Quotes from The Boy in the Suitcase

“She felt as if she was standing at the edge of an abyss, but she was in no way counting on God to rescue her. On the contrary. I don’t believe in any of it. Not anymore.”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase

“If the boy did have a good and loving mother somewhere, surely they would find her.

God only knew how she wanted to believe it. Every single day, she practiced her detachment skills, trying not to care about everything that was wrong with the world. Or rather...to care, but in a suitably civilized manner, with an admirable commitment that might still be set aside when she came home to Morten and her family, complete with well-reasoned and coherent opinions of the humanist persuasion. Right now she felt more like one of those manic women from the animal protection societies, with wild hair and ever wilder eyes. Desperate.”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase

“Only as long as one did what one always did would one remain relatively invisible.”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase

“Nina couldn’t help wondering if the lives of other people were really as simple as they looked. As simple, and as happy.”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase

“And the real beauty of it all for the cynical exploiters was that ordinary people didn’t care. Not really. No one had asked the refugees, the prostitutes, the fortune hunters, and the orphans to come knocking on Denmark’s door. No one had invited them, and no one knew how many there were. Crimes committed against them had nothing to do with ordinary people and the usual workings of law and order. It”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase

“She knew precious little about Lithuania, she realized, and her ideas had run along the lines of Soviet concrete ghettos, TB-infected prisons, and a callous mafia. Somehow,”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase

“Os pecadores eram bem mais interessantes que as pessoas comuns – a própria Bíblia atestava isso.”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase

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Popular quotes

“It was so nice just to live in the moment, to enjoy holding him so closely, to pretend for a little while that they were merely two young people in love and nothing else.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy

“Once I had asked God for one or two extra inches in height, but instead he made me as tall as the sky, so high that I could not measure myself.”
― Malala Yousafzai, quote from I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

“Jest, i kod njega, kome je nekoć bila tako strana svaka sitničavost, razvila se neka vrsta pedanterije, premda je ta pedanterija imala svoj korijen u drugom tjelesnom ustrojistvu i rodila se iz drugačijeg raspoloženja.

Osjećao se praznim; nedostajao mu jeplan koji bi mu dao poticaja, neki zanimljiv posao kome bi se mogao s veseljem i zadovoljstvom posvetiti. Njegov nagon za djelatnošću, nesposobnost njegova duha da miruje, njegova aktivnost - bijahu oduvijek nešto posve drugo negoli prirodna i ustrajna volja za radom kod njegovih predaka: naime, nešto umjetno, impuls njegovih živaca, zapravo neko opojno sredstvo, baš kao male i oštre ruske cigarete koje je stalno pušio. Ta ga aktivnost nije napustila, njome je on vladao manje no ikada, ona je gospodarila njime i mučila ga, trošeći se na sijaset trica i ništavnosti. Gubio se u tisuću beznačajnih sitnica koje su se uglavnom odnosile na održavanje kuće i njegove toalete, a koje bi odlagao, jer su mu dojadile, te ih nije više mogao ni pamtiti, ni srediti, jer su ga stajale nerazmjerno mnogo pažnje i vremena.

Ono što su u gradu nazivali njegovom "taštinom" toliko se pogoršalo, da se već odavna počeo toga stideti, a ipak nije bio kadar okaniti se navika koje su se razvile u tom pravcu. Nije mogao napustiti kabinet sa sviješću da je nešto propustio ili samo površno obavio, jer se bojao da će mu izmaći onaj osjećaj svježine, mira, intaktnosti, koji ga je ipak napuštao poslije jednog sata, te ga je onda opet trebalo mukom obnoviti.

U kabinetu je provodio mnogo vremena, i to ne samo ujutro, već i prije svakog ručka, svake sjednice u senatu, svake javne skupštine, ukratko, uvijek pre no što će se pokazati pred ljudima i kretati se među njima.

Zaista! Život Thomasa Buddenbrooka pretvorio se u život glumca, i to takvog glumca kome je čitav život, do najmanje i najsvakodnevnije sitnice, postao samo velikom glumom koja ga stalno drži u napetosti i stalno iscrpljuje...

Potpuni nedostatak nekoga iskrenog i živog interesa koji bi ga zaokupio, osiromašenje i opustošenje njegova duševnog života, uz neumoljiv osjećaj dužnosti i upornu odlučnost da pod svaku cijenu dostojno reprezentira, da svim sredstvima prikrije koliko je iznemogao - svi su ti faktori učinili od njegova života glumu. Učinili su ga izvještačenim, proračunatim i usiljenim, tako da mu se svaka riječ, svaka kretnja, svaka i najmanja djelatnost među ljudima pretvorila u napornu i silno zamornu igru.”
― Thomas Mann, quote from Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family

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― Michael Crichton, quote from Sphere

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That’s the price of studying to learn a profession or trade, and then working for money. Most people become a slave to money… and then get angry at their boss.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki, quote from Rich Dad, Poor Dad

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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.