“Sometimes people would rather accept a lie than know the truth. Life is a whole lot easier to swallow that way.”
“He looked like he wanted to eat you."
With that, I throw my head back and laugh. "That man has no problem finding a meal. I highly doubt he's starving."
She scrunches her nose to show me she doesn't agree. "Well, maybe he just spotted something new on the menu. You know men and their food; they have to try a little bit of everything until they're completely satisfied.”
“Life isn't always predictable. But it's how we survive the bad weather that defines us.”
“The moment romance got involved, everything changed … and I mean everything.”
“I let it come to this, and I can only take responsibility for my own mistakes. Unfortunately, I've made a lot of them.”
“I could always see him for all that he was—for all that he is. Perfect.”
“Gavin doesn't pull away and I'm grateful for his comfort, but I also know this thing between us—what's always been between us—is wrong.”
“All I wanted was to follow my heart, but somehow along the way I lost my soul.”
“Our friendship was like glass, fragile and irreplaceable. One moment of weakness … one mistake … and it might have shattered completely. Our friendship was worth too much to me to risk even the slightest crack.”
“It's hard to be around Gavin and not get little hot flashes every now and then. I'm having an episode now ...”
“Chloe has always had a serious effect on my heart, but lately . . . she's stolen pieces of it, bit by bit. Or maybe she's had them all along.”
“My world stops at the sight of her ... it's as if I've been looking at Chloe through a two-way mirror this entire time—aware of her, always feeling her presence, but never allowing myself to break through the barrier.”
“Chloe doesn't move right away even though I've stepped to the side to allow her to pass. When she finally does, it's as if she's stealing my air as she goes. She's so damn beautiful.”
“You were staring out at the horizon, telling me it was the most beautiful thing you'd ever seen, and I was staring at you thinking the exact same thing.”
“Well"—I place my hands on my hips—"aren't you going to sketch me?" I twirl slowly, allowing him to take in the entire outfit. Before I'm even facing him again he's moving toward me, then grabbing me by the hips and pulling me against his hard body. My heart is trying to catch up to his eagerness as we fall onto the bed.
"I've done all the practice sketches I can handle.”
“I don't think we're allowed to call this friendship spooning anymore”
“The liquid seeping through my system instantly turns to fire, and it burns like the flames of guilt that have consumed me for so long.”
“When she left she took a piece of me with her—and it wasn't until she returned that I realized just how big that piece was.
I want it back.”
“Her beauty radiated from her core and touched every morsel of her exterior … and it only seems to have gotten better with age.”
“When someone has already made their choice, you just have to be smart enough to know they made it and have the strength to walk away.”
“When a girl gives you her heart and tells you to trust it, you don't question it. You don't waste a second. You just do it.”
“Yes, I love your eyes—they are black and deep and almond-shaped but I see the kindness in those eyes I have never seen before,”
“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”
“Boys will be boys, and ballplayers will always be arrested adolescents at heart. The proof comes in the mid-afternoon of an early spring training day, when 40 percent of the New York Mets’ starting rotation—Mike Pelfrey and I—hop a chain-link fence to get onto a football field not far from Digital Domain. We have just returned from Dick’s Sporting Goods, where we purchased a football and a tee. We are here to kick field goals. Long field goals. A day before, we were all lying on the grass stretching and guys started talking about football and field-goal kickers, and David Wright mentioned something about the remarkable range of kickers these days. I can kick a fifty-yard field goal, Pelfrey says. You can not, Wright says. You don’t think so? You want to bet? You give me five tries and I’ll put three of them through. One hundred bucks says you can’t, David says. This is going to be the easiest money I ever make. I am Pelf’s self-appointed big brother, always looking out for him, and I don’t want him to go into this wager cold. So I suggest we get a ball and tee and do some practicing. We get back from Dick’s but find the nearby field padlocked, so of course we climb over the fence. At six feet two inches and 220 pounds, I get over without incident, but seeing Pelf hoist his big self over—all six feet seven inches and 250 pounds of him—is much more impressive. Pelf’s job is to kick and my job is to chase. He sets up at the twenty-yard line, tees up the ball, and knocks it through—kicking toe-style, like a latter-day Lou Groza. He backs up to the twenty-five and then the thirty, and boots several more from each distance. Adding the ten yards for the end zone, he’s now hit from forty yards and is finding his range. Pretty darn good. He insists he’s got another ten yards in his leg. He hits from forty-five, and by now he’s probably taken fifteen or seventeen hard kicks and reports that his right shin is getting sore. We don’t consider stopping. Pelf places the ball on the tee at the forty-yard line: a fifty-yard field goal. He takes a half dozen steps back, straight behind the tee, sprints up, and powers his toe into the ball … high … and far … and just barely over the crossbar. That’s all that is required. I thrust both my arms overhead like an NFL referee. He takes three more and converts on a second fifty-yarder. You are the man, Pelf, I say. Adam Vinatieri should worry for his job. That’s it, Pelf says. I can’t even lift my foot anymore. My shin is killing me. We hop back over the fence, Pelf trying to land as lightly as a man his size can land. His shin hurts so much he can barely put pressure on the gas pedal. He’s proven he can hit a fifty-yard field goal, but I go into big-brother mode and tell him I don’t want him kicking any more field goals or stressing his right leg any further. I convince him to drop the bet with David. The last thing you need is to start the season on the DL because you were kicking field goals, I say. Can you imagine if the papers got ahold of that one? The wager just fades away. David doesn’t mind; he gets a laugh at the story of Pelf hopping the fence and practicing, and drilling long ones.”
“The trick and the beauty of language is that it seems to order the whole universe, misleading us into believing that we live in sight of a rational space, a possible harmony.”
“She wanted to take his hand. Her hardest task now as she grew older in the Ministry was to deal with her longing to be touched - hugged, stroked by anyone, any human being - a friend, a lover, a child or even (and here she scented danger) a servant. Of either sex. She prayed about it, asking that God's encircling arms would bring comfort. They did not”
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.