“Be a little kinder than you have to.”
“Do not accept an evil you can change.”
“Always do what you're afraid to do.”
“There is not even a Scrabble word for how bad I feel.”
“We are liars. We are beautiful and privileged. We are cracked and broken.”
“She is sugar, curiosity, and rain.”
“What if we could stop being different colors, different backgrounds, and just be in love?”
“He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. I could have looked at him forever.”
“The universe is seeming really huge right now. I need something to hold on to.”
“Silence is a protective coating over pain.”
“If you want to live where people are not afraid of mice, you must give up living in palaces.”
“Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.”
“Here I am frozen, when I deserve to burn.”
“I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools.”
“Better than chocolate, being with you last night. Silly me, I thought that nothing was better than chocolate.”
“Always do what you're afraid to do.
...
I will prove myself strong when they think I am sick.
I will prove myself brave when they think I am weak.”
“Be sad, be sorry-but don't shoulder it.”
“He was a person who couldn't fake a smile but smiled often.”
“The island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever.”
“See the world as it is, not as you wish it would be”
“Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest. I was standing on the lawn and I fell. The bullet hole opened wide and my heart rolled out of my rib cage and down into a flower bed. Blood gushed rhythmically from my open wound,
then from my eyes,
my ears,
my mouth.
It tasted like salt and failure. The bright red shame of being unloved soaked the grass in front of our house, the bricks of the path, the steps of the porch. My heart spasmed among the peonies like a trout.”
“One day, she ventured to the palace library and was delighted to find what good company books could be.”
“They know that tragedy is not glamorous. They know it doesn't play out in life as it does on a stage or between the pages of a book. It is neither a punishment meted out nor a lesson conferred. Its horrors are not attributable to one single person. Tragedy is ugly and tangled, stupid and confusing.”
“I'll be fine, they tell me. I won't die. It'll just hurt a lot.”
“She confused being spartan with being charitable, and gave away her possessions without truly doing good with them.
She confused being sick with being brave, and suffered agonies while imagining she merited praise for it.
She confused wit with intelligence, and made people laugh rather than lightening their hearts or making them think.”
“I love him, but I am not sure I like him.”
“But the thing that makes me really messed up is the contradiction: when I'm not hating myself, I feel righteous and victmized. Like the world is so unfair.”
“He looked at you like you were the brightest planet in the galaxy.”
“Never take a seat in the back of the room. Winners sit up front.”
“ONCE UPON A time, there was a king who had three beautiful daughters. He loved each of them dearly. One day, when the young ladies were of age to be married, a terrible, three-headed dragon laid siege to the kingdom, burning villages with fiery breath. It spoiled crops and burned churches. It killed babies, old people, and everyone in between.
The king promised a princess’s hand in marriage to whoever slayed the dragon. Heroes and warriors came in suits of armor, riding brave horses and bearing swords and arrows.
One by one, these men were slaughtered and eaten.
Finally the king reasoned that a maiden might melt the dragon’s heart and succeed where warriors had failed. He sent his eldest daughter to beg the dragon for mercy, but the dragon listened to not a word of her pleas. It swallowed her whole.
Then the king sent his second daughter to beg the dragon for mercy, but the dragon did the same. Swallowed her before she could get a word out.
The king then sent his youngest daughter to beg the dragon for mercy, and she was so lovely and clever that he was sure she would succeed where the others had perished.
No indeed. The dragon simply ate her.
The king was left aching with regret. He was now alone in the world.
Now, let me ask you this. Who killed the girls?
The dragon? Or their father?”
“Sometimes the rules don't work. Sometimes the rules cause the anarchy.”
“Miranda v. Arizona, the most famous of all self-incrimination cases, the Supreme Court imposed procedural safeguards to protect the rights of the accused. A suspect has a constitutional right not to be compelled to talk, and any statement made during an interrogation cannot be used in court unless the police and the prosecutor can prove that the suspect clearly understood that (1) he had the right to remain silent, (2) anything said could be used against him in court, and (3) he had a right to an attorney, whether or not he could afford one. If, during an interrogation, the accused requests an attorney, then the questioning stops immediately.”
“It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.”
“It's been very clearly brought to my attention that I had overlooked your security in public restrooms.”
“I promised Paul I'd keep ya safe, he said. If that means packin' yer ass out of town so it doesen't get humped by a smooth talkin' loser, that's the way it's gonna be.”
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.