“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
“maturity consisted in accepting the turn that existence had taken without getting too upset,”
― quote from Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
“I wasn’t optimistic. Interpol has a reputation for cooperating with authoritarian regimes to chase down political enemies. In many cases Interpol had done the wrong thing. The most egregious example of this was in the lead-up to World War II, when Interpol helped the Nazis pursue prominent Jews who’d fled the Reich. There have been many shocking examples since.”
― Bill Browder, quote from Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
“Wolf Spring s not a city of finery. It is of fishers and farmers and folk on the docks, and no one wears their fine blacks except on Beltane.”
― Kendare Blake, quote from Three Dark Crowns
“Like books, sports give people a sense of having lived other lives, of taking part in other people’s victories. And defeats. When sports are at their best, the spirit of the fan merges with the spirit of the athlete.”
― quote from Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE
“The river can go back over the past and bring it all up and spit it out on the banks in full view of everyone, but people can’t.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from Into the Water
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.