“The worst pain in our lives comes from the mistakes we refuse to acknowledge--the things we've done that are so our of harmony with who we are that we can't bear to look at them.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“The person I think I am is terrified of the person I really am, terrified of what others would think of that person. What would they do to me if they knew the person I really was? Better to be safe! Better to hide the real person, starve the real person, bury the real person!”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“What he took he will give, when he gets what he gave.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“For her, people in general were a plus, a source of positive stimulation (with exceptions such as the predatory Sonya Reynolds). For Gurney, people in general were a minus, a drain on his energy (with exception such as the encouraging Sonya Reynolds).”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“It was a curious thing about the past--how it lay in wait for you, quietly, invisibly, almost as though it weren't there. You might be tempted to think it was gone, no longer existed. Then, like a pheasant flushed from cover, it would roar up in an explosion of sound, color, motion--shockingly alive.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“The purpose of life is to get as close as we can to other people.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“Eis uma coisa curiosa acerca do passado: a forma como jaz à nossa espera, silencioso, invisível, quase como se ali não estivesse. Podemos ter a tentação de julgar que desapareceu, que já não existe. De repente, como um faisão espantado para fora do seu esconderijo, erguer-se-á numa explosão de som, cor e movimento: escandalosamente vivo.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“The mind is a mass of contradictions and conflicts. We lie to make others trust us. We hide our true selves in the pursuit of intimacy. We chase happiness in ways that drive happiness away. When we’re wrong we fight the hardest to prove we’re right.” Caught”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“Hardwick was showing the frustration of a man trying to hold his groceries inside a ripped bag.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“No hay peor dolor que tener a dos personas viviendo en un cuerpo”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“El conflicto más simple es el conflicto entre la forma en que nos vemos nosotros mismos y la forma en que nos ven los demás. Por ejemplo, si estamos discutiendo y tú me gritas, vería la causa en tu incapacidad de controlar tu temperamento. En cambio, si yo te grito a ti, no veré la causa en mi temperamento, sino en tu provocación, algo en ti frente a lo cual mi grito es una respuesta apropiada.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“How many bright angels can dance on a pin? How many hopes drown in a bottle of gin? Did the thought ever come that your glass was a gun and one day you’d wonder, God, what have I done?”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“But how could he stop being what he was? However much he cared for her, however much he wanted to be with her, however much he wanted her to be happy, how could he become someone he wasn't?”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“Sherlock Holmes, "İmkansız olanı elerseniz,elimizde kalan ne kadar mümkün görünmese de doğrudur," derdi.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“That boulder is your image of yourself, who you think you are. The person you think you are is keeping the person you really are locked up without light or food or friends. The person you think you are has been trying to murder the person you really are for as long as you both have lived.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“So what are you saying?” Gurney”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“The personal collisions that upset us the most, the ones we seem powerless to let go of, are those in which we played a role that we are unwilling to acknowledge. That’s why the pain lasts—because we refuse to look at its source. We cannot detach it, because we refuse to look at the point of attachment.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“We each seem to be wired to believe my situation causes my problems but your personality causes yours. This creates trouble.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“El problema con los ojos radicaba en que éstos, más que ninguna otra de las facciones de la cara, captaban la tensión, la contradicción: la indiferencia reservada, salpicada con una pizca de crueldad, que Gurney había discernido con frecuencia en los rostros de los asesinos con los que había tenido la oportunidad de pasar a tiempo a solas.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“The fact that no one was dead persuaded him that he was on the right track”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“Eso es lo que tiene el alcohol: cuando te emborrachas tanto como lo hice yo, pierdes el miedo a las consecuencias. Tu percepción se deforma, tus inhibiciones desaparecen, tu memoria se apaga, y actúas por impulso: instinto sin control.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“En esos sueños veía con una claridad que superaba las palabras que el pozo de tristeza era pérdida, y la mayor pérdida de todas era la pérdida de amor.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“The mind is a mass of contradictions and conflicts. We lie to make others trust us. We hide our true selves in the pursuit of intimacy. We chase happiness in ways that drive happiness away. When we’re wrong we fight the hardest to prove we’re right.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“La mente es una masa de contradicciones y conflictos. Mentimos para conseguir que otros confíen en nosotros. Escondemos nuestro verdadero ser en una persecución de la intimidad. Perseguimos la felicidad de formas que nos alejan de ella. Cuando nos equivocamos, luchamos a brazo partido por demostrar que tenemos razón.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“Darás lo que has quitado
al recibir lo dado.
Sé todo lo que piensas
sé cuando parpadeas
sé dónde has estado
sé adónde irán tus pasos.
Vamos a vernos solos
señor 658.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“Gurney se maravillaba de que una persona tan espontánea pudiera también llevar una vida tan regida por los principios. Era lo que la hacía ser como era. Era lo que la convertía en un faro en el cenagal de su propia existencia.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“La atención de Sonya era agradable, gratificante para el ego, incluso quizás un poco excitante, pero conllevaba un precio excesivamente alto, era demasiado peligrosa para cosas que importaban más.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
“Madeleine, la luz que casi había perdido. La luz que había puesto en peligro.”
― John Verdon, quote from Think of a Number
John Verdon
Born place: in The United States
Born date January 1, 1942
See more on GoodReads
“Truly, I did not intend to harm you, he said. That was never my intention.”
― Kate DiCamillo, quote from The Magician's Elephant
“Ultimately it was man's limited senses which established the boundaries of the world.”
― Félix J. Palma, quote from The Map of Time
“Ask yourself, "what would you do to survive?”
― Jaycee Dugard, quote from A Stolen Life
“Once you start changing a name, you see, there's no reason ever to stop. One always hears one that sounds better.”
― Evelyn Waugh, quote from The Loved One
“When I wake, a piece of sharp green glass on the floor is cutting into my hand and I know it's a sign. I etch a letter on my hand; put it on top so I can see the jagged edges bleeding out; S.
S is for sorrow, for all I don't say. S is for sick now, my punishing ways.”
― Ibi Kaslik, quote from Skinny
Blackberry Wine
Straight Man
Heaven
Why Be Happy When Yo...
Adam BedeBookQuoters 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.
