“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
“I have tried to mislead you. I am not humble at all. I have no humility and I do not fear you in the least. If I pretend to be shy, if I appear to hesitate, it is only a sham to deceive. By playing the humble part, I sucker my fellow men in and seduce them of their trust. And then, if it suits my advantage, I lower the boom – mercilessly. I lied when I stated that I had no sense of myself. I am very well aware of my style. My vanity is as vast as the scope of a dream, my heart is that of a tyrant, my arm is the arm of the Executioner. It is only the failure of my plots that I fear.”
― Eldridge Cleaver, quote from Soul on Ice
“Stuff happens. We get lost. We try to control what will happen. We give up. We do things that don’t make sense. We search for things in the wrongest of ways. We lose our way, but sometimes, if we’re really, really strong, we manage to find our way back.”
― Jessica Sorensen, quote from Breaking Nova
“Royce smiled. “See, you can always count on people doing what is best for themselves.” “Like I did?” Hadrian said. The smile left Royce’s lips. “You’re a freak of nature or the world’s greatest fool. I’m still trying to figure that out.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, quote from The Rose and the Thorn
“I wouldn’t so much as stick my head in a pool hall. Oh, look, this is as far as I go explaining what I am and am not like. I will not explain myself one more time. I will not make an inventory of my attributes for people or mention my goddamn sense of duty. I will not take one more round of his ridiculous, nonsensical crap!” Whereupon,”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation
“Because we were not in our country, we could not use our own languages, and so when we spoke our voices came out bruised. When we talked, our tongues thrashed madly in our mouths, staggered like drunken men. Because we were not using our languages we said things we did not mean; what we really wanted to say remained folded inside. trapped. In America we did not always have the words. It was only when were were by ourselves that we spoke in our real voices. When we were alone we summoned the horses of our languages and mounted their backs and galloped past skyscrapers. Always, we were reluctant to come back.”
― NoViolet Bulawayo, quote from We Need New Names
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.
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