“There can be second chances. But maybe it's also true that things can never be the same, and that you have to decide whether the second chance lives up to the first.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society
“When you're a stranger to people you care about, you become a stranger to yourself.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society
“Isn't that... isn't that what friends do? They change our perspective on the world. Part of why we care about them is because we love that feeling. The feeling of being changed.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society
“The truth can sometimes sound like a lie because we're too afraid to believe it.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society
“Truth was like an exploding star: violent, glitteringly beautiful. Now that I had seen it, felt it, it was impossible to settle for anything less.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society
“How can you interpret the behavior of others when you're a mystery to yourself?”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society
“A snowfall softens all the hard noises and hard corners. It's a natural liar. I saw the sky sprinkle down a hundred, a thousand little white lies, and decided I didn't owe Orion anything.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society
“For a while there was no other sound than the liquid whisper of my brush across paper, and as I painted,I thought about how the truth can sometimes sound like a lie because we're too afraid to believe it.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society
“I got kicked out of my first home for poking a wire hanger into an electrical outlet. My foster mom caught me, shrieked, and called the DCFS to come cart me away, because I was clearly suicidal and no one had told her that I was a child with ‘special needs.’”
“Were you? Suicidal?”
“I was five.”
“Still.”
“No, I wasn’t trying to off myself. I was curious. Little kids spend half their waking hours being warned not to do things. Don’t run with scissors. Don’t lick a flagpole in winter. Don’t stick anything into electrical outlets. Those three little holes looked so mysterious. I had to know if they were as dangerous as everyone said.”
“What happened?” A smile curled the corner of Conn’s mouth, indicating he’d already guessed the answer—which wasn’t exactly hard, given that I was standing right there in front of him, and not buried in an early grave with the tombstone Here Lies Darcy Jones, electrocuted orphan.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society
“I felt the back of my neck prickle. I was being watched. I knew this even before I slowly turned around, knew it like I knew I had ten fingers and ten toes.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society
“Because if we don’t forgive those we love, then what is left? What is love if it’s not loving our lovers even when they don’t deserve it?”
― Fredrik Backman, quote from Britt-Marie Was Here
“Hume argued powerfully that human reason is fundamentally similar to that of the other animals, founded on instinct rather than quasi-divine insight into things.”
― David Hume, quote from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
“Mickey holds up the soggy paper. DIE. Don't you die.”
― Kathleen Glasgow, quote from Girl in Pieces
“The engineers of human souls'. There were two main problems. The first was that many people did not want their souls to be egineered, thank you very much. They were content with their souls being left as they were when they had come into this world; and when you tried to lead them, they resisted. Come to this free open-air concert, comrade. Oh, we really think you should attend. Yes, of course, it is voluntary, but it might be a mistake if you didn't show your face...
And the second problem with engineering human souls was more basic. It was this: who engineers the engineers?”
― Julian Barnes, quote from The Noise of Time
“Gently he nibbled at my skin, stroked it with his tongue, gradually making his way downward. I closed my eyes, my senses sharpened, and the feeling became even more intense. His lips slid down my belly, traced a small circle around my navel...”
― Sharlyn G. Branson, quote from Limits of Destiny
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.