“It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry.”
― Nikolai Gogol, quote from The Inspector General
“What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourself.”
― Nikolai Gogol, quote from The Inspector General
“GOVERNOR. And then I must call your attention to the history teacher. He has a lot of learning in his head and a store of facts. That's evident. But he lectures with such ardor that he quite forgets himself. Once I listened to him. As long as he was talking about the Assyrians and Babylonians, it was not so bad. But when he reached Alexander of Macedon, I can't describe what came over him. Upon my word, I thought a fire had broken out. He jumped down from the platform, picked up a chair and dashed it to the floor. Alexander of Macedon was a hero, it is true. But that's no reason for breaking chairs. The state must bear the cost.”
― Nikolai Gogol, quote from The Inspector General
“The more debris there is the more it will show the governor's activity.”
― Nikolai Gogol, quote from The Inspector General
“You can always tell a pig by its grunt.”
― Nikolai Gogol, quote from The Inspector General
“Alcalde:
Lo mismo debo hacerle notar con respecto al maestro de historia. Es un sabio (eso es evidente, sabe mucho), pero se expresa con tanta vehemencia, que se olvida de todo. Días pasados lo estuve escuchando. Mientras hablaba de los asirios y los babilonios, todo iba bien, pero cuando llegó a Alejandro el Grande lo que pasó no tiene nombre. ¡Creí que se había incendiado el aula, se lo juro! ¡Bajó corriendo de la tarima y empezó a golpear furiosamente el suelo con la silla! Claro está que Alejandro el Grande es un héroe, pero... ¿a qué romper las sillas? Eso perjudica al fisco.
Luká Lúkich:
¡Sí, es muy vehemente! Ya se lo he hecho notar varias veces... Y me contestó: «¿Qué quiere que haga? ¡Yo daría la vida por la ciencia!»”
― Nikolai Gogol, quote from The Inspector General
“The self cannot survive without love, and the self, starved of love, dies. The absence of self-love is shame, "just as cold is the absence of warmth." Disgrace obscuring the son... Franciscan Richard Rohr writes that "the Lord comes to us disguised as ourselves.”
― Gregory Boyle, quote from Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
“You don't have to believe in Hell. All you need is to hear someone who really does, who believes in it this minute, today, the way people believe in 1685 — all you have to do is see his face, his voice when he says the word... and than you know that anyone who can imagine Hell has the power to make it real for other people.”
― Peter S. Beagle, quote from Tamsin
“Let me tell you a little story. You may have heard it before.
It's a story about a butcher named Barry.
Once upon a time, in central city, there was a butcher named Barry. Barry loved to chop up meat more than anything in the world. But one day, when Barry got tired of just chopping up cows and pigs...
...He found something NEW to chop up-- PEOPLE. And so, he went out night after night in search of fresh meat.
Eventually, Barry was caught, but not before he had slaughtered 23 victims!!! For terrorizing the poor people of central city, Barry was sent straight to the gallows...And everyone else lived happily ever after!”
― Hiromu Arakawa, quote from Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 3
“I’ve been trying to figure something out. Why on earth would your ponytail stick straight out from your head?”
― Cidney Swanson, quote from Rippler
“Thank God I am not God! Thank God I am not God!”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Kaddish and Other Poems
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.