Quotes from The Quiet Game

“I will do those things which make me happy today and which I can also live with ten years from now.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Einstein said the arrow of time flies in only one direction. Faulkner, being from Mississippi, understood the matter differently. He said the past is never dead; it's not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity. Haunted by wrong turns and roads not taken, we pursue images perceived as new but whose provenance dates to the dim dramas of childhood, which are themselves but ripples of consequence echoing down the generations. The quotidian demands of life distract from this resonance of images and events, but some of us feel it always.

And who among us, offered the chance, would not relive the day or hour in which we first knew love, or ecstasy, or made a choice that forever altered our future, negating a life we might have had? Such chances are rarely granted. Memory and grief prove Faulkner right enough, but Einstein knew the finality of action. If I cannot change what I had for lunch yesterday, I certainly cannot unmake a marriage, erase the betrayal of a friend, or board a ship that left port twenty years ago.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Emotions are by nature amorphous. When confined to words, our longings and passions, our rebellions and humiliations often seem melodramatic, trivial, or even pathetic.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“You yourself are guilty of a crime when you do not punish crime.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Jung didn’t try to separate good and evil. He knew that both exist in every human heart. He called the propensity to evil the Shadow. And he believed that trying to deny or repress the Shadow is dangerous. Because it can’t be done. He believed you have to recognize your Shadow, come to grips with it, accept it, and integrate it.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“A man lives morally all his life, then in one weak moment commits an act that damns him in his own eyes and threatens his liberty, even his life.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“I educated myself, discovered my gift for language, learned that the larger world lay not across oceans but within the human mind and heart.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Broad is the gate that leads to destruction, but narrow the way that leads to salvation. . . .”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“If I cannot change what I had for lunch yesterday, I certainly cannot unmake a marriage, erase the betrayal of a friend, or board a ship that left port twenty years ago.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Our actions have consequences that last long after us, entwining the present with the future in ways we cannot begin to understand. I have resolved a simple thing: I will do those things which make me happy today, and which I can also live with ten years from now.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“learned that the larger world lay not across oceans but within the human mind and heart.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Einstein said the arrow of time flies in only one direction. Faulkner, being from Mississippi, understood the matter differently. He said the past is never dead; it’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity. Haunted by wrong turns and roads not taken, we pursue images perceived as new but whose provenance dates to the dim dramas of childhood, which are themselves but ripples of consequence echoing down the generations.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“A glacier consumes whole forests by inches.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“The quotidian demands of life distract from this resonance of images and events, but some of us feel it always. And who among us, offered the chance, would not relive the day or hour in which we first knew love, or ecstasy, or made a choice that forever altered our future, negating a life we might have had? Such chances are rarely granted. Memory and grief prove Faulkner right enough, but Einstein knew the finality of action. If I cannot change what I had for lunch yesterday, I certainly cannot unmake a marriage, erase the betrayal of a friend, or board a ship that left port twenty years ago. And”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“The hour of justice does not strike on the dials of this world.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Rumor runs through the community like a plague, and truth is the first casualty.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Our actions have consequences that last long after us, entwining the present with the future in ways we cannot begin to understand.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Einstein said the arrow of time flies in only one direction. Faulkner, being from Mississippi, understood the matter differently. He said the past is never dead; it’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“hair. He’s bald now. But he still looks like he could ride a bull ragged.” I jump at the sound of the garage door. Mom gives me a little wave, then crosses the kitchen as silently as if she were floating on a magic carpet and disappears down the hall. Moments later, my father walks through the kitchen door, his face drawn and tired. “I figured you’d be waiting for me.” “Dad, we’ve got to talk.” Dread seems to seep from the pores in his face. “Let me get a drink. I’ll meet you in the library.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“You never wear red to no funeral; red says the dead person was a fool.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“White America looks at the Vietnamese, the Irish, the Jews, and they say, ‘What’s the problem with the blacks?’ The resentment you hear around this town is based on that, not on old ideas of superiority.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Einstein said the arrow of time flies in only one direction. Faulkner, being from Mississippi, understood the matter differently. He said the past is never dead; it’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity. Haunted by wrong turns and roads not taken, we pursue images perceived as new but whose provenance dates to the dim dramas of childhood, which are themselves but ripples of consequence echoing down the generations. The quotidian demands of life distract from this resonance of images and events, but some of us feel it always.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“I don’t say it was hard, because everybody got it hard, some way.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Even chitlins smell good to a starving man.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Sometimes we think we are moving randomly. But random behavior is rare in humans. We are always spiraling around something, whether we see it or not, a secret center of gravity with the invisible power of a black hole.”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“Mom covers the wrought-iron patio table with newspaper, and Dad dumps the steaming crawfish”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

“There have been times I would have given anything for such faith, for the belief that divine justice exists somewhere in the universe. Facing Sarah’s death without it was an existential baptism of fire. The comfort that belief in an afterlife can provide was obvious in the hospital waiting rooms and chemo wards, where”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game

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Popular quotes

“خلافنا مع العالم صدى للخلاف المستمر بداخلنا.”
― Eric Hoffer, quote from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“The motto of West African cooking is that if the food doesn't set fire to the tablecloth the cook is being stingy with the pepper.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, quote from Midnight Riot

“Inertia propulsion!” Pierre exclaimed. “On our last shift we were teaching them Newton’s law of gravity. Today they have inertia drives! Where will they be tomorrow?” “They probably will be able to control space and time and won’t have to bother with such clumsy things as black hole gravity generators and inertia drives,” Amalita replied. “But now I see why we were so awkward. Their main spacecraft will stay fifteen meters away from our spacecraft, but it is so massive that we will experience about one-third of a gee from it, pulling me out of the console chair and over to the viewing port. I guess I could manage to twirl once as I fall so they can see the human joints in action, but I bet I am going to be clumsier in one-third gee than that animation.” She turned from the screen and looked at him, “I wish you were doing my part, so I could get to see the cheela.” “I don’t know whether you would like it,” Pierre said. “According to this contour plot of the gravity field from the individual craft, although the size and mass of the flitters are much smaller than the main spacecraft, this one is going to come up to less than one meter from my viewing port and my nose is going to be pulling three gees!” He looked down at her body and grinned, “I guess the reason they didn’t choose you is they must know you don’t wear a bra in free-fall and they didn’t want to give you reverse Cooper’s droop.” Amalita turned back to the display, jabbing him with her elbow as she did so, and brought up the next screen full of instructions.”
― Robert L. Forward, quote from Dragon's Egg

“My dear child," said Grandmother impatiently, "every human being has to make his own mistakes." She was very tired, and wanted to get home.”
― Tove Jansson, quote from The Summer Book

“Every good man resists others in those points in which he resists himself.”
― Augustine of Hippo, quote from City of God

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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.

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.