“It's a terrible thing, isn't it, the way we throw people away?”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“A true friend is a light in the dark. Viven”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“Life could be cruel enough these days without the truth making it worse.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“What could be more perfect than marrying the person you love.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“Children don’t require of their parents a past and they find something faintly unbelievable, almost embarrassing, in parental claims to a prior existence.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“Gerry?' Laurel had to strain to hear thought the noise on the other end of the line. 'Gerry? Where are you?'
'London. A phone booth on Fleet Street.'
'The city still has working phone booths?'
'It would appear so. Unless this is the Tardis, in which case I'm in serious trouble.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“She was the sort of person who needed to be kept happy, he realized. Not as a matter of selfish expectation, but as a simple fact of design; like a piano or a harp, she'd been made to function best at a certain tuning.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“Adults weren’t supposed to understand their children and you were doing something wrong if they did.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“But it is human, is it not, to long for that from which we are barred?”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“... people who'd led dull and blameless lives did not give thanks for second chances.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“Curiosity might have killed the cat, but little girls usually fared much better.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“One of the things I have come to know most surely in my work is that the belief system acquired in childhood is never fully escaped; it may submerge itself for a while, but it always returns in times of need to lay claim to the soul it shaped.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“It is queer, but my love and longing for the world are always deepened by my absence from it; it's wondrous, don't you think, that a person can swing from despair to gleeful hunger, and that even during these dark days there is happiness to be found in the smallest things?”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“To be faced with danger and find oneself fearless was thrilling.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“And as the train whistled its imminent departure, a small girl wearing neat plaits and someone else's shoes climbed its iron stairs. Smoke filled the platform, people waved and hollered, a stray dog ran barking through the crowds. Nobody noticed as the little girl stepped over the shadowed threshold; not even Aunt Ada, who some might've expected to be sheperherding her orphaned niece towards her uncertain future. And so, when the essence of light and life that had been Vivien Longmeyer contracted itself for safekeeping and disappeared deep inside her, the world kept moving and nobody saw it happen.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“Love, Laurel, that's the only reason to get married. For love.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“There were moments in which a person reached a crossroads, when something happened, out of the blue, to change the course of life's events.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“It was safe to say that neither had ever known the other sort of love, the sort with fireworks and racing hearts and physical desires.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“... That was were the real people were found, hiding behind their black spots.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“. . . companions were to be valued, wherever one found them.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“There was something about a book that inspired dedication and a swelling desire to possess it.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“people change as they get older....grow wiser, make better decisions...i am very old,Laurel. Anyone who lives as long as I have can't help but collect regrets along the way....things they did in the past...things they wish they'd done differently.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“...how ugly adults could be, how weak. So used to getting what they wanted that they didn't know the first thing about being brave.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“Laurel wondered whether perhaps a person reached an age when so much was kept from them, so many details of life discussed and decided elsewhere,misheard or misunderstood, that to be surprised was no longer disconcerting.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“...and time thickened so that the seconds passed like years.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“People aren't daft, . . . give 'em a bit of love and they'll never stray.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“She deserved a man who could offer her the best of everything, not a lifetime of butcher's leftovers got on the cheap and a drop of condensed milk in her tea when they couldn't stretch to sugar. Jimmy was working hard to become that man, and as soon as he did, by God, he was going to marry her and never let her go.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“All very well for a dull sort of girl to hitch her wheel to a man's wagon, but consider yourself warned, men enjoy a bit of sport, and they all like to catch the brightest prize, but once they do? That's when the fun and games end. His games, her fun.”
― Kate Morton, quote from The Secret Keeper
“It’s one of the first things an intelligent man like Kevin, who comes to the church later in life, notices. There is a pervasive incongruity between the church’s theology and the way most of us in the church live.” “Hypocrisy.” “One of its faces, yes. Hypocrisy. Saying one thing but doing another. Studying to be a priest while hiding a small cocaine addiction, for example. The world flushes this out and cries scandal. But the more ominous face isn’t nearly so obvious. This is what interested Kevin the most. He was quite astute, really.” “I’m not sure I follow. What’s not so obvious?” “The evil that lies in all of us,” the professor said. “Not blatant hypocrisy, but deception. Not even realizing that the sin we regularly commit is sin at all. Going about life honestly believing that we are pure when all along we are riddled with sin.” She looked at his gentle smile, taken by the simplicity of his words. “A preacher stands against the immorality of adultery, but all the while he harbors anger toward the third parishioner from the left because the parishioner challenged one of his teachings three months ago. Is anger not as evil as adultery? Or a woman who scorns the man across the aisle for alcoholic indiscretions, while she routinely gossips about him after services. Is gossip not as evil as any vice? What’s especially damaging in both cases is that neither the man who harbors anger nor the woman who gossips seriously considers the evil of their own actions. Their sins remain hidden. This is the true cancer in the church.”
― Ted Dekker, quote from Thr3e
“Pounce had it easier than any of us. No one noticed a black cat in the street. He stopped here and there to sniff aught of interest. Wherever our Rat stopped, Pounce was there, close enough to see up the Rat's nose. I was so proud. Now there was a proper god, making himself useful!
Since my thought might be deemed blasphemy, I said silent prayers to the Goddess and to Mithros. I begged forgiveness and asked them not to misunderstand. Since I wasn't blasted where I stood, I guess they forgave me, or they hadn't heard my blasphemy.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Terrier
“I want whatever part of you I can have.”
― Abbi Glines, quote from Breathe
“Tell the Queen that there's been a robin red-breast hanging about Kotir grounds. It flies down low and vanishes near the floor. Cludd thinks it might be something to do with those woodlanders. Now, I'm to say nothing to Fortunata or Ashleg...
'I must tell the Queen that a robin has seen Cludd hanging about. No, that's not right. I must tellt he robin taht Cludd has been hanging the Queen.”
― Brian Jacques, quote from Mossflower
“Tolstoy meant that, in order to be happy, a marriage must succeed in many different respects: sexual attraction, agreement about money, child discipline, religion, in-laws, and other vital issues.”
― Jared Diamond, quote from Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
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.