“I mean, we're all trying to find out who the hell we are, aren't we?”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“The success of any trap lies in its fundamental simplicity. The reverse trap by the nature of its single complication must be swift and simpler still.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“What a man can't remember doesn't exist for him.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“I see things and I hear things I do not understand. I'm a skilled, resourceful... vegetable!”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you're right. As one grows old, it is easier still.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“You're on your own now. You are not helpless. You will find your way.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“How gratifying to be there when arrogance collapses. How much more so to be the instrument. (Alfred Gillette)”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“There'll come a moment when you think you can make it, and you'll try.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“Men and women walked casually about as they did on the main floor, every now and then stopping one another, exchanging pleasantries or scraps of relevantly irrelevant information. Gossip.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you are right. As one grows older, this is easier still.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“Before taking her into the library, my wife told me she was an old friend in a marriage crisis. A fatuous lie; at her age there are no crises left in marriage, only acceptance and extraction. (General Villiers)”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“I loathe him. He stands for everything I hate in Washington. The right schools, houses in Georgetown, farms in Virginia, quiet meetings at their clubs. They've got their tight little world and you don't break in--they run it all. The bastards. The superior, self-inflated gentry of Washington. They use other men's intellects, other men's work, wrapping it all into decisions bearing their imprimaturs. And if you're on the outside, you become part of that amorphous entity, a 'damn fine staff.' (Alfred Gillette)”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“If I haven't done badly, it's because I've become indispensable to too many like David Abbott. I have in my head a thousand facts they couldn't possibly recall. It's simply easier for them to place me where the questions are, where problems need solutions. (Alfred Gillette)”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“The silence lasted precisely five seconds, during which time eyes roamed other eyes, several throats were cleared, and no one moved in his chair. It was as if a decision were being reached without discussion: evasion was to be avoided. Congressman Efrem Walters, out of the hills of Tennessee by way of the Yale Law Review, was not to be dismissed with facile circumlocution that dealt with the esoterica of clandestine manipulations. Bullshit was out.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“They lived with the intensity of two people aware that change would come. And when it came, it would come quickly; so there were things to talk about which could not be avoided any longer.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“Accountants and economists are natural enemies. One views trees, the other forests, and the visions are usually at odds, as they should be.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“You appear to be a mass of contradictions," Dr Washburn said. "There's a subsurface violence almost always in control, but very much alive. There's also a pensiveness that seems painful for you, yet you rarely give vent to the anger that pain must provoke.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“She's an old soldier's woman, and she has antennae for things that often escape the officer in the field.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“I mean, we’re all trying to find out who the hell we are, aren’t we?”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“They never listened until it was too late, and then only with stern forbearance and strong reminders of what might have been—had things been as they were perceived to be, which they were not.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“everything we knew, everything we felt!’ ‘Not quite everything,’ he said, touching her cheek. ‘I’m Jason to you, Bourne to me, because that’s the name I was given, and have to use it because I don’t have any other. But it’s not mine.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“Wealth is relative to the amount of time one has to enjoy it.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“warmed by the cold sea around him.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“One balks, then agrees, then balks again only to agree again; that is the way one learns things.”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“followed – even now at this moment.’ The one-time beggar”
― Robert Ludlum, quote from The Bourne Identity
“My shoe is off. My foot is cold. I have a bird I like to hold.”
― Dr. Seuss, quote from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
“And the goblins--they had not really been there at all? They were only the phantoms of cowardice and unbelief? One healthy human impulse would dispel them? Men like the Wilcoxes, or ex-President Roosevelt, would say yes. Beethoven knew better. The goblins really had been there. They might return--and they did. It was as if the splendour of life might boil over and waste to steam and froth. In its dissolution one heard the terrible, ominous note, and a goblin, with increased malignity, walked quietly over the universe from end to end. Panic and emptiness! Panic and emptiness! Even the flaming ramparts of the world might fall. Beethoven chose to make all right in the end. He built the ramparts up. He blew with his mouth for the second time, and again the goblins were scattered. He brought back the gusts of splendour, the heroism, the youth, the magnificence of life and of death, and, amid vast roarings of a superhuman joy, he led his Fifth Symphony to its conclusion. But the goblins were there. They could return. He had said so bravely, and that is why one can trust Beethoven when he says other things.”
― E.M. Forster, quote from Howards End
“My net search is finding only a Cadet Carswell Thorne, of the American Republic, imprisoned in New Beijing prison on—"
"That's him," said Cinder, ignoring Thorne's glare.
Another silence as the heat in the engine room hovered just upside of comfortable. The, "You're... rather handsome, Captain Thorne."
Cinder groaned.
"And you, my fine lady, are the most gorgeous ship in these skies, and don't let anyone ever tell you different."
The temperature drifted upward, until Cinder dropped her arms with a sigh. "Iko, are you intentionally blushing?"
The temperature dropped back down to pleasant. "No," Iko said. Then, "But am I really pretty? Even as a ship?"
"The prettiest," said Thorne.”
― Marissa Meyer, quote from Scarlet
“Don't judge a man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins.”
― Sharon Creech, quote from Walk Two Moons
“You can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter.”
― Kate DiCamillo, quote from Because of Winn-Dixie
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.