“Charity, if you have the means, is a personal choice, but charity which is expected or compelled is simply a polite word for slavery.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“When the whole world is crazy, it doesn't pay to be sane.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“Wizard's Seventh Rule
Life is the future, not the past.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“If you want to be a slave in life, then continue going around asking others to do for you. They will oblige, but you will find the price is your choices, your freedom, your life itself. They will do for you, and as a result you will be in bondage to them forever, having given your identity away for a paltry price. Then, and only then, you will be a nobody, a slave, because you yourself and nobody else made it so.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“You don't love me, Sebastian. You don't have any idea what love really is. You can't love anyone or anything until you love your own existence, first. Love can only grow out of a respect for your own life. When you love yourself, your own existence, then you love someone who can enhance your existence, share it with you, and make it more pleasurable. When you hate yourself and believe your existence is evil, then you can only hate, you can only experience the shell of love, that longing for something good, but you have nothing to base it in but hatred. You taint the very concept of love, Sebastian, with your corrupted longing for it. You want me only to justify your hatred, to be your partner in self-loathing.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“You can't love anyone or anything until you love your own existence first. Love can only grow out of a respect for your own life.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“Life is the future, not the past. The past can teach us, through experience, how to accomplish things in the future, comfort us with cherished memories, and provide the foundation of what has already been accomplished. But only the future holds life. To live in the past is to embrace what is dead. To live life to its fullest, each day must be created a new.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“It was important for a person not to let their body or mind become slow and dull. Oba believed it was important to learn new things. He believed it was important to grow. He thought it was important for a person to use what they had learned. That was how people grew.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“The woman had a voice that could unwind a good rope.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“The ground was soaked with blood. What had been Clovis was no longer remotely recognizable. His jaw was shattered and hung completely unhinged to the side. One eye socket had been altogether caved in. Oba’s knee had broken the man’s sternum and crushed his chest. It was glorious.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“Παρύσατις μὲν δὴ ἡ μήτηρ ὑπῆρχε τῷ Κύρῳ, φιλοῦσα αὐτὸν μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν βασιλεύοντα Ἀρταξέρξην.”
― Xenophon, quote from The Persian Expedition
“Non vedi laggiù la stretta via
Così angusta, circondata da spine e da rovi?
E' il sentiero della Virtù,
Sebbene così pochi lo ricerchino.
E non vedi laggiù quell'ampia, ampia strada,
Che si snoda attraverso il campo di gigli?
E' il sentiero della Malvagità,
Sebbene alcuni lo chiamino la Via del Paradiso.
E non vedi laggiù un grazioso viottolo
Che serpeggia sull'erta tra le felci?
E' il sentiero verso la magica Terra degli Elfi
Dove tu e io questa notte avremo riposo.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, quote from The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays
“Say it,” she said, and he said, “I love you. I’ll always love you. Forever. It’s a life sentence. Now put the damn ring on.”
― Jennifer Crusie, quote from Welcome to Temptation
“I suppose I cannot blame you for doubting me. I could scarcely believe it myself at first. I found all sorts of ways to deny it and explain it away. But it wouldn’t stay gone.”
― Robin Hobb, quote from Shaman's Crossing
“Well, hell,” muttered Drake. “Do you do that to all the human women?”
“No. Usually they’ve already started taking off their clothes by now. She’s beginning to hurt my feelings.”
“We need to get you a paper bag or a giant scar or something.”
“Yeah,” said the man, his tone dry. “I’ll get right to work on that”
― Shannon K. Butcher, quote from Burning Alive
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.