“The answer you seek lies in learning to combine the power of reason with the passion of emotion. If you let reason alone control your choices, you lose the power of intuition. If you let emotion control your choices, you will be a slave to every minor tragedy.”
― Roy Huff, quote from The First Pillar
“One may not be aware of the impact of one’s choices, but they can have a cumulative effect.”
― Roy Huff, quote from The First Pillar
“If you let reason alone control your choices, you lose the power of intuition. If you let emotion control your choices, you will be a slave to every minor tragedy.”
― Roy Huff, quote from The First Pillar
“I’ve always believed that truth is found by using logic and reason to sort through the facts and eliminate the contradictions. I guess the question then becomes, what do you do when you don’t have all the facts?”
― Roy Huff, quote from The First Pillar
“I should warn you, though, that even good intentions could lead to unintended consequences. As you gain more awareness and control, you should not lose focus of your end goal. Otherwise, it can lead to over-confidence and even corruption. [...] That's why it's important to stay connected with those close to you who share your principle values. They can help ground you and stay focused, even from a great distance.”
― Roy Huff, quote from The First Pillar
“I knew life was not perfectly simple and luck was involved, but it was undeniable that hard work paid dividends and being lazy was not generally a good idea. I also believed that having hope and a general sense of optimism made one more likely to be aware of opportunities and take advantage of those opportunities when they existed. After all, a serial pessimist would have no reason to take a risk if he thought failure was the likely outcome.”
― Roy Huff, quote from The First Pillar
“You see! If you come in contact with great power, you must not be overwhelmed by it. The secret to controlling great power is the same secret that you must apply in your daily life when you are faced with great challenges. You must calm yourself and quiet your mind. Learn to filter the distractions and focus on the key elements that really matter.”
― Roy Huff, quote from The First Pillar
“The only thing that could be done now is to stay focused on the task at hand and try not to get distracted by the utter grandiosity of the moment.”
― Roy Huff, quote from The First Pillar
“One of the foundations of truth in the universe is that courage is required of any truly great species, and not just any courage. A lust for death and a willingness to die does not constitute courage. Courage is when you are willing to sacrifice your short-term desires for a greater purpose. Courage is when you are willing to live and endure suffering to achieve a greater end.”
― Roy Huff, quote from The First Pillar
“bureaucrat said. “Come back with a search warrant”
― John Sandford, quote from Buried Prey
“He was able to sit in silence for long stretches without feeling a need to make small talk.”
― Charles R. Cross, quote from Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain
“Ah, Robert?”
“Shhhh, not while I’m praying,” he said, momentarily losing his place before he started again, “thank you for letting us survive that trip from hell. Thank you for ignoring my prayers for a quick death when I didn’t think that I’d be able to survive another day of starvation,” he said, making her roll her eyes in annoyance.
“You were given three full meals a day just like everyone else,” she pointed out, not bothering to mention the fact that, on most days, he’d received second helpings. She sat down on a bench near their luggage, wondering just how much longer he was going to keep this up.
“I’m sorry for all the cursing that my wife forced me to do while I was on that boat,” he continued, ignoring her even as he amused her. “As you know, she’s been such a bad influence on me. Thank you for pulling me from near death and somehow giving me the strength to survive.”
“Near death?” she asked, frowning. “When were you near death?”
“When was I near death?” he asked in stunned disbelief as he opened his eyes so that he could glare at her.
“How could you forget all those times that I could barely move? When I struggled to find the will to live so that I wouldn’t leave you a young widow? Did my struggle for survival mean nothing to you?” he demanded in outrage, terrifying the people that were forced to walk past him to get to the docks and making her wrack her brain as she struggled to figure out what he was talking about.
“Do you mean those few times when you had a touch of seasickness?” she asked, unable to think of anything else that he could be talking about since he’d been the picture of health during the majority of the trip.
“A touch?” he repeated in disbelief. “I nearly died!”
― R.L. Mathewson, quote from Truce
“Having established itself securely on shipboard, the chronometer was soon taken for granted, like any other essential thing, and the whole question of its contentious history, along with the name of its original inventor, dropped from the consciousness of the seamen who used it every day.”
― Dava Sobel, quote from Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
“May the Warrior grant me a smooth course and a quick victory.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
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.