“On May 9, 1916, the British and French entered into a clandestine treaty on how they intended to carve up the region. The treaty was the Sykes-Picot, named for the negotiators. Always described as infamous, the treaty ignored both Jewish aspirations and Sharif Husain’s personal ambitions. And so Palestine became the ‘twice promised land.”
― Leon Uris, quote from The Haj
“Nonsense. Islam is unable to live at peace with anyone. We Arabs are the worst. We can’t live with the world, and even more terrible, we can’t live with each other. In the end it will not be Arab against Jews but Arab against Arab. One day our oil will be gone, along with our ability to blackmail. We have contributed nothing to human betterment in centuries, unless you consider the assassin and the terrorist as human gifts. The world will tell us to go to hell. We, who tried to humiliate the Jews, will find ourselves humiliated as the scum of the earth. Oh, put down that silly potsherd and let us have some coffee.”
― Leon Uris, quote from The Haj
“So before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribe against the world. And all of us against the infidel.”
― Leon Uris, quote from The Haj
“I never got over the horror of watching their graduation ceremonies, performed before their parents. After a demonstration of ‘military prowess’ and personal courage the ceremony ended with their biting off the heads of snakes. As the blood dripped down their chins, they roasted the dead animals for a victory feast. Other schools had the children strangle puppies and drink their blood.”
― Leon Uris, quote from The Haj
“We once again man the barricades -- alone. Berated by our smug, so-called allies, of the Western Democracies. Islam is going to turn this world inside out before this century is out and you'd better have enough guts to deal with it.”
― Leon Uris, quote from The Haj
“Perhaps the bazaar looks disorganized to you, but it works for us. Perhaps Islam looks fanatical to you, but it provides us with the means to survive the harshness of this life and prepare us for a better life hereafter.”
― Leon Uris, quote from The Haj
“taking your son to a whorehouse, thought”
― Caddy Rowland, quote from House of Pleasure
“started out as a shipping clerk. He was a really nice kid — one of the few people in the company I connected to in any real way — and from time to time I would have a quick chat with him. He told me that he really wanted to try his hand at computer programming but lacked the skills. So I sent him through a training program at no cost to him. Pretty soon, at lunchtime he was hanging around”
― Robin S. Sharma, quote from Leadership Wisdom from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
“A complex world of intrigues and power play among couples has
combined to deny young people the love and attention they truly
deserve, more and more teenagers are leaving home to peer up with
bad influence which eventually lands them in jail for the lucky ones
and six feet under for the not so lucky.”
― Oche Otorkpa, quote from The Unseen Terrorist
“Before you have faith you must believe, and before you believe there must be evidence of some sort to persuade the mind. Faith is remembering that evidence and holding to it against all that seems to challenge or contradict it.”
― John Christopher, quote from The Prince in Waiting
“If a heart could actually swell with warmth, he knew his just had. He was the anchor and she was the beautiful vessel swinging around him drifting on a tropical sea, but he was in danger of dragging, and he knew it.”
― Natasza Waters, quote from Code Name: Ghost
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.