“Here is the riddle of love: Everything it gives to you, it takes away.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“I knew what it was to yearn for a life so distant it seemed that it had never been anything more than a dream.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“Being human means losing everything we love best in the world," she murmured as she released me. "But would you ask to be anything else?”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“What men yearn for they often destroy.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“We stood and watched as God abandoned us, and then we did the best we could.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“Still anyone who trusts a serpent deserves its bite. The wise see a creature for what it is, not what it says it may be.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“Even as a small child, I understood that woman had secrets, and that some of these were only to be told to daughters. In this way we were bound together for eternity.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“I must keep my head and not give in to desire, for desire is what causes women to drown.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“You are only worthy of what you prove yourself to be.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“Perhaps it is possible to discover more in silence than in speech. Or perhaps it is only that those who are silent among us learn to listen.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“You don't fight for peace sister,' Nahara told me, 'You embrace it.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“This was what it meant to be human, to know that time moved and all things changed.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“If we had paid attention, we would have understood there are some things in this world you cannot outrun.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“Our rest is formed by our waking life and our waking life is formed by our sorrows.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“I wept to think that life went on even when so much had been lost, that rain still fell and myrtle grew between the rocks.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“I loved him even now, as he took a knife to my throat, as I drowned in blood, as I whispered "Cousin, you were wrong. We were born to live.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“But now I understood that, although words were God's first creation, silence was closer to His divine spirit, and that prayers given in silence were infinitely greater than the thousands of words men might offer up to heaven.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“But what we are given is taken as well, so that we know God's glory comes to us from His will alone.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“Any weapon touched by a woman, even by accident, must be cleansed with both water and prayer so that her essence would not linger, diverting the warrior who might use it next, for even the faintest touch could bring lust to that man's heart. Perhaps that meant a woman who was well trained in arms would be the superior warrior, her attention never wavering from her task.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“He wanted pain, I saw that in him, and what a man wants he will often manage to find.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“No barrier was strong enough to keep out the movement of time.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“That was the sorrow of it. He saw the light but never expected the darkness.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“The river runs every shade of blue that has ever been known to humankind: ink and turquoise and lapis, indigo, teal, cerulean, and ultramarine.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“The voice that arises out of the silence is something no one can imagine until it is heard. It roars when it speaks, it lies to you and convinces you, it steals from you and leaves you without a single word of comfort.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“They say the truest beauty is in the harshest land and that God can be found there by those with open eyes.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“The stars are reflected from within the black water in the cistern. I find comfort in the omen I glean from this: light in the darkness, truth when it seems there is none.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“You are my armor and my sword, my faith and my tresure, everything I'm fighting for.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“Just know that what's done can be undone, but what's undone can never again be.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“Weapons are kept from women, but such a naming suggests that perhaps men fear our talents in war as well as our desire for peace.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
“They carried what was holy within them, for every man was a temple, and every prayer spoken could be heard by our Father above us.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Dovekeepers
Alice Hoffman
Born place: in New York, New York, The United States
See more on GoodReads
“I've seen that cornered look on more than a few Parish faces over the years, and each time it brings a lump to my throat. The old-timers say you eventually get numb to it. I'm not sure I want to live that long.”
― Steven dos Santos, quote from The Culling
“Never associate any evil with a group. Hate their sins, but not the people. Be generous. Keep giving and the world will return those favours manifold.”
― Anand Neelakantan, quote from Ajaya: Roll of the Dice
“For, behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is it! For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore— 11 Eternal punishment is God's punishment. 12 Endless punishment is God's punishment.”
― The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, quote from Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price
“I’d always be watching her. And she knew now that she belonged to me. Every breath she took, every step she made, every smile she faked, I’d always be there, watching her, waiting for her.”
― Jaimie Roberts, quote from Deviant
“When you keep people from doing things they are destined to do, they go crazy.”
― Ilona Andrews, quote from White Hot
Geography Club
Bright Star: Love Le...
Deadly Little Games
Drowning Instinct
The Treachery of Bea...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.
