“(As human beings) We see everything everything in a glass, darkly. Sometimes we can peer through the glass and catch a glimpse of what is on the other side. If we were to polish the glass clean, we'd see much more. But then we would no longer see ourselves.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“All stars fall at some time. But a star is only a tiny spark from the great beacon in the sky.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Don't you think it's a small mystery that birds can twitter so loudly that they can hear each other's song from several miles away? Those tiny bundles are like living flutes, playing non-stop on themselves.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“I wonder whether the Christmas feeling has anything to do with the sixth sense. Perhaps we're a little more the angels at Christmas than we are during the rest of the year. And Christmas is about all the other senses. I can smell Christmas, I can taste Christmas, and I can see and hear it.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“is it true that sometimes you're so suspicious, you turn quite black inside?”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Alle stjerner falder en dag. Men en stjerne er kun en lille gnist fra det store bål på himlen.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Når jeg dør, brister en sølvstreng med glatte perler, som triller gennem landet og løber hjem til muslingemødrene på havets bund.
Hvem vil dykke efter mine perler, når jeg er borte? Hvem vil vide, at det var mine? Hvem kan gætte, at hele verden engang har hængt om min hals?”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Hvis jeg skulle tegne noget, og jeg vidste, at det, jeg tegnede, ville blive levende, når tegningen var færdig, så ville jeg ikke have turdet tegne noget som helst. Jeg ville aldrig have vovet at give liv til noget, som ikke kunne forsvare sig mod alle de ivrige farveblyanter.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Perhaps we're sad when something's beautiful because we know it won't last forever.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Tu ai trup de animal, dar suflet de înger!”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Banyak orang sangat menderita, sehingga mungkin mereka sudah mati karena kesedihan seandainya saja mereka tidak memimpikan sesuatu yang indah di sela-sela penderitaan mereka.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Jika kita menggosok cermin itu sebersih-bersihnya, kita akan melihat lebih banyak lagi. Tapi, kita tak bisa lagi melihat diri kita sendiri.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Widzimy wszystko jakby w zwierciadle, niejasno. Czasami możemy zajrzeć przez lustro i zobaczyć odrobinę tego, co jest po drugiej stronie. Gdybyśmy całkiem wyczyścili zwierciadło, zobaczylibyśmy o wiele więcej. Ale wtedy nie moglibyśmy już widzieć siebie...”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Ce ne sont pas les enfants chéris qui reçoivent beaucoup de noms. Ce sont les enfants trouvés à qui l'on donne plusieurs noms. Ceux que l'on trouve sur les marches d'un escalier. Ceux dont on ignore les origines. Ceux qui flottent dans le vide.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“Toutes les étoiles finissent un jour par mourir. Mais une étoile est une petite étincelle du grand feu de joie allumé dans le ciel.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“I am here only this once. And I shall never return.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Through a Glass, Darkly
“I believe the human self-model was successful because it installed your social group as an ideal observer in your mind, and to a much stronger degree than was the case in any other primate brain. This created a dense causal linkage between global group-control and global self-control—a new kind of ownership, as it were. Investigators of these”
― Thomas Metzinger, quote from The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self
“If there is anything of which I am certain in life it is that I shall never exchange the liberty of my exile for the vile parody of home.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
“The moment you stop smoking, everything that goes wrong in your life is blamed on the fact that you’ve stopped smoking.”
― Allen Carr, quote from The Easy Way to Stop Smoking: Join the Millions Who Have Become Nonsmokers Using the Easyway Method
“that Dr. Morrissey had always said that we found excuses to put off doing something that would take our minds off our worries. It was as if we didn’t want to lose the luxury of worrying.”
― Maeve Binchy, quote from Heart and Soul
“She was quite maniac when I met her. I scared her, maybe.”
― Chris Wooding, quote from The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray
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.