“Where subtlety fails us we must simply make do with cream pies.”
― David Brin, quote from The Uplift War
“But there is one more reason to protect other species. One seldom if ever mentioned. Perhaps we are the first to talk and think and build and aspire, but we may not be the last. Others may follow us in this adventure. Some day we may be judged by just how well we served, when alone we were Earth’s caretakers.”
― David Brin, quote from The Uplift War
“Someone once said that one measure of sentience was how much energy a sophont spent on matters other than survival. Fiben”
― David Brin, quote from The Uplift War
“The best means to an end are not always those that appear most direct.”
― David Brin, quote from The Uplift War
“If only I had a decent sense of humor Ah, well. Where subtlety fails us we must simply make do with cream pies.”
― David Brin, quote from The Uplift War
“(ghost of)ACHILLES: How can I force obedience on this? In other times I've used the fear of death to make a woman bow herself to me. If not the fear of her own death, then fear for someone else, a husband or a child. How can I bend this woman to my will?
(ghost of)POLYXENA: I think I will not bend.
IPHIGENIA: You see, it's as we've tried to tell you, Great Achilles. Women are no good to you dead.”
― Sheri S. Tepper, quote from The Gate to Women's Country
“Because he had been- and in many ways still was- such a brilliant man, he no doubt understood the nature of his memory problem. It wasn't pride that prevented him from asking for help but a deep aversion to causing more trouble than necessary for those of us who lived in the normal world.”
― Yōko Ogawa, quote from The Housekeeper and the Professor
“Just this once, in the very heart of the busiest of cities, everyone was perfectly content not to move and hardly to breathe. And for those few minutes, while the song lasted, Times Square was still as a meadow at evening, with the sun streaming in on the people there and the wind moving among them as if they were only tall blades of grass.”
― George Selden, quote from The Cricket in Times Square
“...vlastito tijelo nastanjivala je poput mačke. Nije mi bila toliko lijepa koliko egzotična, premda je izraz možda pretjeran za ono što želim reći. Sposobnost da se ostavi dojam, bilo bi to vjerojatno točnije onomu što pokušavam reći, određeni samodostatni izgled koji je čovjeka tjerao da je poželi gledati čak i kad bi samo besposleno sjedila”
― Paul Auster, quote from Leviathan
“Well, they may not be civilized, but they certainly are confident—and this confidence is one of the open-handed pleasures of early Irish literature.”
― Thomas Cahill, quote from How the Irish Saved Civilization
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.