Quotes from The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Vol. 2: Empire Decayed

“What you do with your time alive defines you, Reader, but hear me, I beg you, when I say that you are not done being defined.”
― Daniel Kraus, quote from The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Vol. 2: Empire Decayed

“It's funny, isn't it? While we were distracted by the silly scraps that make up human history, you and I became eternal, impervious to rot, infinity itself.”
― Daniel Kraus, quote from The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Vol. 2: Empire Decayed

“What you do with your time alive defines you, Reader, but hear me, I beg you, when I say that you are not done being defined. Go out; break things. Go further; repair them. Break hundreds of hearts. Have thousands of children. Discover awe in a tangle of weeds; find delight in the pattern of a roll of mass-produced paper towels; live, Reader, live; live as hard as I died, and only then I will be happy.”
― Daniel Kraus, quote from The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Vol. 2: Empire Decayed

“I am, I believe, a young man on whom a grand joke is being played, fated to live one century, perhaps a second, perhaps a third, only to be scrubbed and rescrubbed from the record, to exit, if I ever do, as if I'd never existed at all.”
― Daniel Kraus, quote from The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Vol. 2: Empire Decayed

“If nothing else, books are conversations from beyond the grave. Am I anything at all, Reader, besides this manuscript you hold?”
― Daniel Kraus, quote from The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Vol. 2: Empire Decayed

“Amerika's story is always going to be yours. White. Male. Probably rich. You're Rome and we all know what happened to Rome. Empire gets too big, empire falls.”
― Daniel Kraus, quote from The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Vol. 2: Empire Decayed

“I marched along, foot after foot, imagining my own autopsy. It would look much like America's; flesh that had turned too quickly for someone so young and now emulsified at the brink of spoil.”
― Daniel Kraus, quote from The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Vol. 2: Empire Decayed

“We are one miracle inter-linked with another, and another, and another, entire heavens located upon this single page as well as inside the fingertip that turns it.”
― Daniel Kraus, quote from The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Vol. 2: Empire Decayed

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Popular quotes

“I believe there is something of the divine mystery in everything that exists. We can see it sparkle in a sunflower or a poppy. We sense more of the unfathomable mystery in a butterfly that flutters from a twig--or in a goldfish swimming in a bowl. But we are closest to God in our own soul. Only there can we become one with the greatest mystery of life. In truth, at very rare moments we can experience that we ourselves are that divine mystery.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World

“If only I had thought of a Kodak! I could have flashed that glimpse of the Under-world in a second, and examined it at leisure.”
― H.G. Wells, quote from The Time Machine

“All those layers of silence upon silence.”
― Donna Tartt, quote from The Secret History

“Isabelle snorted. 'All the boys are gay. In this truck, anyway. Well, not you, Simon.'
'You noticed' said Simon.

'I think of myself as a freewheeling bisexual,' added Magnus.

'Please never say those words in front of my parents,' said Alec. 'Especially my father.'

'I thought your parents were okay with you, you know, coming out,' Simon said, leaning around Isabelle to look at Alec, who was — as he often was — scowling, and pushing his floppy dark hair out of his eyes. Aside from the occasional exchange, Simon had never talked to Alec much. He wasn’t an easy person to get to know. But, Simon admitted to himself, his own recent estrangement from his mother made him more curious about Alec’s answer than he would have been otherwise.

'My mother seems to have accepted it,' Alec said. 'But my father — no, not really. Once he asked me what I thought had turned me gay.'

Simon felt Isabelle tense next to him. 'Turned you gay?' She sounded incredulous. 'Alec, you didn’t tell me that.'

'I hope you told him you were bitten by a gay spider,' said Simon.

Magnus snorted; Isabelle looked confused. 'I’ve read Magnus’s stash of comics,' said Alec, 'so I actually know what you’re talking about' A small smile played around his mouth. 'So would that give me the proportional gayness of a spider?'

'Only if it was a really gay spider,' said Magnus, and he yelled as Alec punched him in the arm. 'Ow, okay, never mind.”
― Cassandra Clare, quote from City of Lost Souls

“Teach them the quiet words of kindness, to live beyond themselves. Urge them toward excellence, drive them toward gentleness, pull them deep into yourself, pull them upward toward manhood, but softly like an angel arranging clouds. Let your spirit move through them softly.”
― Pat Conroy, quote from The Prince of Tides

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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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