“To hell with the truth! As the history of the world proves, the truth has no bearing on anything. It's irrelevant and immaterial, as the lawyers say. The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober.”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh
“God damn you, stop shoving your rotten soul in my lap!”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh
“You can't be too careful about work. It's the most dangerous habit known to medical science.”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh
“LARRY--(with increasing bitter intensity, more as if he were fighting with himself than with Hickey) I'm afraid to live, am I?--and even more afraid to die! So I sit here, with my pride drowned on the bottom of a bottle, keeping drunk so I won't see myself shaking in my britches with fright, or hear myself whining and praying: Beloved Christ, let me live a little longer at any price! If it's only for a few days more, or a few hours even, have mercy, Almighty God, and let me still clutch greedily to my yellow heart this sweet treasure, this jewel beyond price, the dirty, stinking bit of withered old flesh which is my beautiful little life! (He laughs with a sneering, vindictive self-loathing, staring inward at himself with contempt and hatred. Then abruptly he makes Hickey again the antagonist.) You think you'll make me admit that to myself?”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh
“You’ll say to yourself, I’m just an old man who is scared of life, but even more scared of dying. So I’m keeping drunk and hanging on to life at any price, and what of it?”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh
“And I took a seat in the grandstand of philosophical detachment to fall asleep observing the cannibals do their death dance.”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh
“(General Wetjoen talking about the Boer War)Let him come! I have seen them come before -- at Margesfontein, Spion Kiopje, Modder River. Stepping into battle, left right left right, waving their silly swords, so afraid they couldn't show off how brave they was, and with mine rifle I kills them so easy!”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh
“Stay passed out, that's the right dope. There ain't any cool willow trees- except you grow your own in a bottle.”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh
Eugene O'Neill
Born place: in New York, New York, The United States
Born date October 16, 1888
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“my god! i'm thinking, what incredible shit we've put up with most of our lives - the domestic routine (same old jobs, insufferable arrogance of elected officials, the crafty cheating and the slimy advertising of the businessman, the tedious wars in which we kill our buddies instead of our real enemies back home in the capital, the foul diseased and hideous cities and towns we live in, the constant petty tyranny of automatic washers and automobiles and tv machines and telephones -! ah christ!, i'm thinking, at the same time that i'm waving goodby to that hollering idiot on shore, what intolerable garbage and what utterly useless crap we bury ourselves in day by day, while patiently enduring at the same time the creeping strangulation of the clean white collar and the rich but modest four-in-hand garrote)”
― Edward Abbey, quote from Desert Solitaire
“Ah, bella damigella, dignità, virtù e valore non sono riposti solo nell'abbigliamento!" esclamò Balin. "La virilità e l'onore sono celati nella persona, e vi sono molti insigni cavalieri ignoti a tutti, a riprova che il pregio e l'ardimento non hanno alcun rapporto con le vesti che indossano.”
― quote from Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
“She couldn't help thinking, even now about how handsome Damon looked, how wild and dark and ferocious and gorgeous. She could help thinking about the times he'd smiled at her, laughed at her, come to save her at her urgent call. She had honestly thought that someday... But now she felt as if her heart were breaking in two.”
― L.J. Smith, quote from Midnight
“Can you make a house of cards?" she asked.
"Yes," Violet said, and went on looking. This way Violet had of seizing first not the most obvious sense of what people said to her but some other, interior echo or reverse side of it was a thing that baffled and frustrated her husband, who sought in her sybilline responses to ordinary questions some truth he was sure Violet knew but couldn't quite enunciate. With his father-in-law's help, he had filled volumes with his searchings. Her children, though, hardly noticed it. Nora shifted from foot to foot for a moment waiting for the promised structure, and when it didn't appear forgot it. The clock on the mantelpiece chimed.”
― John Crowley, quote from Little, Big
“Ava, you're asking me not to touch you. That goes against all of my instincts.”
― Jodi Ellen Malpas, quote from Beneath This Man
End of Watch
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The Women of Brewste...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.
