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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“Dunque," mormorò, "secondo lei le feste natalizie sono un'epoca poco favorevole ai delitti."
"E' quel che penso."
"Perché?"
"Perché?" Johnson parve un pò perplesso. "Perché, come ho detto, c'è un senso diffuso di allegria, di buona volontà...di buoni pranzi..."
"Come siete sentimentali, voi inglesi!"
"Bé, e anche se fosse così, che male ci vede? E' forse un male amare le tradizioni, le vecchie feste?"
"Oh no, nessun male, anzi è una cosa molto poetica! Ma esaminiamo i fatti. Lei ha detto che Natale è un'epoca di buoni pranzi. Questo significa che in questi giorni si mangia e si beve troppo...Per conseguenza...indigestioni, e all'indigestione si accompagna spesso una speciale irritabilità del carattere."
"Ma i delitti non vengono commessi per irritabilità."
"uhm! Non ne sono troppo sicuro...Ma partiamo anche da un altro punto di vista. A Natale impera lo spirito di "buona volontà". Vecchi litigi vengono dimenticati, coloro che si trovano in disaccordo fanno la pace...Sia pure provvisoriamente, le famiglie che sono state separate per tutto l'anno si raccolgono ancora una volta. In queste occasioni, amico mio, deve ammettere che i nervi possono venir sottoposti a dura prova. Persone che non hanno alcuna voglia di essere amabili fanno uno sforzo per apparirlo...C'è in essi molta ipocrisia, a Natale, onorevole ipocrisia, senza dubbio, ipocrisia pour le bon motif, ma sempre ipocrisia."
"Bé...io non presenterei le cose in questo modo," disse Johnson con aria dubbiosa.
Poirot gli sorrise.
"No, no, sono io che le presento così...e che sostengo come lo sforzo per essere buoni e amabili crei un malessere che può riuscire in definitiva pericoloso. Chiudete le valvole di sicurezza del vostro contegno naturale, e, presto o tardi, la caldaia scoppierà provocando un disastro."
Il colonnello Johnson guardò il piccolo belga.
"Non riesco mai a capire quando parla sul serio e quando si sta burlando di me."
"Non parlo sul serio, no!" disse Poirot ridendo. "Nemmeno per sogno. Ma sostengo che condizioni artificiali di vita finiscono sempre con una naturale reazione.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“September 22d, when, upon coming on deck at seven bells in the morning, we found the other watch aloft throwing water upon the sails; and, looking astern, we saw a small clipper-built brig with a black hull heading directly after us. We went to work immediately, and put all the canvas upon the brig which we could get upon her, rigging out oars for extra studding-sail yards, and continued wetting down the sails by buckets of water whipped up to the mast-head, until about nine o’clock, when there came on a drizzling rain. The vessel continued in pursuit, changing her course as we changed ours, to keep before the wind. The captain, who watched her with his glass, said that she was armed, and full of men, and showed no colors. We continued running dead before the wind, knowing that we sailed better so, and that clippers are fastest on the wind. We had also another advantage. The wind was light, and we spread more canvas than she did, having royals and sky-sails fore and aft, and ten studding-sails; while she, being an hermaphrodite brig, had only a gaff topsail aft. Early in the morning she was overhauling us a little, but after the rain came on and the wind grew lighter, we began to leave her astern. All hands remained on deck throughout the day, and we got our fire-arms in order; but we were too few to have done anything with her, if she had proved to be what we feared. Fortunately there was no moon, and the night which followed was exceedingly dark, so that, by putting out all the”
― Richard Henry Dana Jr., quote from Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea

“nothing furnishes a room like books”
― Terry Fallis, quote from The Best Laid Plans

“There were the endless birthday nights and New Year's Eves of just you in your bed and no one else. There was the welling up at weddings, the glittery eye-prick, when all the couples would get up to dance. Sometimes it felt like your heart was crazed with cracks like your grandmother's old saucers. Sometimes the sight of a Saturday afternoon couple laughing in a park would splinter it completely.”
― Nikki Gemmell, quote from The Bride Stripped Bare

“She hated that many of her colleagues hid behind the title “Planned Parenthood.” That was a euphemism. “It irks my very soul and all that is Irish in me to acquiesce to the appeasement group that is so prevalent in our beloved organization,” she wrote.”
― David Halberstam, quote from The Fifties

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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.

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