“What good are laws that cannot be read or understood, or a tongue that spews only hatred or ignorance? What good is the written word to an illiterate man?”
― Delores Phillips, quote from The Darkest Child
“I wanna leave here myself. But when I leave, whether it's on a bus or train or in a pine box, somebody gon' know I was here.”
― Delores Phillips, quote from The Darkest Child
“She denied and feared God in the same breath. She allowed our actions to shame her, and yet was void of shame. I truly believed there was something unnatural about her - a madness only her children could see. My yearning was not to understand it, but to escape it.”
― Delores Phillips, quote from The Darkest Child
“Fear was a thing I understood all too well. It was a malignancy that had spread throughout my body until my mother, in her godly wisdom, had diagnosed and cauterized it.”
― Delores Phillips, quote from The Darkest Child
“Satan is not going to leave. The only way to get him out is to invite God in, and God is not welcome in my mother's house.”
― Delores Phillips, quote from The Darkest Child
“I touch my scar to remind myself that I am not a coward. I am a Quinn.”
― Delores Phillips, quote from The Darkest Child
“This bag is filled with nourishment for the mind and soul. What I have here, Tangy, are promises and hopes, as well as scattered disillusionments. It’s like filling your plate with ham, green beans, and potato salad, only to have someone come along and spoon lumpy, dried-out oatmeal on the side. Wouldn’t that spoil your appetite?”
― Delores Phillips, quote from The Darkest Child
“Come on, you guys, let's have some sugar and get along, yeah?”
― Trinity Faegen, quote from The Redemption of Ajax
“Don’t lie. You know you like to view but not to buy. I have found that I am not a space where people want to live, at least not without decorating first. And that is the stubbornness in me: I do not want to be someone’s little home.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from Gut Symmetries
“Therefore, as we grow older, let us be more thankful that the circle of our Christmas associations and of the lessons that they bring, expands! Let us welcome every one of them, and summon them to take their places by the Christmas hearth.”
― Charles Dickens, quote from A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth
“In 1939, Simon & Schuster published ADDRESS UNKNOWN as a book and sold fifty thousand copies, a huge number in those years. Hamish Hamilton followed suit in England with a British edition, and foreign translations were begun. But 1939 was also the year of Blitzkrieg; within months most of Europe was under the domination of Adolph Hitler, the Dutch translation disappeared, and the only other European appearance of ADDRESS UNKNOWN was on the Reichskommisars list of banned books. So the story remained unknown on the continent for the next sixty years, despite its great impact and success in the U.S. and England. Author”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown
“پاییز امسال یک کلاغ سپید پیدایش شد. همیشه با کمی فاصله پشت سر بقیه پرواز میکند و روی هر درختی بنشیند همجنسهایش از آن درخت پرهیز میکنند. درک نمیکنم که چرا بقیهٔ کلاغها دوستش ندارند. به چشم من پرندهای بهخصوص زیباست، ولی برای همجنسهایش انزجارانگیز است. میبینم که تنها روی کاج خودش چمباتمه میزند و به دشت خیره میشود؛ بطالتی غمگین که نمیباید وجود میداشت، کلاغی سپید. آنقدر آنجا مینشیند تا دستهٔ بزرگ کلاغها پرواز میکنند، آنوقت من کمی غذا برایش میبرم. آنقدر رام است که میتوانم نزدیکش شوم. گاهی وقتها تا میبیند دارم میآیم روی زمین جست و خیز میکند. از کجا بداند چرا طرد شده است. زندگی دیگری را نمیشناسد و همیشه طردشده باقی خواهد ماند. چنان تنهاست که از آدمیزاد کمتر میترسد تا از برادران سیاهش. شاید آنقدر از او منزجرند که حتی راضی نیستند با وسوسه منقارشان سوراخ سوراخش کنند. هر روز در انتظار کلاغ سپید مینشینم و او را به سوی خود میخوانم و او با دقت از میان چشمهای سرخرنگش براندازم میکند. برایش کار چندانی از دستم برنمیآید. آشغالهای من شاید زندگیای را طولانی میکنند که نباید طولانی شود. ولی من میخواهم کلاغ سپید زنده بماند. گاهی در عالم رؤیا میبینم که یک کلاغ سپید دیگر در جنگل هست و آن دو یکدیگر را پیدا خواهند کرد. رؤیایم را باور ندارم، فقط آرزو میکنم چنین باشد.”
― Marlen Haushofer, quote from The Wall
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.