“After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper.”
― Michael Cox, quote from The Meaning of Night
“The summer passed quietly. I busied myself as best I could, reading a good deal.”
― Michael Cox, quote from The Meaning of Night
“It is trite to speak of a broken heart. Hearts are not broken; they continue to beat, the blood still courses, even in the bitter after-days of betrayal. but something is broken when pain beyond words is suffered; some connection that formerly existed with light and hope and bright mornings is severed, and can never be restored.”
― Michael Cox, quote from The Meaning of Night
“But greater than all these delights would be the possession of this wondrous library for my own use and pleasure. What more could my bibliophile's soul ask for? Here were marvels without end, treasures beyond knowing. You have seen the worst of me in these confessions. Here, then, let me throw into the opposite side of the balance, what I truly believe is the best of me: my devotion to the mental life, to those divine faculties of intellect and imagination which, when exercised to the utmost, can make gods of us all.”
― Michael Cox, quote from The Meaning of Night
“The boundaries of this world are forever shifting – from day to night, joy to sorrow, love to hate, and from life itself to death; and who can say at what moment we may suddenly cross over the border, from one state of existence to another, like heat applied to some flammable substance? I have been given my own ever-changing margins, across which I move, continually and hungrily, like a migrating animal. Now civilized, now untamed; now responsive to decency and human concern, now viciously attuned to the darkest of desires.”
― Michael Cox, quote from The Meaning of Night
“But who ever heeds the voice of reason when love whispers, softly persuasive, in the other ear?”
― Michael Cox, quote from The Meaning of Night
“I long for sleep, and for soft English rain. But they do not come.”
― Michael Cox, quote from The Meaning of Night
“Trust, but be careful in whom.”
― Michael Cox, quote from The Meaning of Night
“I think much of her - I mean my mother - and of how alike we were, and how we were both destroyed by believing it was in our own hands to punish those who had done wrong to us.”
― Michael Cox, quote from The Meaning of Night
“Truly divine faculties of intellect and imagination can make gods of us all”
― Michael Cox, quote from The Meaning of Night
“I’m already in the late stages of advanced detachment where my mother is concerned. With a little practice I could feel that way about everyone.”
― quote from Alice, I Think
“IF YOU can’t prove what you want to prove, demonstrate something else and pretend that they are the same thing. In the daze that follows the collision of statistics with the human mind, hardly anybody will notice the difference. The semiattached figure is a device guaranteed to stand you in good stead. It always has.”
― quote from How to Lie with Statistics
“You aren't in love with me."
She blinked. "I'm not?"
"No," he said emphatically. "You just think you are. You're confused," he explained...
She knew where he was headed. "I see."
"Transference."
"I'm sorry?"
"It's called transference. It's kind of like a patient falling in love with a doctor. It's not real," he stressed.
"That's what I'm suffering from?"
"Not suffering, honey," he said. "But I do think you've confused gratitude for love."
She pretended to ponder the possibility for a long minute and then said, "I believe you might be right."
"You do?" He sounded a little stunned.
"Yes, I do." She said more forcefully.
He wanted confirmation. "So you realize you don't love me."
"That's exactly what I realize," she told him. "It's that transference thing all right. I was confused, but I am not any longer. Thank you for clearing it up for me."
He shot her a hasty glance. "That was pretty damn quick wasn't it?"
"When you're right, you're right."
"That's it?" He was suddenly furious with her and didn't care that it showed. Damn it, she had told him she loved him, and after a one-minute argument, she caved. What the hell kind of love was that? "That's all you have to say?"
"No, actually there is just one more thing I'd like to mention."
"Yeah? What's that?"
"You're an idiot.”
― Julie Garwood, quote from Heartbreaker
“They spend time. That’s just it. They spend time traveling. The time weighs heavily on them because they lack any context, any valid framework for their lives. They persist in hoping that something they think they’ll find in the place they’re heading for will somehow provide them with a fulfilment they feel certain they deserve and yet have never come close to experiencing.”
― Iain M. Banks, quote from Look to Windward
“The police said for Oreilly to get to his feet.
"Certainly," Oreilly said, "though I do think it shocking you have to trouble yourself with such petty crimes as mine when everywhere there are master thieves afoot.
"For instance, this pretty child," he stepped between the officers and pointed at Sylvia, "she is the recent victim of a major theft; poor baby, she has had her soul stolen.”
― Truman Capote, quote from The Grass Harp, Including A Tree of Night and Other Stories
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.