Quotes from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“Treasure a handful of dirt from your home,      But love not ten thousand taels of foreign gold.”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“She also bit off a little toe from the child’s left foot to establish a mark of his identity.”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“Don’t go away! Have a taste of old Monkey’s rod!”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“in my opinion those who strive for fame will lose their lives on account of fame; those who live in quest of fortune will perish because of riches; those who have titles sleep embracing a tiger; and those who receive official favors walk with snakes in their sleeves.”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“Canberra and Chicago, but it also allowed us to enjoy several cherished meetings with Professor Liu Ts’un-yan before his passing a few months later. My indebtedness to Professor Liu’s scholarship should be apparent in the introduction”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“In Buddhism, the eight emblems would refer to the eight marks of good fortune on the sole of Buddha’s foot—wheel, conch shell, umbrella, canopy, lots flower, jar, pair of fishes, and mystic signs—which, in turn, were symbols of the organs in Buddha’s body.”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“permission. When I began work on the translation long ago, it was an early and ready decision to dedicate the first volume to my wife and our only”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“those who have titles sleep embracing a tiger;”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

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Popular quotes

“The second bathroom's downstairs - that's kind of the emergency backup bathroom when Shane's in there moussing his hair for like an hour or something...."
"Bite me!" Shane yelled from behind the closed door.”
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“But the law is an odd thing. For instance, one country in Europe has a law that requires all its bakers to sell bread at the exact same price. A certain island has a law that forbids anyone from removing its fruit. And a town not too far from where you live has a law that bars me from coming within five miles of its borders.”
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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.