Quotes from The City and the Pillar

“We affect one another quite enough merely by existing. Whenever the stars cross, or is it comets? fragments pass briefly from one orbit to another. On rare occasions there is total collision, but most often the two simply continue without incident, neither losing more than a particle to the other, in passing.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from The City and the Pillar

“Ideally, of course, a relationship is best, but then how many people are capable of deep feeling? Practically none.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from The City and the Pillar

“Americans tend to play different roles, hoping that somehow they’ll stumble on the right one.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from The City and the Pillar

“Nothing that ever was changes. Yet nothing that is can ever be the same as what went before.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from The City and the Pillar

“عاد وحيداً و سعيداً ، مع ثلاثة كؤوسٍ موضوعةٍ أمامه على الطاوله : اثنان فارغان ، وواحد نصف مملوء و عليه آثار أحمر شفاه . رتَّبَ الكؤوس لتُشكِّلَ مثلثاً ، لكنه حين حاولَ ان يرتِّبها على شكلِ مربِّعٍ فشل . لماذا ؟ لأنَّ ثلاثة كؤوس يجب أن تكون قادرةً على تشكيلِ مربَّع . و شعر بالحزن .”
― Gore Vidal, quote from The City and the Pillar

“يبدو أن كثيرين من الجنوبيين يكتبون . ربما بسبب الحرب الأهلية . يجب الحصول على مأساة لكي نحصل على أدب .”
― Gore Vidal, quote from The City and the Pillar

“As the late afternoon sun shone in Shaw's face and a soft flower-scented wind cooled him, his unhappiness turned to a detachment that was not at all unpleasant. He was utterly alone in the world. This knowledge thrilled him.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from The City and the Pillar

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About BookQuoters

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.