“The seasons sang to him - like ageless hymns with whisperings he could feel, but not fully understand.”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“This is me, God! Elisa. I once saw you in all the world. But the world is dark now, Lord. Full. Full of darkness. Close your eyes for a moment, God, and let me sing to you. Let me remember that you are here. Here in the notes. Smiling down as I play for you. Just this moment, God, let me sing to you. And maybe in the song, I will forget whether I am singing to you, or you are singing to me . . . ”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“The Reich may tell you whom you may love and whom you must hate. Oh, yes, Thomas, the Reich can dictate the inward life of every man."
"Not the inward life." Thomas looked up sharply. "Only the outward show.”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“God sees when we do not see, ja?”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“Nobody liked Goring except Hitler and Goring.”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“Tonight the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come marched in goose-step and raised a hand to salute "Heil Hitler!" Tonight the ghost wore a swastika on his armband instead of the simple red and white colors of Austria. And yet, on this silent night, the horrible specter seemed all but invisible in Vienna. Murphy could only wonder if he was the sole person at Sacher's who could hear the anthem of Hitler's hordes echoing distantly from beyond the mountains.”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“Hot tears rolled from Herschel's eyes and he wiped them away, afraid that they would drip through the boards and onto his father's unfeeling tormentors.”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“Elisa thought how empty the prayers sounded. The words rattled around in the ancient rafters and then returned to them like dead leaves falling from the trees. No life. No shade of hope. Only a cold wind that blew into their very souls.”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“What miralces can there be when Germany has sold her soul?”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“You *forgot*? I will beat you with a good stout stick!”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“ . . . he thought how easy it would be to simply kick his typewriter onto the floor and smash it to pieces among the wads of discarded paper that overflowed his waste basket.”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“He scowled at the typewriter, at the empty sheet of paper.”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“This pursuit of Theo was not borne out of hatred for him as a man or a Jew. All of that was just an excuse - an excuse for lawless men to take what belonged to others. It seemed strange that those who served the Hitlers and the Himmlers and the Gorings believed constant lies. "The Jew is a misfortune." It was those little men in the service of greed who were the most violent, the most dedicated to the brutality of the racial policies. They murdered and terrorized for one reason only: because they could. They were the law of the lawlessness; the power of evil was their creed and their joy and their god!”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“The English have a better idea of right and wrong. They still believe in hell, I think, and perhaps that keeps them from brutality. Germany has ceased to believe in hell. And so they create hell for innocent men and have no fear that they themselves will ever face condemnation. I tell you, Jacob,” the professor whispered to Theo, “Germany has sold its soul, and the fire it brings to the world will come back to itself. Hitler is Satan. Mein Kampf is his book of black magic. Germany is Faust. And the hour will come when . . .” His voice trailed off. “When what, Professor?” Theo asked, hoping the old man was not falling to sleep. “Like the Faust of Marlowe, Germany will watch the clock run out. And there will be no salvation.”
― Bodie Thoene, quote from Vienna Prelude
“What will that mean to each of you? “It will mean that those of you who might have lived to be seventy-one must die at seventy. Some of you who might have lived to be eighty-six must cough up your ghost at eighty-five. That’s a great age. A year more or less doesn’t sound like much. When the time comes, boys, you may regret. But, you will be able to say, this year I spent well, I gave for Pip, I made a loan of life for sweet Pipkin, the fairest apple that ever almost fell too early off the harvest tree. Some of you at forty-nine must cross life off at forty-eight. Some at fifty-five must lay them down to Forever’s Sleep at fifty-four. Do you catch the whole thing intact now, boys? Do you add the figures? Is the arithmetic plain? A year! Who will bid three hundred and sixty-five entire days from out his own soul, to get old Pipkin back? Think, boys. Silence. Then, speak.”
― Ray Bradbury, quote from The Halloween Tree
“Lenny London: In case you're wondering, running is like driving only there's more sweating and less sitting. I don't recommend trying it if you haven't already.”
― Julie Cross, quote from Whatever Life Throws at You
“People are afraid of anybody who is different: It makes them worry everyone else is different too, and just pretending to be all the same.” James”
― Cassandra Clare, quote from Nothing but Shadows
“The despicable crone known as Mombi stands accused of high witchery, gross dishonesty, untold crimes against monkeys, outrageous trespassing, and general unpleasantness. Also, she is extremely unattractive. Miss Amy, do you speak for the witch?”
― Danielle Paige, quote from The Wicked Will Rise
“رأيت نفسي حكيماً عظيماً في القدس. استطعت أن أشفي من أمراض عديدة مختلفة لكنني قبل كل شيء استطعت أن أخرج الشياطين من الممسوسين. صار الناس يجلبون إلي المرضى من كافة أنحاء فلسطين. وذات يوم وصلت مريم، زوجة يوسف، من الناصرة ومعها ابنها يسوع البالغ من العمر اثني عشر عاماً. وقعت على قدمي وصرخت باكية "أيها الحكيم الشهير اشفق علي واشف ابني . في داخله العديد من الشياطين" طلبت من الأبوين أن يخرجا وظللت وحيداً مع يسوع. ربت على كتفه وسألته: "ما الأمر يا بني؟ أين تشكو الألم؟" فأجاب وهو يشير إلى قلبه :"هنا.هنا"
-وماذا أصابك؟
-لا أستطيع النوم أو الأكل أو العمل. إنني أجوب الشوارع وأنا أتصارع.
- ومع من تتصارع؟
- مع الله. مع من غيره تتوقع مني أن أتصارع؟
أبقيته قربي شهراً. كلمته بلطف دائم. وأعطيته أعشاباً تنومه. وضعته في حانوت نجار لكي يتعلم صنعة. وكنا نخرج نتمشى معاً فأكلمه عن الله وكأن الله صديق أو جار يأتي إلينا في المساء ويجلس معنا على عتبة بيتنا لنتحدث. لم يكن هناك شيء صعب أو مؤثر في أحاديثنا. كنا نتحدث عن الطقس وحقول القمح وكروم العنب والفتيات اللواتي يذهبن إلى النبع. وفي نهاية الشهر شفي يسوع تماماً. لم يعد يتصارع مع الله . صار رجلاً مثل غيره من البشر. ورحل غلى الجليل ثم علمت فيما بعد أنه صار نجاراً عظيماً. أفضل نجار في الناصرة.
ونظر الراهب إلي ثم سألني: "هل تفهم؟ يسوع قد شفي وبدلاً من أن ينقذ العالم صار أفضل نجار في الناصرة. فما معنى المرض والعافية إذن؟”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Report to Greco
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.