“Can't you see that I'm only advising you to beg yourself not to be so dumb?”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“Nothing is falser than people's preconceptions and ready-made opinions; nothing is sillier than their sham morality...”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“Everyone will find what he's looking for. Nothing pleases everyone: this man gathers thorns, that one roses.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“utres inflati ambulamus. minoris quam muscae sumus, muscae tamen aliquam uirtutem habent, nos non pluris sumus quam bullae.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“I said everything that a painful swelling in one's libido tells one to say.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“All those who are left legacies in my will…will obtain my bequests only on one condition, that they cut my body in pieces and eat it before the eyes of the citizens…You must merely shield your eyes, and imagine that what you have swallowed is not human entrails but ten million sesterces.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“Just as in dicing, Fortune smiles or lowers; When good luck beckons, then your friend his gleeful service gives But basely flies when ruin o'er you towers.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“No man on earth may look on forbidden things as you have done and escape punishment. Especially here, a land so infested with divinity that one might meet a god more easily than a man.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“Nada hay más falso que los estúpidos respetos humanos y nada más estúpido que una hipócrita severidad.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“Es gibt nichts Verfehlteres als die unsinnige Voreingenommenheit der Menschen und nichts Dümmeres als gleisnerische Sittenstrenge.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“After all, I was once like you are, but being the right sort I got where I am.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“So the starry sky turns round like a millstone, always bringing some trouble, and men being born or dying.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“It's the old headpiece that makes a man, the rest is all rubbish.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon
“It is for my good that I was afflicted, so that I might learn Your statutes. [...] Had Your Torah not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.”
― quote from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures
“People ask sometimes, when they get up the courage, what it's like to lose someone you love. I tell them it's hard, and leave it at that.
I could tell them that it's a crucifixion of the heart. I could say that most days after, I screamed without stopping, even as I moved through the city, even with my mouth closed, even though I didn't make a sound. I could tell them I have this dream, every night, and lose him again, every morning.
But, hey, why ruin their day? So I tell them it's hard. That usually seems to satisfy them.”
― Cody McFadyen, quote from Shadow Man
“Most armies are in fact run by their sergeants—the officers are there just to give things a bit of tone and prevent warfare from becoming a mere lower-class brawl.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“Closing her eyes, she began to let herself dream. Not sleep dreaming, but dreaming of how her life might be. It was a thing she didn't often do. In her experience, good things came with great difficulty and were too easily snatched away. She'd longo ago learned to accept what she had at any given moment and try to be happy with only that. She could think about the furniture, plan even, but not expect. It was the expectation that was the trap.”
― William Kent Krueger, quote from Iron Lake
“Tu oublies que tout le monde n'a pas ta force, ni ton courage..."
"On ne nait pas courageux, on le devient".”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from Embroideries
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.