“So very Russian," people around were murmuring. That they did meant this was an audience pretty low down on the scale of sophistication, otherwise they would be saying, "Just like us, isn't it?”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“Mas como era extraordinária aquela sala cheia de gente — ou melhor, de animais -, a olhar na mesma direcção, para outros animais mascarados e treinados para representar num palco, para animais cobertos de tecido e bocados de peles, ornamentados com pedras e de rostos e garras pintados. Toda a gente acabara de comer um animal de qualquer espécie; as peles que se viam por toda a parte, apesar de a noite estar quente, provinham de animas que tinham vivido, brincado e fornicado em florestas e campos, e os pés de toda a gente estavam cobertos de pele de animais.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“For many thousands of years people had looked at expensive heads of hair and thought of how much food and warmth they represented, so obviously it was a thought of no use at all, so why bother to have it? But thoughts of this sort did go ticking on, useless or not.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“she had to fight for qualities that had not been even in her vocabulary. Patience. Self-discipline. Self-control. Self-abnegation. Chastity. Adaptability to others - this above all. This always.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“All those years were now seeming like a betrayal of what she really was. While her body, her needs, her emotions–all of herself–had been turning like a sunflower after one man, all that time she had been holding in her hands something else, the something precious, offering it in vain to her husband, to her children, to everyone she knew–but it had never been taken, had not been noticed. But this thing she had offered, without knowing she was doing it, which had been ignored by herself and by everyone else, was what was real in her.” (page 140)”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“Комплексът за вина е почти определение на майчинството в нашата просветена епоха.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“I’m not going to be like my mother. You’re maniacs. You’re mad."
“Yes,” said Kate. “I know it. And so you won’t be. The best of luck to you. And what are you going to be instead?”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“Younger woman says, “I’m not going to be like my mother. You’re maniacs. You’re mad.”
“Yes,” [older woman responds] “I know it. And so you won’t be. The best of luck to you. And what are you going to be instead?”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“I’m not going to be like my mother. You’re maniacs. You’re mad.
“Yes,” said Kate. “I know it. And so you won’t be. The best of luck to you. And what are you going to be instead?”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“Кейт броди цяла сутрин нагоре-надолу по дългата многолюдна улица и с всяка стъпка се убеждаваше все по-силно, че лицата и движенията на повечето жени на средна възраст са лица на затворнички и робини. [...] и стигна до заключението, че е психопат. Защото с маниакално постоянство от сутрин до вечер мислеше само за едно - за домакинството, за подреждането на това или онова в дома, за поддъжането на къщата, за последиците, ако постъпи така или ако не постъпи така. Подир това от себе си и собственото си поведение и думи наблюденията й се пренесоха въху жените на нейната възраст от приятелски семейства. Установи, че всички бяха получили солидна закалка в едно-едничко нещо, суетенето. [...] Ето докъде бе довело дългогодишното отглеждане на добродетелите: тя и нейните съвременнички се бяха превърнали в автомати, настроени да изпълняват една-единствена функция, а чистят, подреждат, оправят, предвиждат и поръчват, да се безпокоят, тревожат и организират. Да се суетят.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“Добродетелите се бяха превърнали в пороци, в досадни натяквания и тормоз над другите. Дългият процес на ерозия, вечната готовност да бъде на разположение на другите и безконечната грижа към най-дребните желания, нужди, събития, кризи бяха превърнали храброто младо създание в маниачка. Обсебена изцяло от незначителната страна на битието.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“she was wishing that whatever stage of her life she ws in now could be got through quickly, for it was seeming to her interminable. If life had to be looked at in terms of high moments or peaks, then nothing had "happened" to her for a long time; and she could look forward to nothing but a dwindling away from full household activities and getting old.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“А още не знаеше как иска да живее: това беше същността на неговата дилема. Както милиони други младежи - знае ли някой техния борй? - пръснати по белия свят [...], той не знаеше какво да прави със себе си. Става дума за младото поколение на охолните страни, на богатата третина от света. Младежта на изостаналия, неук, гладен свят няма избор. За да оцелее, тя трябва да открадне, да отвоюва, да отгладува съществуването си. Незнаенето как да устори живота си е привилегия на преситената младеж.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“Choose? When do I ever choose? Have I ever chosen?”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“There's something here that I simply will not let myself look at.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“Looking back over nearly a quarter of a century, she saw that that had been the characteristic of her life -passivity, adaptability to others.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“The truth was, she was becoming more and more uncomfortably conscious not only that the things she said, and a good many of the things she thought, had been taken down off a rack and put on, but that what she really felt was something else again.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
Doris Lessing
Born place: in Kermanshah, Iran
Born date October 22, 1919
See more on GoodReads
“It changes you for ever, but you are changing for ever anyway.”
― Margaret Mahy, quote from The Changeover
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”
― quote from Arousing Love
“If the windmill should prove too formidable," said he, from the threshold, "I may see what can be done with the wind.”
― Rafael Sabatini, quote from Scaramouche
“...there is no real advance in human reason, for what we gain in one direction we lose in another; for all minds start from the same point, and as the time spent in learning what others have thought is so much time lost in learning to think for ourselves, we have more acquired knowledge and less vigor of mind. Our minds like our arms are accustomed to use tools for everything, and to do nothing for themselves.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, quote from Emile or On Education
“To become a true global citizen, one must abandon all notions of 'otherness' and instead embrace 'togetherness'. The world is no longer white, black, yellow and brown. Through love, tribes have been intermixing colors to reveal a new rainbow world. And as more time passes, this racial and cultural blending will make it harder for humans to side with one race, nation or religion over another. Therefore, practical wisdom should be used to abandon any cultural, social, religious, tribal, and national beliefs of alterity altogether. This is the only way mankind will truly evolve. Segregation is a word of the past. Unity is the key to a peaceful future.”
― quote from Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
Dance of the Gods
Thirteen Moons
Selected Stories
Shield of Thunder
Mountains Beyond Mou...
Midnight's DaughterBookQuoters 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.
