“Have you ever happened, reader, to feel that subtle sorrow of parting with an unloved abode? The heart does not break, as it does in parting with dear objects. The humid gaze does not wander around holding back a tear, as if it wished to carry away in it a trembling reflection of the abandoned spot; but in the best corner of our hearts we feel pity for the things which we did not bring to life with our breath, which we hardly noticed and are now leaving forever. This already dead iventory will not be resurrected in one's memory..”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“Thus it transpired that even Berlin could be mysterious. Within the linden's bloom the streetlight winks. A dark and honeyed hush envelops us. Across the curb one's passing shadow slinks: across a stump a sable ripples thus. The night sky melts to peach beyond that gate. There water gleams, there Venice vaguely shows. Look at that street--it runs to China straight, and yonder star above the Volga glows! Oh, swear to me to put in dreams your trust, and to believe in fantasy alone, and never let your soul in prison rust, nor stretch your arm and say: a wall of stone.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“It happens that over a long period you are promised a great success, in which from the very start you do not believe, so dissimilar is it from the rest of fate's offering, and if from time to time you do think of it, then you do so as it were to indulge your fantasy - but when, at last, on a very ordinary day with a west wind blowing, the news comes - simply, instantaneously and decisevely destroying any hope in it - then you are suddenly amazed to find that although you did not believe in it, you had been living with it all this time, not realizingt he constant, close presence of the dream, which had long since grown fat and independent, so that now you cannot get it out of your life without making a hole in that life.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“Then, after all the excitement, I shall experience a certain satiation of suffering--perhaps on the mountain pass to a kind of happiness which it is too early for me to know (I know only that when I reach it, it will be with pen in hand).”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“One night between sunset and river
On the old bridge we stood, you and I.
Will you ever forget it, I queried,
- That particular swift that went by?
And you answered, so earnestly: Never!
And what sobs made us suddenly shiver,
What a cry life emitted in flight!
Till we die, till tomorrow, for ever,
You and I on the old bridge one night.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“Боже мой, как я ненавижу все это - лавки, вещи за стеклом, тупое лицо товара и в особенности церемониал сделки, обмен приторными любезностями до и после! А эти опущенные ресницы скромной цены... благородство уступки... человеколюбие торговой рекламы... все это скверное подражание добру,- странно засасывающее добрых”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“Il genio è un africano che vede in sogno la neve.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“... всё гасло на гибельном словесном сквозняке, а я продолжал вращать эпитеты, налаживать рифму, не замечая разрыва, унижения, измены, - как человек, рассказывающий свой сон (как всякий сон, бесконечно свободный и сложный, но сворачивающийся как кровь, по пробуждении), незаметно для себя и для слушателей округляет, подчищает, одевает его по моде ходячего бытия, и если начинает так: "Мне снилось, что я сижу у себя в комнате", чудовищно опошляет приемы сновидения, подразумевая, что она была обставлена совершенно так, как его комната наяву.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“В полдень послышался клюнувший ключ. <...> Стало как-то неуютно. От утренней емкости времени не осталось ничего. Постель обратилась в пародию постели. В звуках готовившегося на кухне обеда был неприятный упрек, а перспектива умывания и бритья казалась столь же близкой и невозможной, как перспектива у мастеров раннего средневековья. Но и с этим тоже придется тебе когда-нибудь проститься.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“<...> но есть печали, которых смертью не лечат, оттого что они гораздо проще врачуются жизнью и ее меняющейся мечтой: вещественная пуля их не берет <...>”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“And Schyogolev launched on a discussion of politics. Like many unpaid windbags he thought that he could combine the reports he read in the papers by paid windbags into an orderly scheme, upon following which a logical and sober mind (in this case his mind) could with no effort explain and foresee a multitude of world events. The names of countries and of their leading representatives became in his hands something in the nature of labels for more or less full but essentially identical vessels, whose contents he poured this way and that. France was AFRAID of something or other and therefore would never allow it. England was AIMING at something. This statesman CRAVED a rapprochement, while that one wanted to increase his PRESTIGE. Someone was PLOTTING and someone was STRIVING for something. In short, the world Schyogolev created came out as some kind of collection of limited, humorless, faceless and abstract bullies, and the more brains, cunning and circumspection he found in their mutual activities the more stupid, vulgar and simple his world became.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“... увидел с той быстрой улыбкой, которой мы приветствуем радугу или розу”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“А вот продолговатая комната, где стоит терпеливый чемодан...”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
“[T]his is how it will remain until ... literary criticism discards its sociological, religious, philosophical and other textbooks, which only help mediocrity to admire itself. Only then will you be free to say what you please. [F]or God's sake stop that irrelevant chitchat.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Gift
Vladimir Nabokov
Born place: in Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
Born date April 22, 1899
See more on GoodReads
“The keeping of lists was for November an exercise kin to repeating of a rosary. She considered it neither obsessive nor compulsive, but a ritual, an essential ordering of the world into tall, thin jars containing perfect nouns. Enough nouns connected one to the other create a verb, and verbs had created everything, had skittered across the face of the void like pebbles across a frozen pond. She had not created a verb herself, but the cherry-wood cabinet in the hall contained book after book, jar after jar, vessel upon vessel, all brown as branches, and she had faith.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, quote from Palimpsest
“Fire is like greed, my comrade. It spreads across the world, thinking only of itself, seizing everything it sees, and ruining everyone's fun.”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
“He had already learned there was only one day at a time and that is was always the day you were in. It would be today until it was tonight and tomorrow would be today again. This was the main thing he had learned so far.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Nick Adams Stories
“Um. Charles thinks that his wolf has chosen me as his mate."
"In less than one full day?" It did sound dumb when he said it that way.
"Yes." She couldn't keep the uncertainty out of her voice, though, and it bothered Charles. He rolled to his feet and growled softly.
"Charles also said I was an Omega wolf," she told his father. "That might have something to do with it as well."
Silence lengthened and she began to think that the cell phone might have dropped the connection. Then the Marrok laughed softly. "Oh his brother is going to tease him unmercifully about this.”
― Patricia Briggs, quote from On the Prowl
“Are you still as angry as you used to be?' Julia, the World War II resistance fighter, asked Lillian Hellman in the biographical [movie] Julia. "I like your anger…. Don't you let anyone talk you out of it.”
― Susan Faludi, quote from Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
Mermaid
The Complete Plays
Disruption
The Feast of Love
Sexing the CherryBookQuoters 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.
