Quotes from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“Solving a problem for which you know there’s an answer is like climbing a mountain with a guide, along a trail someone else has laid. In mathematics, the truth is somewhere out there in a place no one knows, beyond all the beaten paths. And it’s not always at the top of the mountain. It might be in a crack on the smoothest cliff or somewhere deep in the valley.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“He treated Root exactly as he treated prime numbers. For him, primes were the base on which all other natural numbers relied; and children were the foundation of everything worthwhile in the adult world”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“A problem isn't finished just because you've found the right answer.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“The Professor never really seemed to care whether we figured out the right answer to a problem. He preferred our wild, desperate guesses to silence, and he was even more delighted when those guesses led to new problems that took us beyond the original one. He had a special feeling for what he called the "correct miscalculation," for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“Soon after I began working for the Professor, I realized that he talked about numbers whenever he was unsure of what to say or do. Numbers were also his way of reaching out to the world. They were safe, a source of comfort.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“...The pages and pages of complex, impenetrable calculations might have contained the secrets of the universe, copied out of God's notebook.
In my imagination, I saw the creator of the universe sitting in some distant corner of the sky, weaving a pattern of delicate lace so fine that that even the faintest light would shine through it. The lace stretches out infinitely in every direction, billowing gently in the cosmic breeze. You want desperately to touch it, hold it up to the light, rub it against your cheek. And all we ask is to be able to re-create the pattern, weave it again with numbers, somehow, in our own language; to make the tiniest fragment our own, to bring it back to eart.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“He preferred smart questions to smart answers.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“Among the many things that made the Professor an excellent teacher was the fact that he wasn't afraid to say 'we don't know.' For the Professor, there was no shame in admitting you didn't have the answer, it was a necessary step toward the truth. It was as important to teach us about the unknown or the unknowable as it was to teach us what had already been safely proven.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“The room was filled with a kind of stillness. Not simply an absence of noise, but an accumulation of layers of silence...”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“Solving a problem for which you know there's an answer is like climbing a mountain with a guide, along a trail someone else has laid.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“It was clear that he didn't remember me from one day to the next. The note clipped to his sleeve simply informed him that it was not our first meeting, but it could not bring back the memory of the time we had spent together.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“The truly correct proof is one that strikes a harmonious balance between strength and flexibility. There are plenty of proofs that are technically correct but are messy and inelegant or counterintuitive. But it's not something you can put into words — explaining why a formula is beautiful is like trying to explain why the stars are beautiful.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“Because he had been- and in many ways still was- such a brilliant man, he no doubt understood the nature of his memory problem. It wasn't pride that prevented him from asking for help but a deep aversion to causing more trouble than necessary for those of us who lived in the normal world.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“Math has proven the existence of God, because it is absolute and without contradiction; but the devil must exist as well, because we cannot prove it”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“So you think that zero was there waiting for us when humans came into being,like the flowers and the stars? You should have more respect for human progress. We made the zero, through great pain and struggle.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“Are all things quantifiable, and all numbers fraught with poetic possibility?”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“Root always showed amazing insight when it came to the Professor.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“I was impressed by the delicate weaving of the numbers. No matter how carefully you unraveled a thread, a single moment of inattention could leave you stranded, with no clue what to do next. In all his years of study, the Professor had managed to glimpse several pieces of the lace. I could only hope that some part of him remembered the exquisite pattern.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“He discounted the value of his own efforts, and seemed to feel that anyone would have done the same.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“Are you just going to stand there frying hamburgers while your child could be dying in a fire?”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“I needed this eternal truth [...] I needed the sense that this invisible world was somehow propping up the visible one, that this one, true line extended infinitely, without width or area, confidently piercing through the shadows. Somehow, this line would help me find peace.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“The ancient Greeks thought there was no need to count something that was nothing. And since it was nothing, they held that it was impossible to express it as a figure. So someone had to overcome this reasonable assumption, someone had to figure out how to express nothing as a number. This unknown man from India made nonexistence exist.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“It seemed as though the secret of the universe had miraculously appeared right here at our feet, as though God’s notebook had opened under our bench.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“The Professor never really seemed to care whether we figured out the right answer to a problem. He preferred our wild, desperate guesses to silence, and he was even more delighted when those guesses led to new problems that took us beyond the original one.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“He had a special feeling for what he called the “correct miscalculation,” for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers. This gave us confidence even when our best efforts came to nothing.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“ان الحقائق الخالدة غير مرئيه اساسا و لن نجدها بين الاشياء المادية او الظواهر الطبيعية او حتى بين العواطف الانسانية .”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“The mathematics stacks were as silent and empty as ever—apparently no one suspected the riches hidden there.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“he seemed convinced that children’s questions were much more important than those of an adult. He preferred smart questions to smart answers.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

“They say it'll be even hotter tomorrow. that's how we spend the summer. complaining about the heat.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor

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Popular quotes

“...it is by our actions that we are destroyed or saved. The choice is ours.”
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“The record is broken and incomplete, not because India ever rested, but because war and the idol-smashing ecstasies of Moslems destroyed uncounted masterpieces of building and statuary, and poverty neglected the preservation of others.”
― Will Durant, quote from Our Oriental Heritage

“I know what my job is, and I'm damned good at it."

When he snorted she came back down two steps. She came down slowly, her movements deliberate, because her own temper was much too close to the boil. "Good enough to have figured out why you've hated the sight of me since I first walked in that door. Since you understood Roarke had feelings for me. Part A was easy -- a first-year rookie could have snagged onto it. I'm a cop, and that's enough for you to hold me in contempt."

He offered a thin smile. "I've had little reason to admire those in your profession."

"Part B was tougher." She came down another step so that their eyes were level. "I thought I had that figured, too, but I didn't realize that Part B had a couple of stages. Stage one: I'm not one of the glamorous, well-bred stunners that Roarke socialized with. I haven't got the looks or the pedigree or the style to suit you."

He felt a quick tug of shame, but inclined his head. "No, you don't. He could have had anyone, his pick of the cream of society."

"But you didn't want just anyone for him, Summerset. That's stage two, and I just figured that out this morning. You resent me because I'm not Marlena. That's who you wanted for him," she said quietly as the color slipped out of his cheeks. "You hoped he'd find someone who reminded you of her, instead you got stuck with an inferior mode. Tough luck all around.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Vengeance in Death

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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.