubjective imitation and experience, humankind has escaped from something worse even than Kant's ‘cheerless gloom of chance’: the cheerless gloom of necessity.”
― quote from The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
“The world moves twice as fast. Or twice as slow. It’s hard to tell when it feels like you’re watching your own life instead of living it.”
― Emery Lord, quote from The Names They Gave Us
“I was a wonderful parent before I had children. I was an expert on why everyone else was having problems with theirs. Then I had three of my own.”
― Adele Faber, quote from How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk
“Es fácil imaginar que la enorme capacidad humana para las actividades sociales, para manipular a los demás, para la política, y para la acción concertada del tipo que da como resultado grandes y complejas sociedades, surge de esta habilidad para ponerse en el lugar del otro y manipular la atención y el interés de esa otra persona.”
― quote from Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes
“It was so different than kissing Dancer. Dancer’s kiss was sweet and dreamy and exciting. Ryodan’s kiss had razor edges, sharp and dangerous as the man. Being in Dancer’s arms was like living on the edible planet. Being in Ryodan’s was like stepping into the eye of a cyclone. Dancer was easy laughter and a normal future (sans abrupt death). Ryodan was endless challenge and a future that was impossible to imagine.
Dancer accepted me any way I wanted to be without question. Ryodan made me question myself and pushed me to be the most I could be.”
― Karen Marie Moning, quote from Feversong
Darkness at Noon
My Name is Red
Long Day's Journey I...
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Nightfall
A Distant Mirror: T...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.
