“A message is not delivered until it is understood.”
― Robin Hobb, quote from The Farseer Trilogy
“Fool, there is no sense in trying to play that game with the past. Here is where we are today, and we can only make our moves from here.”
― Robin Hobb, quote from The Farseer Trilogy
“The fight isn't over until you win it...That's all you have to remember. No matter what the other man thinks.”
― Robin Hobb, quote from The Farseer Trilogy
“Sometimes I wonder about that grip. The hand was hard and rough, trapping mine within it. And yet it was warm, and not unkind, as it held mine. Only firm. It did not let me slip on the icy streets, but it did not let me escape my fate, either.”
― Robin Hobb, quote from The Farseer Trilogy
“I wondered if there were any way to live amongst other people and refuse to be harnessed by their expectations and dependencies.”
― Robin Hobb, quote from The Farseer Trilogy
“It was an impressive display of good food abused in the name of fashionable cooking.”
― Robin Hobb, quote from The Farseer Trilogy
“Oh, I've a love, a true, true love, who waits upon yon shore... and if my love won't be my love, then I will live no more...”
― Libba Bray, quote from The Sweet Far Thing
“For I wondered that others, subject to death, did live, since
he whom I loved, as if he should never die, was dead; and I wondered
yet more that myself, who was to him a second self, could live, he
being dead. Well said one of his friend, "Thou half of my soul"; for
I felt that my soul and his soul were "one soul in two bodies": and
therefore was my life a horror to me, because I would not live halved.
And therefore perchance I feared to die, lest he whom I had much loved
should die wholly.”
― Augustine of Hippo, quote from Confessions
“There seemed a deep sense of life and joy about all; and although no airs blew from out the Heavens, yet everything had motion through the gentle sweepings to and fro of innumberable butterflies, that might have been mistaken for tullips with wings.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales
“It is just as easy to bring death to man, and I’ve done so. It’s harder to keep hold of life, harder still to maintain a grasp on health. Those are the tasks to which we must keep our minds.”
― Noah Gordon, quote from The Physician
“تأمل كلمة تشير إلى شيء، “المظلة” على سبيل المثال، وعندما أقول كلمة “مظلة” فإنك ترى الشيء في ذهنك، ترى نوعاً من العصيّ، وقوائم معدنية من النوع الذي يطوى في أعلاها تشكّل هيكلاً يحمل قماشاً لا ينفذ منه الماء ولا يلتصق به، وعندما يفتح فإنه يحميك من المطر. وهذه الجزئية الأخيرة مهمّة، فالشمسية ليست مجرد شيء، وإنما هي شيء يؤدي وظيفة، وبتعبير آخر يعبّر عن إرادة الإنسان. وعندما تتمهل لتتأمل الأمر فإنك تجد أنّ كل شيء مماثل للمظلة، من حيث أنه يؤدي وظيفة، فالقلم للكتابة، والحذاء للانتعال، والسيارة للانتقال. والآن، السؤال الذي أطرحه هو ما يلي: ماذا يحدث عندما يكفّ شيء عن أداء وظيفته؟ أهو ما يزال الشيء أم أنه غدا شيئاً آخر؟ عندما تنزع القماش عن المظلة هل ما تزال المظلة مظلة؟ إنك تفتح القوائم المعدنية، وترفعها فوق رأسك وتمضي في المطر، وتبتلّ حتى النخاع. هل من الممكن الاستمرار في تسمية هذا الشيء بالمظلة؟ إنّ الناس يقومون بهذا بصفة عامة. وعند الحد الأقصى سيقولون إن المظلة قد كسرت. وبالنسبة إليّ فإن هذا خطأ خطير، ومصدر كل المشكلات، فالشمسية لأنها لم تعد تستطيع أداء وظيفتها كفّت عن أن تكون مظلة، ربما كانت كذلك في وقت من الأوقات، ولكنها الآن تغيرت إلى شيء آخر. غير أنّ الكلمة بقيت على حالها، ومن ثمّ فإنها لم تعد تستطيع التعبير عن الشيء، إنها غير دقيقة، إنها زائفة، وهي تخفي الشيء الذي يفترض أن تكشف عنه. وإذا لم يكن بمقدورنا تسمية أداة عادية تنتمي للحياة اليومية شيئاً نمسكه في أيدينا، فكيف يمكن أن نتوقع الحديث عن أشياء تهمّنا بصورة حقيقية؟ وما لم يكن بمقدورنا البدء في تجسيد مفهوم التغيّر في الكلمات التي نستخدمها فإننا سنواصل الضياع .”
― Paul Auster, quote from The New York Trilogy
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.