“He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“A piece of writing is a trap,” he said cheerily, “and the best kind. A book, you see, is the only kind of trap that keeps its captive—which is knowledge—alive forever.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“Has everyone gone mad?”
“Everyone was mad already, my lady,” Cadrach said with a strange, sorrowful smile. “It is merely that the times have brought it out in them.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“Books are a form of magic—” the doctor lifted the volume he had just laid on the stack, “—because they span time and distance more surely than any spell or charm.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“Ah? A small aversion to menial labor?" The doctor cocked an eyebrow. "Understandable, but misplaced. One should treasure those hum-drum tasks that keep the body occupied but leave the mind and heart unfettered.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“If you wish to carry a hungry weasel in your pocket, it is your choice.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“When it falls on your head, then you are knowing it is a rock.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“But that is enough of such worrying. The river is waiting, and our hearts must be light, so we can faster travel.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“If your enemy comes to speak bearing a sword, open your door to him and speak, but keep your own sword at hand. If he comes to you empty-handed, greet him the same way. But if he comes to you bearing gifts, stand on your walls and cast stones down on him.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“Piercing My Hearte there is A Golden Dagger; That is God
Piercing God's Hearte there is a Golden Needle; That is me”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“A man whose wisdom is true does not sit in waiting for the world to come at him piece by piece for proving its existence!”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“Do you listen to the wolves, Seoman?” Jiriki asked. “It’s hard n-not to.” “They sing such fierce songs.” The Sitha shook his head. “They are like your mortal kind. They sing of where they have been, and what they have seen and scented. They tell each other where the elk are running, and who has taken whom to mate, but mostly they are merely crying ‘I am! Here I am!’ ”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“He led them around the base of a great fallen tree whose exposed roots resembled more than anything else a huge broom - a broom that would have fired the imagination of Rachel the Dragon toward heroic, legendary feats of sweeping.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“But remember this lesson, Simon, one fit for kings... or the sons of kings. Nothing is without cost. There is a price to all power, and it is not always obvious.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“No existe lo que se llama "falta de temor", Simón, a menos que un hombre esté loco.
Doctor Morgenes”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“¡Un hombre que posee sabiduría no se sienta a esperar que el mundo aparezca ante él pedazo a pedazo para probar su existencia!
Binabik”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“Los valientes y los locos a menudo viven en la misma cueva, decimos nosotros.
Binabik”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“Cuando te cae en la cabeza, entonces te das cuenta de que es una piedra.
Binabik”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“Era un simple punto brillante en la horrorosa tormenta..., pero incluso un brillo solitario puede devolver sano y salvo a un viajero a su casa.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“A veces ser el que ostenta el mando significa poseer menos libertad que la que tiene el menor de los siervos.
Jarnauga”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“They reached the eastern outskirts of the Dimmerskog on the afternoon of the next day. Although the forest was covered in a thick blanket of white snow, it nevertheless seemed, as Binabik had named it, a place of shadows. The company did not pass beneath its eaves, and might have chosen not to even had their path lain that way, so thick with foreboding was the wood’s atmosphere. The trees, despite their size—and some of them were huge indeed—seemed dwarfish and twisted, as though they squirmed bitterly beneath their burden of needled branches and snow. The open spaces between the contorted trunks seemed to bend away crazily like tunnels dug by some huge and drunken mole, leading at last to dangerous, secretive depths. Passing in near silence, his horse’s hooves crunching softly in the snow, Simon imagined following the gaping pathways into the bark-pillared, white-roofed halls of Dimmerskog, coming at last to—who could guess? Perhaps to the dark, malicious heart of the forest, a place where the trees breathed together and passed endless rumors with the scaly rub of branch on branch, or the malicious exhalation of wind through twigs and frozen leaves. They camped that night in the open again, even though the Dimmerskog crouched only a short distance away like a sleeping animal. None of them wanted to spend a night beneath the forest’s branches—especially Sludig, who had been raised on stories of the ghastly things that stalked the wood’s pale corridors. The Sithi did not seem to care, but Jiriki spent part of the evening oiling his dark witchwood sword. Again the company huddled around a naked fire, and the east wind razored past them all the long evening, sending great powdery spouts of snow whirling all around, and sporting among the Dimmerskog’s upper reaches. When they lay down that night to sleep it was to the sound of the forest creaking, and the wind-ridden branches sawing one against the other.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“When you were old, did your memories crowd out your other thoughts? Or did you lose them—your childhood, your hated enemies, your friends?”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“Never make your home in a place,” the old man had said, too lazy in the spring warmth to do more than wag a finger. “Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You’ll find what you need to furnish it—memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“When you stopped to think about it, he reflected, there weren’t many things in life one truly needed. To want too much was worse than greed: it was stupidity—a waste of precious time and effort. The”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“A book, you see, is the only kind of trap that keeps its captive—which is knowledge—alive forever.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder.” More”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“In the midst of such industry, gawky Simon was the fabled grasshopper in the nest of ants. He knew he would never amount to much: many people had told him so, and nearly all of them were older—and presumably wiser—than he. At an age when other boys were clamoring for the responsibilities of manhood, Simon was still a muddler and a meanderer. No matter what task he was given to do, his attention soon wandered, and he would be dreaming of battles, and giants, and sea voyages on tall, shining ships ... and somehow, things would get broken, or lost, or done wrong.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“A wolf is clever-clever-clever, and they are as faithful as a debt unpaid.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“There’s sense, he told himself. You build something and then you stay there. That’s the way it’s meant to be. Not this running here, running there, never see your blood-family or your home roofs for a year at a time.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
“As he slipped away he heard his own cradled heartbeat, muffled though it was in the tickling wool of exhaustion.”
― Tad Williams, quote from The Dragonbone Chair
Tad Williams
Born place: in San Jose, California, The United States
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“Some seek the comfort of their therapist's office, other head to the corner pub and dive into a pint, but I chose running as my therapy.”
― Dean Karnazes, quote from Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner
“When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe. You should be able to go into a room and when you come out know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from Across the River and into the Trees
“world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion …”
― Jeff Shaara, quote from The Last Full Measure
“«Κλέφτης, σταματήστε τον! Είναι αλλοδαπός, μετανάστης. Ενώ εγώ είμαι Γερμανός, Αμερικάνος, Δανός, Νορβηγός.»
Κόφ' το Ανθρωπάκο. Είσαι και θα είσαι αιώνια ο μετανάστης. Τυχαία βρέθηκες σ’ αυτό τον κόσμο και σιωπηλά θα τον αφήσεις. Κραυγάζεις επειδή φοβάσαι θανάσιμα.”
― Wilhelm Reich, quote from Listen, Little Man!
“But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.”
― Seneca, quote from On the Shortness of Life
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Still Growing: An Au...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.
