Quotes from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“Each of us in our own small sphere can do something. And we can, we must.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“This book made me feel strangely awkward, because I'm afraid of finding my own story in it. I take books too seriously.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“It's a wonderful, inspiring feeling to have real friends who love and understand you. I have never had that feeling before.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“There is beauty in the midst of tragedy. As if beauty were condensing in the heart of ugliness. It's very strange.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“What will become of me? I do not know where am I going or what tomorrow will bring.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“I really don't know what's happened to me, but I have changed from top to toe. I am living in a strange mixture of memories of yesterday and today.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“What people need in order to write is an observant spirit and a broad mind.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“The impression that what is extraordinary is real, and that the real is the extraordinary.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“Now that everybody thinks he looks a little Slavic, it annoys me. I don't want that to be the reason I find him charming. I found him charming for no reason, because he is who he is.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“There can be no deeper despair, no pain less easy to assuage, than losing a husband when you are young.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“It seemed to me that I was suddenly in the presence of incosolable, unavoidable, and immense pain.

The thought of that death hunted me and turned everything else into nothing.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“...For I do now know that it is cowardly. We do not have the right to think only of poetry on this earth. It is magical, but utterly selfish.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

“And then there is pride. I do not want any part of it. The idea that you can write for other people, so as to be praised by them, horrifies me. Maybe there is also the feeling that "other people" won't understand you completely, that they make you dirty and mutilate you, and that you let yourself be cheapened like mere merchandise.”
― Hélène Berr, quote from The Journal of Hélène Berr

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Popular quotes

“An enemy, Ender Wiggin," whispered the old man. "I am your enemy, the first one you've ever had who was smarter than you. There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. From now on I am your teacher.”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from Ender's Game

“One of the Silent Brothers is here to see you. Hodge sent me to wake you up. Actually he offered to wake you himself, but since it's 5 a.m., I figured you'd be less cranky if you had something nice to look at."
"Meaning you?"
"What else?”
― Cassandra Clare, quote from City of Bones

“I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that. That you wanted to sleep for a thousand years. Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that you do exist. Or something like that. I think wanting that is very morbid, but I want it when I get like this. That’s why I’m trying not to think. I just want it all to stop spinning.”
― Stephen Chbosky, quote from The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“The first time I was ever called ugly, I was thirteen. It was a rich friend of my brother Carlton's over to shoot guns in the field.
'Why you crying, girl?' Constantine asked me in the kitchen.
I told her what the boy had called me, tears streaming down my face.
'Well? Is you?'
I blinked, paused my crying. 'Is I what?'
'Now you look a here, Egenia'-because constantien was the only one who'd occasionally follow Mama's rule. 'Ugly live up on the inside. Ugly be a hurtful, mean person. Is you one a them peoples?'
'I don't know. I don't think so,' I sobbed.
Constantine sat down next to me, at the kitchen table. I heard the cracking of her swollen joints. She pressed her thumb hard in the palm of my hand, somthing we both knew meant Listen. Listen to me.
'Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision.' Constantine was so close, I could see the blackness of her gums. 'You gone have to ask yourself, Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?'
She kept her thumb pressed hard in my hand. I nodded that I understood. I was just smart enough to realize she meant white people. And even though I still felt miserable, and knew that I was, most likely, ugly, it was the first time she ever talked to me like I was something besides my mother's white child. All my life I'd been told what to believe about politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine's thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe.”
― Kathryn Stockett, quote from The Help

“I'm living under water. Everything seems slow and far away. I know there's a world up there, a sunlit quick world where time runs like dry sand through an hourglass, but down here, where I am, air and sound and time and feeling are thick and dense.”
― Audrey Niffenegger, quote from The Time Traveler's Wife

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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.