Quotes from The Eye in the Door

“Half the world's work's done by hopeless neurotics.”
― Pat Barker, quote from The Eye in the Door

“(In response to 'In the end moral and political truths have to proved on the body.[ ie put one's body on the line to prove a truth]

That's a very dangerous idea. It comes quite close to saying that the willingness to suffer proves the rightness of belief. But is doesn't. The most it can ever prove is the believer's sincerity. And not always that. some people just like suffering.”
― Pat Barker, quote from The Eye in the Door

“The past is a palimpsest. Early memories are always obscured by accumulations of later knowledge.”
― Pat Barker, quote from The Eye in the Door

“One began by finding mental illness mystifying, and ended by being still more mystified by health.”
― Pat Barker, quote from The Eye in the Door

“Half the world's work is done by hopeless neurotics”
― Pat Barker, quote from The Eye in the Door

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Popular quotes

“The trouble with her is that either she thinks that at last she's got to that spot or place or that moment in her life where everything's like a fairy tale come true, that nothing can go wrong, that she'll never be unhappy again; or else she's down in the dumps, a woman whose life is ruined, who's never known love and happiness and who never will again.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

“But I'll say this, if what looks like the facts of the matter are conflicting with your feelings, then you need more information before deciding.
-Even if your feelings seem really sure of themselves?
-Especially then.”
― Tammara Webber, quote from Between the Lines

“To vilify a man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness,”
― Marie Hall, quote from Her Mad Hatter

“all was eclipsed in sinister muteness”
― Herman Melville, quote from Benito Cereno

“After having denounced the absurdities of utopia, let us deal with its merits, and, since men accommodate
social arrangements so well and scarcely distinguish from them the evils immanent within them, let us do
as they do, let us unite ourselves with their unconsciousness.
We shall never praise the utopias sufficiently for having denounced the crimes of ownership, the
horror property represents, the calamities it causes. Great or small, the owner is corrupted, sullied in his essence: his corruption is projected onto the merest object he touches or appropriates. Whether his
“fortune” is threatened or stripped from him, he will be compelled to a consciousness of which he is
normally incapable. In order to reassume a human appearance, in order to regain his “soul,” he must be
ruined and must consent to his ruin. In this, the revolution will help him. By restoring him to his primal
nakedness, it annihilates him in the immediate future and saves him in the absolute, for it liberates—
inwardly, it is understood—those whom it strikes first: the haves; it reclassifies them, it restores to them
their former dimension and leads them back to the values they have betrayed. But even before having the
means or the occasion to strike them, the revolution sustains in them a salutary fear: it troubles their sleep,
nourishes their nightmares, and nightmare is the beginning of a metaphysical awakening. Hence it is as an
agent of destruction that the revolution is seen to be useful; however deadly, one thing always redeems it:
it alone knows what kind of terror to use in order to shake up this world of owners, the crudest of all
possible worlds. Every form of possession, let us not hesitate to insist, degrades, debases, flatters the
monster sleeping deep within each of us. To own even a broom, to count anything at all as our property, is
to participate in the general infamy. What pride to discover that nothing belongs to you—what a
revelation! You took yourself for the last of men, and now, suddenly, astonished and virtually enlightened
by your destitution, you no longer suffer from it; quite the contrary, you pride yourself in it. And all you
still desire is to be as indigent as a saint or a madman.”
― Emil M. Cioran, quote from History and Utopia

Interesting books

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.