Quotes from The Secret River

Kate Grenville ·  334 pages

Rating: (14.4K votes)


“How short a time a person had to be alive, he thought. How long to be dead.”
― Kate Grenville, quote from The Secret River


“it crossed Farren's mind that although death seemed big, life was even bigger”
― Kate Grenville, quote from The Secret River


“This place had been here long before him. It would go on sighing and breathing and being itself after he had gone, the land lapping on and on, watching, waiting, getting on with its own life.”
― Kate Grenville, quote from The Secret River


“Ain't nothing in this world just for the taking...A man got to pay a fair price for taking...Matter of give a little, take a little.”
― Kate Grenville, quote from The Secret River


About the author

Kate Grenville
Born place: in Sydney, Australia
Born date October 14, 1950
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Achan carried Arman inside him. He was part of Arman's light. So was every man, woman and child in Er'Rets who believed. Alone, as one man, Achan could not succeed. But if all the people joined together...

Because the temple of Arman was his people.”
― Jill Williamson, quote from From Darkness Won


“Wahoo's father had absolutely no use for creeps who beat on small animals, especially kids.”
― Carl Hiaasen, quote from Chomp


“We must have several word-signs," said Syme seriously -- "words that we are likely to want, fine shades of meaning. My favourite word is 'coeval.' What's yours?"
"Do stop playing the goat," said the Professor plaintively. "You don't know how serious this is."
"'Lush,' too, " said Syme, shaking his head sagaciously, "we must have ' lush' -- word applied to grass, don't you know?"
"Do you imagine," asked the Professor furiously, "that we are going to talk to Dr. Bull about grass?"
"There are several ways in which the subject could be approached," said Syme reflectively, "and the word introduced without appearing forced. We might say, ' Dr. Bull, as a revolutionist, you remember that a tyrant once advised us to eat grass; and indeed many of us, looking on the fresh lush grass of summer--"'
"Do you understand," said the other, "that this is a tragedy?"
"Perfectly," replied Syme; "always be comic in a tragedy. What the deuce else can you do? I wish this language of yours had a wider scope. I suppose we could not extend it from the fingers to the toes? That would involve pulling off our boots and socks during the conversation, which however unobtrusively performed -- "
"Syme," said his friend with a stern simplicity, "go to bed!”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Man Who Was Thursday


“That stage in life when older people assume that just because you've graduated college you know who you are, or what you're doing, and in fact most people don't.”
― Kim Gordon, quote from Girl in a Band


“George Bush knew five times more about the governments of the world—his own included—than Ronald Reagan ever would.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, quote from What It Takes: The Way to the White House


Interesting books

Spy School
(6.2K)
Spy School
by Stuart Gibbs
Three Wishes
(68.7K)
Three Wishes
by Liane Moriarty
Stolen Songbird
(19K)
Stolen Songbird
by Danielle L. Jensen
The Air He Breathes
(38.7K)
The Air He Breathes
by Brittainy C. Cherry
You Know Me Well
(8.8K)
You Know Me Well
by Nina LaCour
My Brother Michael
(4.3K)
My Brother Michael
by Mary Stewart

About BookQuoters

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.