Quotes from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Sitting around miserable all day won't make you any happier.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“What exactly was the difference? He wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“The thing about exploring is that you have to know whether the thing you've found is worth finding. Some things are just sitting there, minding their own business, waiting to be discovered. Like America. And other things are probably better off left alone. Like a dead mouse at the back of the cupboard.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Don't make it worse by thinking it's more painful than it actually is.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“He looked down and did something quite out of character for him: he took hold of Shmuel's tiny hand in his and squeezed it tightly.
"You're my best friend, Shmuel," he said. "My best friend for life.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Bruno: We're not supposed to be friends, you and me. We're meant to be enemies. Did you know that? ”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“. . .only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place; the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Their lost voices Must continue to be heard.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“In his heart, he knew that there was no reason to be impolite to someone, even if they did work for you. There was such a thing as manners after all.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Heil Hitler," he said, which, he presumed, was another way of saying, "Well, goodbye for now, have a pleasant afternoon.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Well you've been brought here against your will, just like I have. If you ask me, we're all in the same boat. And it's leaking.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Very slowly he turned his head back to look at Shmuel, who wasn't crying anymore, merely staring at the floor and looking as if he was trying to convince his soul not to live inside his tiny body anymore, but to slip away and sail to the door and rise up into the sky, gliding through the clouds until it was very far away.'' -The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Bruno: Why do you wear pajamas all day?
Shmuel: The soldiers. They took all our clothes away.
Bruno: My dad's a soldier, but not the sort that takes people's clothes away. ”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Just because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer, you know.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“But still there are moments when a brother and sister can lay down their instruments of torture for a moment and speak as civilized human beings and Bruno decided to make this one of those moments.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“The people I see from my window. In the huts, in the distance. They're all dressed the same.' 'Ah, those people,' said Father, nodding his head and smiling slightly. 'Those people...well, they're not people at all, Bruno.' Bruno frowned. 'They're not?' he asked, unsure what Father meant by that.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“He looked the boy up and down as if he had never seen a child before and wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do with one: eat it, ignore it or kick it down the stairs.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“You’re my best friend, Shmuel,’ he said. ‘My best friend for life.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“It reminds me of how grandmother always had the right costume for me to wear. You wear the right outfit and you feel like the person you're pretending to be.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“And then the room went very dark and somehow, despite the chaos that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let it go.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“He suddenly became convinced that if he didn’t do something sensible, something to put his mind to some use, then before he knew it he would be wondering round the streets having fights with himself and inviting domestic animals to social occasions too.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Bruno opened his eyes in wonder at the things he saw. In his imagination he had tough that all the huts were full of happy families, some of whom sat outside on rocking chairs in the evening and told stories about how things were so much better when they were children and they'd had nowadays. He thought that all the boys and girls who lived there would be in different groups, playing tennis or football, skipping and drawing out squares for hopscotch on the ground.
As it turned out, all the things he thought might be there-wern't.'' -The boy in the striped Pajamas”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Those people... well, they're not people at all, Bruno”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“In his imagination he had thought that all the huts were full of happy families, some of whom sat outside on rocking chairs in the evening and told stories about how things were so much better when they were children and they'd had respect for their elders, not like the children nowadays. He thought that all the boys and girls who lived here would be in different groups, playing tennis or football, skipping and drawing out squares for hopscotch on the ground. He had thought that there would be a shop in the centre, and maybe a small café like the ones he had known in Berlin; he had wondered whether there would be a fruit and vegetable stalls. As it turned out, all the things that he thought might be there - weren't.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“—Tú eres mi mejor amigo —dijo—. Mi mejor amigo para toda la vida.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“He decided to talk to the Hopeless Case”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“It's so unfair, I don't see whij I have to be stuck over here on this side of the fence where there's no one to talk to and no one to play with and you get to have dozens of friends are probably playing for hours every day, I'll have to speak to Father about it.”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“Can I ask you something? He added after a moment.
'yes,' said Shmuel.
Bruno thought about it. He wanted to phrase the question just right.
'why are there so many people on that side of the fence?' He asked. 'And what are you all doing there?”
― John Boyne, quote from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

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“He imagined a town called A. Around the communal fire they’re shaping arrowheads and carving tributes o the god of the hunt. One day some guys with spears come over the ridge, perform all kinds of meanness, take over, and the new guys rename the town B. Whereupon they hang around the communal fire sharpening arrowheads and carving tributes to the god of the hunt. Some climatic tragedy occurs — not carving the correct tributary figurines probably — and the people of B move farther south, where word is there’s good fishing, at least according to those who wander to B just before being cooked for dinner. Another tribe of unlucky souls stops for the night in the emptied village, looks around at the natural defenses provided by the landscape, and decides to stay awhile. It’s a while lot better than their last digs — what with the lack of roving tigers and such — plus it comes with all the original fixtures. they call the place C, after their elder, who has learned that pretending to talk to spirits is a fun gag that gets you stuff. Time passes. More invasions, more recaptures, D, E, F, and G. H stands as it is for a while. That ridge provides some protection from the spring floods, and if you keep a sentry up there you can see the enemy coming for miles. Who wouldn’t want to park themselves in that real estate? The citizens of H leave behind cool totems eventually toppled by the people of I, whose lack of aesthetic sense if made up for by military acumen. J, K, L, adventures in thatched roofing, some guys with funny religions from the eastern plains, long-haired freaks from colder climes, the town is burned to the ground and rebuilt by still more fugitives. This is the march of history. And conquest and false hope. M falls to plague, N to natural disaster — same climatic tragedy as before, apparently it’s cyclical. Mineral wealth makes it happen for the O people, and the P people are renowned for their basket weaving. No one ever — ever — mentions Q. The dictator names the city after himself; his name starts with the letter R. When the socialists come to power they spend a lot of time painting over his face, which is everywhere. They don’t last. Nobody lasts because there’s always somebody else. They all thought they owned it because they named it and that was their undoing. They should have kept the place nameless. They should have been glad for their good fortune, and left it at that. X, Y, Z.”
― Colson Whitehead, quote from Apex Hides the Hurt

“When they shall paint our sockets gray
And light us like a stinking fuse,
Remember that we once could say,
Yesterday we had a world to lose.”
― Stanley Kunitz, quote from The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz

“Born evil? I know of no such person, even in the annals of crime or in the biographies of despots. The answer here is no.”
― quote from The Anatomy of Evil

“Loosely translated Der schlechte Affe hasst seinen eigenen Geruch means that people are most deeply offended by moral failings that mirror their own.”
― Matt Ruff, quote from Bad Monkeys

“People are vicious. They will turn on you.”
― Elizabeth Chandler, quote from The Back Door of Midnight

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