“Some men spend their lives looking for ways to punish themselves for having been born.”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill
“Pour alcohol on a bundle of nerves and it generally turns into a can of worms.”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill
“In wine was truth, perhaps, but in whisky, the way Hoffman sluiced it down, was an army of imaginary rats climbing your legs.”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill
“He was half a politician, and like most of his kind he was an insecure man.”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill
“The sea was surging among the pilings like the blithe mindless forces of dissolution.”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill
“A moon like a fallen fruit reversing gravity was hoisting itself above the rooftops.”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill
“Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder. I learned that at my mother’s knee and other low joints,”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill
“his manner had the heavy ease of a politician, poised between bullying and flattery.”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill
“A young man with an untrimmed beard and rebellious eyes looked like a conscientious objector to everything.”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill
“I could smell fog even at this level now. It was rolling down from the mountains, flooding out the moon, as well as rising from the sea. The”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill
“She read and read and read, but she was stuffing herself with the letters on the page like an unhappy child stuffing itself with chocolate. They didn’t taste bad, but she was still unhappy.”
― Cornelia Funke, quote from Muerte de tinta
“And what's wrong with dimming the harsh reality of life a little, anyway? In essence, being alive is a bloody long and hard walk to death. Why not make it as pleasant along the way as you can?”
― Lucinda Riley, quote from The Light Behind the Window
“It would seem as if the rulers of our time sought only to use men in order to make things great; I wish that they would try a little more to make great men; that they would set less value on the work and more upon the workman; that they would never forget that a nation cannot long remain strong when every man belonging to it is individually weak; and that no form or combination of social polity has yet been devised to make an energetic people out of a community of pusillanimous and enfeebled citizens.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, quote from De la Démocratie en Amérique, tome II
“Formal education teaches how to stand, but to see the rainbow you must come out and walk many steps on your own.”
― Amit Ray, quote from Nonviolence: The Transforming Power
“Ask me what else I remember."
She started to run away, but his hand touched her arm.
"Ask me," he commanded.
Emma shook her head feeling both terrified and the most alive she'd felt in years.
He waited patiently until her eyes met his. "I remember us, Emma.”
― Lauren Layne, quote from The Trouble with Love
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.