“I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“I armed her against the censure of the world, showed her that books were sweet unreproaching companions to the miserable, and that if they could not bring us to enjoy life, they would at least teach us to endure it.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“law grinds the poor, rich men rule the law”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“As the reputation of books is raised not by their freedom from defect, but the greatness of their beauties, so should that of men be prized not for their exemption from fault, but the size of those virtues they are possessed of.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“…The more enormous our wealth, the more extensive our fears, all our possessions are paled up with new edicts every day, and hung round with gibbets to scare every invader.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“The nakedness of the indignant world may be cloathed from the trimmings of the vain.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“What we place most hopes upon, generally proves most fatal.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“I have known many of those pretended champions for liberty in my time, yet do I not remember one that was not in his heart and in his family a tyrant.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“The beast retires to it's shelter, and the bird flies to it's nest; but the helpless man can only find refuge in his fellow creature.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“At this he laughed, and so did we: the jests of the rich are ever successful.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce worth the sentinel.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“We are not to judge of the feelings of others by what we might feel if in their place. However dark the habitation of the mole to our eyes, yet the animal itself finds the apartment sufficiently lightsome.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“the laws govern the poor, and the rich govern the law”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“Now, Sir, for my own part, as I naturally hate the face of a tyrant, the farther off he is removed from me, the better pleased am I. The generality of mankind also are of my way of thinking, and have unanimously created one king, whose election at once diminishes the number of tyrants, and puts tyranny at the greatest distance from the greatest number of people.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“My friends, my children, and fellow sufferers, when I reflect on the
distribution of good and evil here below, I find that much has been
given man to enjoy, yet still more to suffer. Though we should examine
the whole world, we shall not find one man so happy as to have nothing
left to wish for; but we daily see thousands who by suicide shew us they
have nothing left to hope. In this life then it appears that we cannot
be entirely blest; but yet we may be completely miserable!”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“Premature consolation is but the remembrancer of sorrow.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, quote from The Vicar of Wakefield
“Could he be naked beneath his breeches? They
seemed molded to him, outlining the powerful lines of his thighs and the swell just above—
Oh, God. She closed her eyes. She’d been looking at his—Not only was it rude, but it had sent an
amazing tingle through her, almost as if she’d touched it.
“Fiona, if you ever look at me like that again, I will not be held responsible for what I do.” Jack was so
close that she could feel his breath on her temple. “Do you understand?”
― Karen Hawkins, quote from How to Abduct a Highland Lord
“There’s a planet called Echo. It doesn’t exist. It’s like those ghost-ships at sea, the sails worn through and the deck empty. It comes on the radar, you fly towards it, there’s nothing there. Our crew were outside, repairing the craft, and we saw it moving at speed right at us. It passed straight through the ship and through our bodies, and the strange thing that happened was the bleach. It bleached our clothes and hair, and men that had black beards had white. Then it was gone, echoing in another part of the starry sky, always, ‘here’ and ‘here’ and ‘here’, but nowhere. Some call it Hope.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from The Stone Gods
“Someone can break your heart, leave you dead on the lawn, and still you never learn what to say to stop it all over again. ”
― Daniel Handler, quote from Adverbs
“It was Hitler’s style, his oratorical talents and his remarkable ability to transmit emotions and feelings in his speeches, that took him to the leadership of the ragtag party of misfits and adventurers that he joined in Munich in 1919 and that called itself the German Workers’ Party. The ideas he and the party spouted were all tattered; they were nothing but jargon inherited from the paranoid Austro-German border politics of the pre-1914 era, which saw “Germanness” threatened with inundation by “subject nationalities.” Even the combination “national socialist,” which Hitler added to the party’s name when he became leader in 1920, was borrowed from the same era and same sources. It was not the substance—there was no substance to the frantic neurotic tirades—that allowed the party to survive and later to grow. It was the style and the mood. It was above all the theater, the vulgar “art,” the grand guignol productions of the beer halls and the street.”
― Modris Eksteins, quote from Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age
“There's no way that can be the river," Rhiow said.
"Rhi, the ceiling of Grand Central--" Saash said.
"It's backward," Rhiow snapped, "thank you very much, I know all about it."
"Is it?" Saash said. "Which direction are you coming at it from?"
Rhiow closed her mouth and thought about that.”
― Diane Duane, quote from The Book of Night with Moon
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.