“أوقعتني الشجاعة في مأزق لم أنجو منه إلا بمزيد من هذه الشجاعة”
― quote from The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist
“أؤمن بأن هذا الشعب لا يفنى”
― quote from The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist
“ما هكذا فعل قائدنا أبو ركوة (الوليد بن هشام بن المغيرة) قبل ألف عام. فلما رأى الناس يؤمنون بأن الحاكم بأمر الله يحكم بأمر الله، لم يسقط في يده، ولم ينتظر أن يصبح الشعب مؤهلاً، بل أقنعهم بأنه ثائر عليه هو أيضاً، بأمر الله. فتلقب بالثائر بأمر الله على الحاكم بأمر الله. فحيد العزة بالعزة. والحاكم أظلم. فتبعه خلق كثير.”
― quote from The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist
“ليس هناك على الأرض أقدس من دم الإنسان، يا بني، ولذلك سمّيت بلادنا بالمقدّسة.”
― quote from The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist
“في المدرسة حذرتموني: احترس بكلامك! فلما أخبرتكم أن معلمي صديقي، همستم: لعله عين عليك! ولما سمعت حكاية الطنطورة فلعنتهم، همستم في أذني: احترس بكلامك!
فلما لعنوني:
احترس بكلامك!
وحين اجتمعت بأقراني، لنعلن إضرابا، قالوا لي، هم أيضا:
احترس بكلامك!
وفي الصباح قلتِ لي، يا أماه: إنك تتكلم في منامك، فاحترس بكلامك في منامك!.. وكنت أدندن في الحمام، فصاح بي أبي: غير هذا اللحن. إن للجدران آذانا، فاحترس بكلامك!
أريد ألا أحترس بكلامي، مرة واحدة!
كنت أختنق!
ضيق هذا الكهف يا أمّاه، لكنه أرحب من حياتكم!
مسدود هذا الكهف يا أماه، ولكنه منفذ!”
― quote from The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist
“The way we word it, it's as if our backs were turned to the past as we look toward the futre; and that is, in fact, how we actually think of it: the future in front, the past behind. To dynamic personalities, the present is a ship that drives its bow through the rough seas of the future. To ore passive ones, it is rather like a raft drifting along with the tide. THere is, of course, something wrong with both these images, for if time is movement, then it must be moving through another kind of time, and the secondary time through yet another; and thus time is endlessly multiplied. This is the kind of concept that does not please philosophers, but then, inventions of the heart have little to do with those of the intellect.
Besides, whoever keeps the future in front of him and the past at his back is doing something else that is hard to imagine. For the image implies that events somehow already exist in the future, reach the present at a determined moment, and finally come to rest in the past. But nothing exists in the future; it is empty; one might die at any minute. Therefore such a person has his face turned toward the void, whereas it is the past behind him that is visible, stored in the memory.”
― Harry Mulisch, quote from The Assault
“And this—instead of happiness—would be only what the two of us deserved, after all.”
― Melanie Benjamin, quote from Alice I Have Been
“Maybe I don't like people as much as the rest of the world seems to. Seems like the human race is in love with itself. What kind of ego do you have to have to think that you were created in God's image? I mean, to invent the idea that God must be like us. Please. As Stanley Kubrick once pointed out, the discovery of more intelligent life somewhere other than Earth would be catastrophic to man, simply because we would no longer be able to think of ourselves as the centre of the universe. I guess I'm slowly becoming one of those crusty old cranks that thinks animals are better than people. But, occasionally, people will pleasantly surprise me and I'll fall in love with one of them, so go figure.”
― Mark Oliver Everett, quote from Things The Grandchildren Should Know
“It is, I think, that we are all so alone in what lies deepest in our souls, so unable to find the words, and perhaps the courage to speak with unlocked hearts, that we don't know at all that it is the same with others.”
― Sheldon Vanauken, quote from A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy and Triumph
“The fate of millions of people—indeed the future of the black community itself—may depend on the willingness of those who care about racial justice to re-examine their basic assumptions about the role of the criminal justice system in our society.”
― Michelle Alexander, quote from The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
The Tiger's Wife
The Guard
Shadow Puppets
The Moor's Last Sigh
CaptivateBookQuoters 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.
