Quotes from The Meaning of Night

Michael Cox ·  703 pages

Rating: (8.2K votes)


“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



About the author

Michael Cox
Born place: in Finedon, Northamptonshire, The United Kingdom
Born date October 25, 1948
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Few black men can look at the data about black male lives and not see clearly the dangers they face and the extent to which those dangers are in place because of their blind allegiance to dominator culture. Black male-on-black male homicide would not exist if it were not encouraged and reinforced by notions of patriarchal manhood and white supremacy. For if it was just about manhood shootouts, black males would be killing white men at the same rates that they kill one another. They buy into the racist/sexist assumption that the black male is valueless and therefore when you take a black man 's life you are just taking nothing from nothing,”
― bell hooks, quote from We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity


“Can't say I'm surprised you were here. You have the curiosity of a cat and the common sense of a goldfish.”
― Susan Dennard, quote from Something Strange and Deadly


“Reasons I don't want a serious boyfriend:
1. They hold you back
2. Grind you down
3. Then mess with your head”
― Ali Harris, quote from The First Last Kiss


“I know I’m old school, but I believe that pain can be the most important tool in a person’s life. It forces a person to pay attention to something that needs to be changed. I worry that drugs like sleeping pills mask pain just enough that the real root of the problem gets buried, deeper and deeper. A problem—even something like grief—just doesn’t go away until it’s dealt with.”
― Suzanne Woods Fisher, quote from A Lancaster County Christmas


“Leaders who doubt that success is possible and who fear the worst should immediately change their attitude or resign so a true leader can take their place.”
― Henry T. Blackaby, quote from Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God's Agenda


Interesting books

Unravel Me
(129.1K)
Unravel Me
by Tahereh Mafi
It's Kind of a Funny Story
(178.5K)
It's Kind of a Funny...
by Ned Vizzini
Still Alice
(256.8K)
Still Alice
by Lisa Genova
Ficciones
(37.7K)
Ficciones
by Jorge Luis Borges
Death on the Nile
(81.8K)
Death on the Nile
by Agatha Christie
The Lucky One
(294.6K)
The Lucky One
by Nicholas Sparks

About BookQuoters

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.