“Men då sa Jonatan att det fanns saker som man måste göra, även om det var farligt. ’Varför då’, undrade jag. ’Annars är man ingen människa utan bara en liten lort’, sa Jonatan.”
― Astrid Lindgren, quote from The Brothers Lionheart
“But I can't kill anyone,' said Jonathan, 'you know that Orvar!' 'Not even if it means your life?' asked Orvar. 'No, not even then,' said Jonathan. Orvar couldn't understand this and Mattias hardly could, either. 'If everyone were like you,' said Orvar, 'then evil would rule for all eternity!' But then I said that if everyone were like Jonathan, then there would be no evil.”
― Astrid Lindgren, quote from The Brothers Lionheart
“Why did you save Park's life, was that so good?'
'I don't know if it was such a good thing to do,' said Jonathan. 'But there are things you have to do, otherwise you're not a human being, just a piece of dirt. I've said this to you before.'
'But what if he'd realized who you were?' I said. 'And they had caught you!'
'Well, then they would've caught Lionheart and not a piece of dirt,' said Jonathan.”
― Astrid Lindgren, quote from The Brothers Lionheart
“Men jag kan inte döda någon’, sa Jonatan, ’det vet du, Orvar!’ […]
’Om alla vore som du’, sa Orvar, ’då skulle ju ondskan få regera i all evinnerlighet!’
Men då sa jag att om alla vore som Jonatan, så skulle det inte finnas någon ondska.”
― Astrid Lindgren, quote from The Brothers Lionheart
“But I can’t kill anyone,” said Jonathan. “You know that, Orvar.”
“Not even if it’s a question of your own life?” said Orvar.
“No, not even then,” said Jonathan.
Orvar couldn’t understand that, and neither could Mathias.
“If everyone were like you,” said Orvar, “then evil would reign forever.”
But then I said that if everyone were like Jonathan, there wouldn’t be any evil.”
― Astrid Lindgren, quote from The Brothers Lionheart
“Most killer whales are just four tons of doofus dressed up like a police car.”
― Christopher Moore, quote from Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
“We worship money instead of honor. A billionaire, in our estimation, is much greater in these days in the eyes of the people than the public servant who works for public interest. It makes no difference if the billionaire rode to wealth on the sweat of little children and the blood of underpaid labor. No one ever considered Carnegie libraries steeped in the blood of the Homestead steelworkers, but they are. We do not remember that the Rockefeller Foundation is founded on the dead miners of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and a dozen other similar performances.”
― David McCullough, quote from Truman
“Infatuation's just another word for not seeing clearly. When you start to love a person- that's when they become real”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Second Glance
“However, narrating what you remember, telling it to someone, does something else. The more a person recalls a memory, the more they change it. Each time they put it into language, it shifts. The more you describe a memory, the more likely it is that you are making a story that fits your life, resolves the past, creates a fiction you can live with. It’s what writers do. Once you open your mouth, you are moving away from the truth of things. According to neuroscience. The safest memories are locked in the brains of people who can’t remember. Their memories remain the closest replica of actual events. Underwater. Forever.”
― Lidia Yuknavitch, quote from The Chronology of Water
“You can’t blame someone if they honestly don’t understand that their reality isn’t the same as yours.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Leaving Time
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.