“The lover thinks oftener of reaching his mistress than the husband thinks of guarding his wife; the prisoner thinks more often of escape than the jailer thinks of locking the doors. Therefore, in spite of every obstacle, the lover and the prisoner are certain to succeed.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“ On the other hand in America, in the Republic, one has to spend the whole weary day paying serious court to the shopkeepers in the street, and must become as stupid as they are; and there, one has no Opera.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Aşık sevgilisine ulaşmayı, kocasının karısını düşündüğünden daha sık düşünür; tutsak kaçıp kurtulmayı, gardiyan kapısını kapatmayı düşündüğünden daha sık düşünür, demek ki, engeller ne olursa olsun aşık ve tutsak başarılı olmalıdır.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“This beautiful thought, of 'dying close by that which one loves', expressed in a hundred different ways, was followed by a sonnet in which it was found that the soul, separated, after atrocious torments, from the frail body in which it dwelt for twenty-three years, and impelled by that instinct for happiness natural to all that has once existed, would not reascend to heaven to mingle with angelic choirs as soon as it was set free, and in the event of the awful judgment according it forgiveness for its sins, but, happier after death than it had been in life, it would go a few steps from the prison where it had lamented for so long, to be reunited with all that it had loved in the world. And thus, the sonnet's last line went. I shall have found my paradise on earth.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Le bonheur le porta à une hauteur de pensées assez étrangère à son caractère; il considérait les événements de la vie lui, si jeune, comme si déjà il fût arrivé à sa dernière limite."Il faut en convenir, depuis mon arrivée à Parme, se dit-il enfin après plusieurs heures de rêveries délicieuses, je n'ai point eu de joie tranquille et parfaite, comme celle que je trouvais à Naples en galopant dans les chemins de Vomero ou en courant les rives de Misène. Tous”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“des méchants ou un orage avaient rompu l'une des principales branches du jeune arbre, qui pendait desséchée; Fabrice la coupa avec respect, à l'aide de son poignard, et tailla bien net la coupure, afin que l'eau ne pût pas s'introduire dans le tronc. Ensuite quoique le temps fût bien précieux pour lui, car lé jour allait paraître, il passa une bonne heure à bêcher la terre autour de l'arbre chéri. Toutes”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Durerea pe care un om o poartă în suflet de pe urma unei iubiri nefericite, face ca orice lucru ce l-ar sili să-și adune gândurile și să-și cheltuiască energia, să i se pară o corvoadă îngrozitoare.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“The presence of danger inspires a sensible man with genius, raising him, so to speak, above himself. In the case of the man of imagination, it inspires him with romances, which may indeed be bold, but which are frequently absurd.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“C'est par une folie d'imagination que Napoléon s'est rendu au prudent John Bull, au lieu de chercher à gagner l'Amérique. John Bull, dans son comptoir, a bien ri de sa lettre où il cite Thémistocle. De tous temps les vils Sancho Pança l'emporteront à la longue sur les sublimes don Quichotte. Si”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“There's one convenience about absolute power, that it sanctifies everything in the eyes of the people.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Dans les cours despotiques, le premier intrigant adroit dispose de la vérité, comme la mode en dispose à Paris.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Fabrice, de son côté, croyait qu'un homme de son rang était au-dessus des lois; il ne calculait pas que dans les pays où les grands noms ne sont jamais punis, l'intrigue peut tout, même contre eux. Il”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Is sex dirty? Only when it’s being done right.”
― Anne Mercier, quote from Blush
“You yourself are more responsible for how you are accepted than anyone else. Many people worry about what other people will think of them. But few realize that the world forms its opinion of us, largely from the opinion we have of ourselves.”
― Les Giblin, quote from How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People
“I think: there at the point where thought joins with me I am able to subtract myself from being, without diminishing, without changing, by means of a metamorphosis which saves me from myself, beyond any point of reference from which I might be seized. It is the property of my thought, not to assure me of existence (as all things do, as a stone does), but to assure me of being in nothingness itself, and to invite me not to be, in order te make me feel my marvelous absence. I think, said Thomas, and this visible, inexpressible, nonexistent Thomas I became meant that henceforth I was never there where I was, and there was not even anything mysterious about it. My existence became entirely that of an absent person who, in every act I performed, produced the same act and did not perform it.”
― Maurice Blanchot, quote from Thomas the Obscure
“To help wake up every day, I try to tell myself that I’ll get over Violet eventually, because time is supposed to heal all wounds or some stupid shit like that, but it seems like time is having the opposite effect on me. The wounds have become infected and their seeping through my body and rotting me from the inside out.”
― Jessica Sorensen, quote from The Probability of Violet & Luke
“Because two people met, went on a date, and nothing went wrong. That, Marc, is love that is developed.” Then, she continued, “Then, there is love that just is. The love that can’t always be explained. The love that, according to those that have it, can’t ever be anything but what it is. Endless. Instead of sitting home and imagining the next ‘girls night out’, you sit at home and anxiously wait for him coming home from work. Because you can’t fathom spending an evening without him. That person doesn’t give you reason to live. That person is your life. Love that just is.”
― Scott Hildreth, quote from Broken People
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.