Quotes from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“(Love) walks up to you,and when it does, you need to recognize it for what it is and, perhaps more important, for what it might become.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“The truth frightens people because it isn't stable. It shifts every day.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“It's not finding what's lost, it's understanding what you've found.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“Eddie had come to understand that what a man saw and what actually existed in the natural world often were contradictory. The human eye was not capable of true sight, for it was constrained by its own humanness, clouded by regret, and opinion, and faith. Whatever was witnessed in the real world was unknowable in real time. It was the eye of the camera that captured the world as it truly was.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“You were the one who taught me that love was never what we expected it to be and that it was all that we needed.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“the past was what we carried with us, threaded to the future, and we decided whether to keep it close or let it go. Fate was both what we were given and what we made for ourselves.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“Love like this was all consuming. I found that I was jealous of the strangest things - sunlight, streets, curtains, even her clothing, anything that was close to her.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“Listen, and you'll hear a story being told, one you may need to know.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“People will disappoint you with their cruelty every time”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“... people can surprise you in so many ways, both with cruelty and with kindness.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“For love changes everything and forces us into lives we never imagined we might lead”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“A lifetime is a lifetime whether it lasts one night or a hundred years.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“It’s not finding what’s lost, it’s understanding what you’ve found.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“If you tried to right all the wrongs in the world you'd exhaust yourself in under an hour.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“Men are men, with all their flaws, as we have ours, that’s true, but the best among them manage to discover who we really are.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“Love like this wasn't what he'd planned or wanted or expected, surely it was indeed a trap, for even when you tried to run away, it followed you through the grass and lay down beside you, it overtook common sense and willpower.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“I knew that men told you the truth for one of two reasons: when they wished to be rid of what they couldn’t bear to carry, or when they wished to include you in what they knew so their stories wouldn’t be lost.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“... a man has many lives. Each day we chose the path we would take by our own actions... the past was what we carried with us, threaded to the future, and we decided whether to keep it close or let it go. Fate was both what we were give and what we made for ourselves.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“Men will be men," Maureen told me when I wondered aloud where my father went in the evenings. "Don't complain," she advised. "That's how women find their freedom. When there's no one else at home.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“... the past was what we carried with us, threaded to the future, and we decided whether to keep it close or let it go.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“The air was soft, as it often was in this lovely month, and Eddie inhaled its sweetness. He found himself uplifted as he worked, caught up in something outside himself and his petty wants and needs. The clouds drifted like ice in a tumbler. Through his lens the river seemed made of light, there was the shimmer, and for a moment the world seemed whole to him.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“The truth frightens people because it isn’t stable. It shifts every day. If you’d prefer to remain in the dark, I would understand.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“You know what love is?...It's what you least expect.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“Hochman had been right, the past was what we carried with us, threaded to the future, and we decided whether to keep it close or let it go. Fate was both what we were given and what we made for ourselves.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“My father was both a scientist and a magician, but he declared that it was in literature wherein we discovered our truest natures.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“You are the one who taught me that love was never what we expected it to be and that it was all we needed. For that, and for a thousand other things, I send my gratitude.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“When all was said and done, it was conceivable that a being's purpose remained the same throughout his life, and Eddie's purpose was exactly what it had been when he was a boy, to pursue the light and find what was lost."
Page 87”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“And what of monsters? Can they love too? We know quite well they can. For we know that they do.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“You are the one who taught me that love was never what we expected it to be and that it was all we needed.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“In good time every secret must be shared and every miracle called into question.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things

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“You can rest with me until somebody comes to get you. We will not say anything. We can rest.”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster

“Правото не ме интересуваше повече от търговията, пък и бях започнал да харесвам дантелата – това възхитително и съразмерно творение на човека. Когато купихме достатъчно станове, собственикът реши да отвори втора фабрика и ми повери ръководството й. Оттогава, в очакване на пенсията, заемам този пост. Междувременно се ожених, наистина с известно отвращение, но тук, на Север, бе по-скоро необходимо, начин да заздравя придобитото. Избрах я от добро семейство, относително хубава, добре възпитана, и веднага й направих дете, за да има с какво да се занимава. За нещастие роди близнаци, изглежда, е в семейството, моето, искам да кажа, на мен лично едно-единствено хлапе щеше да ми е предостатъчно. Шефът ми отпусна пари в аванс, купих удобна къща, немного далеч от морето. Ето как станах буржоа. При всички положения бе по-добре. След всичко, което се бе случило, имах нужда от спокойствие и редовност. Животът пречупи гръбнака на младежките ми мечти, а страховете ми бавно се разпиляваха от единия до другия край на германска Европа. От войната излязох като празен човек, единствено с горчивина и продължителен, като скърцащ между зъбите пясък, срам. Затова ме устройваше живот, съобразен с всички обществени условности: удобна обвивка, макар често да я приемам с ирония, а понякога и с омраза. С тази отмереност, надявам се, някога да достигна до благодатното състояние на Жером Надал и да „не склонявам на нищо, освен ако не склонявам на нещо“. Ето, че ставам книжен; това е един от недостатъците ми. Толкова по-зле за святостта, все още не съм се освободил от нуждите си. Понякога се случва да уважавам жена си, добросъвестно, почти без удоволствие, но и без прекалено отвращение, за да бъде мир в семейството. И много рядко, по време на командировки, си давам труда отново да се върна към старите си привички; но то е вече почти единствено за поддържане на хигиената. Загубих голяма част от интереса си към всичко това. Тяло на красиво момче, скулптура на Микеланджело, все едно: дъхът ми вече не спира. Както след продължително боледуване, когато храната остава безвкусна; дали ще е телешко или пилешко, какво значение? Трябва да се яде и толкова. Честно казано, твърде малко неща вече ме интересуват. Може би литературата, и то не съм сигурен дали не е въпрос на навик. Възможно е точно заради това да пиша спомени: да раздвижа кръвта си, да видя дали още мога да почувствам нещо, дали още мога поне малко да страдам. Интересно упражнение.”
― Jonathan Littell, quote from The Kindly Ones

“Someone was coming through the velvet.

He was pulling it wide, he was stepping onto Kestrel’s balcony—close, closer still as she turned and the curtain swayed, then stopped. He pinned the velvet against frame. He held the sweep of it high, at the level of his gray eyes, which were silver in the shadows.

He was here. He had come.

Arin.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“...no one ever says good-bye unless they want to see you again.”
― John Green, quote from Turtles All the Way Down

“I started to speak to him in his native tongue, "why would you want to sit with me?" He pressed his lips together, and his eyebrows screwed up. He ran a hand through his spiky black hair. "I don' speak Japanese," He said in English. "But My parents do." "Strange," I said. "A Japanese boy who only speaks English?”
― Rebecca Maizel, quote from Infinite Days

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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.

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