“After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone or on the lives of other people. This deep desire exists in everyone, from the boy who writes dirty words in a public toilet to the Buddha who etches his image in the race mind. Life is so unreal. I think that we seriously doubt that we exist and go about trying to prove that we do.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Pastures of Heaven
“It's almost impossible to read a fine thing without wanting to do a fine thing.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Pastures of Heaven
“He is one of those whom God has not quite finished.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Pastures of Heaven
“He did not often think of people as individuals, but rather as antidotes for the poison of his loneliness, as escapes from the imprisoned ghosts.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Pastures of Heaven
“After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone or on the lives of other people.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Pastures of Heaven
“Everyone has to be an orphan some time.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Pastures of Heaven
“Yaşamak ve üretmek için gerekli olanları elde etmekten başka insanoğlunun en en çok istediği şey geriye kendisinden bir iz bırakmaktır; belki de kendisinin gerçekten var olduğunu ispatlayacak bir kanıt bırakma peşindedir, bu kanıtı bir tahta üzerine, taş üzerine ya da diğer insanların yaşantıları üzerine bırakır. Bu derin istek herkes de vardır; tuvalet duvarlarına ayıp ifadeler yazan çocuktan kendi imajını insan soyunun zihnine kazıyan Budda’ya kadar Yaşam öylesine gerçek dışı ki… Var olduğumuz konusunda ciddi kuşkularımız olduğunu ve bunu kanıtlamaya çalıştığımızı düşünüyorum.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Pastures of Heaven
“За други това би било просто грешка — рече Кейси, — но щом ти мислиш, че е грях, значи, е грях. Човек сам си създава греховете.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Pastures of Heaven
John Steinbeck
Born place: in Salinas Valley, California, The United States
Born date February 27, 1902
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“It may be, in the end, that a good society is defined more by how people treat strangers than by how they treat those they know.”
― James Surowiecki, quote from The Wisdom of Crowds
“I wanted to like people. It worried me that I didn’t.”
― Natalie Standiford, quote from How to Say Goodbye in Robot
“In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be...
This is the inter-related structure of reality.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., quote from Letter from the Birmingham Jail
“Asmodai, the demon of wrath and destruction. Master of all malevolent deities and governor of hellish legions, a monster with the three heads of a bull, a ram, and a man, the tail of a serpent, and the webbed feet of a goose. The monster sat astride an infernal dragon and held a lance bearing the war standard of hell. The three heads simultaneously breathed fire from their mouths while they surveyed the room. A television cameraman engulfed in flames ran screaming toward the window.”
― Yasutaka Tsutsui, quote from Paprika
“Quick! Aren’t there other ways of living?− To sleep in the midst of wealth is impossible. Wealth has always been public property. Divine love alone offers the keys to science. I see that nature is only a spectacle of plenitude. Farewell chimeras, ideals, errors! The reasonable song of the angels rises up from therescue ship: it is divine love. − Two loves! I may die of earthly love, die of devotion. I have left behind me souls whose suffering will only increase at my going! You chose me from among the shipwrecked, but what about the friends I left behind? Save them!”
― Arthur Rimbaud, quote from A Season in Hell
Requiem
Rage
Down to You
Pants on Fire
The Son of Sobek
A Spell for Chameleo...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.
