Quotes from The White Castle

“في تلك الأيام ربما كانت هذهِ هي الطريقة الوحيدة التي يفهم بها أحدنا الآخر: كان كل منّا لا يبالي بالآخر.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“You cannot embark on life, that one-off coach ride, once again when it is over,
but if you have a book in your hand, no matter how complex or difficult, when you have finished it, you can, if you wish, go back to the beginning, read it again, and thus understand that which is difficult and, with it, understand life as well.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“The ideal story should begin innocently like a fairy-tale, be frightening like a nightmare in the middle, and conclude sadly like a love story ending in separation.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“Es algo sabido que la vida no está predeterminada y que todas las historias son una cadena de casualidades. Pero incluso los que son conscientes de esa realidad, cuando llega cierto momento de su existencia y miran atrás, llegan a la conclusión de que lo que vivieron como casualidades no fueron sino hechos inevitables. ”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“أليست إمكانية الفهم الحقيقي المتبادل بين اثنين أمرًا مثيرًا؟ إن الإنسان يسحره إدراك أن هناك شخصًا ما يعرف عنه أدقّ تفاصيل روحه كأنه يعيش كابوسًا.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“كان هو الذي أصرّ أن يجلس كلانا إلى طرفي المائدة و نكتب معًا،
كان ذلك وقت كتب كل منّا "لماذا نحن هكذا؟". لكنه مرة أخرى انتهى بعدم كتابة شيء أكثر من "لماذا الآخرون هكذا؟".”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“Luego pensamos que un buen relato debe tener un comienzo infantil, un desarrollo terrorífico como una pesadilla y un final amargo como una historia de amor que termina en una separación. ”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“في صمت الليالي المعتمة ملأنا كتابًا بكل هذه الرؤى التي نبعت من خيالاتنا عن الهزيمة و الفشل الذي حلمنا به و نحن حزانى نفتقد للبهجة، أولئك المعوزون برؤوسهم المحنية، و طرقهم الموحلة، و بيوتهم غير مكتملة البناء، و شوراعهم الغريبة المعتمة، الناس الذين يعتقدون أن كل شيء سيعود كما كان و هم يتلون صلواتهم التي لا يفقهون معناها،الأمهات و الآباء الثكلى، البؤساء الذين لم تسمح لهم أعمارهم القصيرة أن يخبرونا عما أنجزوه و حقّقوه في بلاد أخرى، المصانع و الآلات التي لا تعمل، الأرواح ذات العيون المخضلة بالدمع ترثي الأيام الخوالي، الكلاب الضالة التي ليست في هزالها أكثر من جلد على عظم، الفلاحون الذين لا يمتلكون أراض، المتشردون المتسكعون في المدينة، المسلمون الجهلة و الأميون الذين يرتدون سراويلهم و حروبهم كلها تنتهي بالهزيمة.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“في خلال هذه الأعوام الأربعة تعلمت أن الحياة يجب أن نستمتع بها، لا أن نتحملها”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“lo habían encuadernado cuidadosamente con un papel de aguas azul que hacía recordar los sueños.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“Sabía que si regresaba a Venecia no podría retomar una vida que había dejado a medias en el mismo punto en que se había interrumpido. Como mucho, podría iniciar una vida distinta.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“… se volvió hacia nosotros, que en ese momento estábamos de pie el uno junto al otro, y sonrió como si estuviera viendo una de esas inigualables maravillas creadas por Dios para doblegar el orgullo del ser humano y proclamar su estupidez, un enano perfecto o dos gemelos exactamente iguales.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“Fue a lo largo de aquellos cuatro años cuando aprendí que la vida no es una espera sino algo que se puede disfrutar.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“Y lo peor era que mi cara se había transformado en otra completamente distinta, en la comisura de mis labios se abría paso una cierta desvergüenza de tanto beber y besar en las fiestas, mis ojos parecían lánguidos de permanecer despierto sin tener en cuenta la hora o de caer inconsciente por la bebida, en mi mirada había petulancia vulgar como la de esos estúpidos satisfechos de sus vidas, del mundo y de sí mismos, pero yo sabía que estaba contento con mi nueva situación, así que me callé.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“But we should search for the strange and surprising in the world, not within ourselves! To search within, to think so long and hard about our own selves, would only make us unhappy. This is what had happened to the characters in my story: for this reason heroes could never tolerate being themselves, for this reason they always wanted to be someone else.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

“...cuando a uno se le contagiaba el mal de la ciencia, resultaba tan imposible escapar de él como de la peste...”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from The White Castle

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Popular quotes

“Who reads
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not
A spirit and judgment equal or superior,
(And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?)
Uncertain and unsettled still remains,
Deep versed in books, and shallow in himself.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Regained

“I tell you, Professor, growing up is a full contact sport. Somewhere in our brains, foolishness and naïveté join forces with a false sense of invincibility. Together, they score own-goals against their host’s interests. All this happens while that referee known as ‘reason’ is collapsed in a drunken stupor, unable to stop the madness. When he finally wakes up, all he can do is grant the useless penalty known as ‘hindsight’. But the outcome remains unchanged. The game is lost …”
― Taona Dumisani Chiveneko, quote from The Hangman's Replacement: Sprout of Disruption

“After all, what more does a true genius want? The mind itself is the palace where all the real treasures, the works of art, the indulgences exist.”
― Alex Scarrow, quote from The Eternal War

“For this was the real desert where differences of race and colour, of wealth and social standing, are almost meaningless; where coverings of pretence are stripped away and basic truths emerge.”
― Wilfred Thesiger, quote from Arabian Sands

“I would take my beloved Najma to my country so that she would taste secularism and true freedom. How wrong I was! How wrong we all were! Unfortunately, you truly miss what you have had all along and taken for granted (in this case the spirit of secularism and true freedom) only once you actually lose it.”
― Vivek Pereira, quote from Indians in Pakistan

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About BookQuoters

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.