“First with the head, then with the heart.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Always in life an idea starts small, it is only a sapling idea, but the vines will come and they will try to choke your idea so it cannot grow and it will die and you will never know you had a big idea, an idea so big it could have grown thirty meters through the dark canopy of leaves and touched the face of the sky.' He looked at me and continued. 'The vines are people who are afraid of originality, of new thinking. Most people you encounter will be vines; when you are a young plant they are very dangerous.' His piercing blue eyes looked into mine.' Always listen to yourself, Peekay. It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something and you grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“. . . besides love, independence of thought is the greatest gift an adult can give a child.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“The power of one is above all things the power to believe in yourself, ofen well beyond any latent ability you may have previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete, the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Always listen to yourself... It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“I have found in life that everything, no matter how bad, comes to an end.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“I learned that in each of us there burns a flame of independence that must never be allowed to go out. That as long as it exists within us we cannot be destroyed.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“But I was still alive, and in my book, where there's life, there's hope.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Winning is a state of mind that embraces everything you do.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“First with the head, then with the heart, you'll be ahead from the start.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“When men can be made to hope, then they can be made to win.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“It is better just to get on with the business of living and minding your own business and maybe, if God likes the way you do things, he may just let you flower for a day or a night. But don't go pestering and begging and telling him all your stupid little sins, that way you will spoil his day.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“You've got to be quick on your feet in this world if you want to survive. Though once you know the rules, it is not too hard to play the game.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Never take advice from a donkey.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Let me conclude by saying in my experience the glittering prizes in life come more to those who persevere despite setback and disappointment than they do to the exceptionally gifted who, with the confidence of the talents bestowed upon them, often pursue the tasks leading to success with less determination.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“sometimes in life doing what we shouldn't do is the emergency”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Pride is holding your head up high when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Sometimes, very occasionally, you do your best boxing with your mouth.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“. . . God is too busy making the sun come up and go down and watching so the moon floats just right in the sky to be concerned with color . . . only man wants always God should be there to condemn this one and save that one. Always it is man who wants to make heaven and hell. God is too busy training the bees to make honey and every morning opening up all the new flowers for business.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“The man assumes the role of the loner, the thinker and the searching spirit who calls the privileged and the powerful to task. The power of one was the courage to remain separate, th think through the truth and not be beguiled by convention or the plausible arguments of those who expect to maintain power, whatever the cost.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“In teaching me independence of thought, they had given me the greatest gift an adult can give to a child besides love, and they had given me that also.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Racism does not diminish with brains, it's a disease, a sickness, it may incubate in ignorance but it doesn't necessarily disappear with the gaining of wisdom!”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“You can't go feeding your hate on the past, it's not natural.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“As is so often the case with a legend, every incident has two possible interpretations, the plausible and the one that is molded to suit the making of the myth. Man is a romantic at heart and will always put aside dull, plodding reason for the excitement of an enigma. As Doc had pointed out, mystery, not logic, is what gives us hope and keeps us believing in a force greater than our own insignificance.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Inside all people there is love, also the need to take care of the other man who is his brother. Inside everyone is a savage, but there is also happening tenderness and compassion.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“what is a german? to say a man is a german, what is that? does it tell you if he is a good man? or a bad man? no, my friend, it tells you nothing about a man to say he is german. a man must think what he is inside. what he is on the outside, how can this matter?”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“It's nothing to be ashamed of. There comes a time in everything when you don't know something.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“It's good to be a little frightened. It's good to respect your opponent. It keeps you sharp. In the fight game, the head rules the heart. But in the end the heart is the boss.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Good conversational debate is an end in itself, and talking for the love of conversation is what makes us human.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
Bryce Courtenay
Born place: in Johannesburg, South Africa
Born date August 14, 1933
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“When the gravity of death first touched me, I'd found preoccupation with the minutiae of daily life meaningless. If we ultimately die, and turn to dust in the ground, should it ever truly upset us if the floor hasn't been swept quite recently enough.”
― Shirin Ebadi, quote from Iran Awakening
“Virtually all ideologies are implicitly antifeminist in that women are sacrificed to higher goals: the higher goal of reproduction; the higher goal of pleasure; the higher goal of a freedom antipathetic to the freedom of women; the higher goal of better conditions for workers not women; the higher goal of a new order that keeps the sex exploitation of women essentially intact; the higher goal of an old order that considers the sex exploitation of women a sign of social stability (woman’s in her place, all’s right with the world).”
― Andrea Dworkin, quote from Right Wing Women
“She lied, sir. She has always lied. I don't think she ever spoke a word of truth. But when she spoke, I believed her.”
― Prosper Mérimée, quote from Carmen
“Mom said that going back to an ex-boyfriend was like buying your own garage sale junk after the sale's over. Somebody else may think your old stuff is gold, but you know better. It's not golden for you.”
― Dandi Daley Mackall, quote from My Boyfriends' Dogs: The Tales of Adam and Eve and Shirley
“The “if-I-had-time” lie is a convenient way to ignore the fact that novels require being written and that writing happens a sentence at a time. Sentences can happen in a moment. Enough stolen moments, enough stolen sentences, and a novel is born—without the luxury of time.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation Into the Writing Life
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A Portrait of the Ar...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.
