Quotes from The Transit of Venus

“When you realize someone is trying to hurt you, it hurts less."
"Unless you love them.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“I never had, or wished for, power over you. That isn't true, of course. I wanted the greatest power of all. but not advantage, or authority.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“Dora sat on a corner of the spread rug, longing to be assigned some task so she could resent it.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“But, with unintelligible nostalgia for a life she had never lived, knew that all would have been subtly and profoundly different had her husband greatly loved her.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“Her eyes were enlarged and faded with discovering what, by common human agreement, is better undivulged.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“She was coming to look on men and women as fellow-survivors: well-dissemblers of their woes, who, with few signals of grief, had contained, assimilated, or put to use their own destruction. Of those who had endured the worst, not all behaved nobly or consistently. but all, involuntarily, became part of some deeper assertion of life.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“He had seen how people came a cropper by giving way to impulse. It was to his judiciousness, at every turn, that he owed the fact that nothing terrible had ever happened to him.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“The sweetness that all longed for night and day. Some tragedy might be idly guessed at--loss or illness. She had the luminosity of those about to die.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“At the other end of the room the three old men discussed infirmities; exchanging symptoms in undertones as boys might speak of lust.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“Paul said, 'You always had some contempt for me.'
'Yes.'
'And love too.'
'Yes.' A flicker over her stare was the facial equivalent of a shrug. 'Now you have a wife to give you both.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“Caro was coming round to the fact of unhappiness: to a realization that Dora created unhappiness and the she was bound to Dora.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“They lived under supervision, a life without men. Dora knew no men. You could scarcely see how she might meet one, let alone come to know.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“Dark had meant Dora, had meant words and events sordid with self. Struggling to the light from Dora's darkness, Caro had acquired conscience and equilibrium like a profound, laborious education. Exercise of principle would always require more from her than from persons nurtured in it, for she had learned it by application of will. Caro would never do the right thing without knowing it, as some could.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“I see that you are highly defensive." . . .
Caro said, "I withhold my analysis of your own attitude.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“He was familiar enough with pleasure to know it might become jaded or reluctant; but joy was literally foreign to him, a word he would never easily pronounce, an exhilaration that had some other reckless nationality. For this reason, Caro's wholeness in love, her happiness in it, made her exotic.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“Even Grace still imagined there might be words, the words that could reach Dora and that had so far, unaccountably, not been hit upon. Only Caro recognized that Dora's condition was exactly that: a condition, an irrational state requiring professional, or divine, intervention.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“I wasn't convinced a shop girl would know the word 'Oedipal.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“Did you love Paul Ivory?"
"Yes."
"I suppose it ended badly."
"Yes."
"You must have been very unhappy."
"I died, and Adam resurrected me.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“Caro sat without speaking, turning toward him her look that was neither sullen nor expectant but soberly attentive; and, once, a glance in which tenderness and apprehension were great and indivisible, giving unbearable, excessive immediacy to the living of these moments. Paul had seen that look before, when they first lay down together at the inn beyond Avebury Circle.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“She was coming to look on men and women as fellow survivors; well-dissemblers of their woes, who, with few signals of grief, had contained, assimilated, or just put to use their own destruction. Of those who had endured the worst, not all behaved nobly or consistently. But all, involuntarily, became part of a deeper assertion to life.
Though the dissolution of love created no heroes, the process itself required some heroism. There was the risk that endurance might appear enough of an achievement. That risk had come up before.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

“He had the complexion, lightly webbed, of outdoor living and indoor drinking, and was a high, handsome man who might have been cruel.”
― Shirley Hazzard, quote from The Transit of Venus

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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.