Quotes from Written in Bone

Simon Beckett ·  352 pages

Rating: (9K votes)


“When it comes to misfortune, we are all selfish at heart, offering up the same prayers: not me, not mine. Not yet.”
― Simon Beckett, quote from Written in Bone


“Kiedy los nam nie sprzyja, w głębi serca wszyscy jesteśmy egoistami i wszyscy wznosimy te same modły: tylko nie ja, tylko nie ja, jeszcze nie teraz.”
― Simon Beckett, quote from Written in Bone


“Historia naszego życia, a czasem i śmierci, jest zapisana w kościach.”
― Simon Beckett, quote from Written in Bone


“Jeśli zmarli żyją dalej, to tylko w naszych umysłach i sercach.”
― Simon Beckett, quote from Written in Bone


“Our lives, and sometimes deaths, are stories written in bone.”
― Simon Beckett, quote from Written in Bone



“Z morderstwem jest jak z życiem; i jedno, i drugie jest nieprzewidywalne.”
― Simon Beckett, quote from Written in Bone


About the author

Simon Beckett
Born place: in Sheffield, The United Kingdom
Born date April 20, 1960
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Popular quotes

“ستكتشفين أنني أحبك حين لا أحبك. طالما أن للحياة وجهين. تستطيع الكلمة أن تكون جناحاً للصمت. وللنار نصيبها من البرد.”
― Antonio Skármeta, quote from The Postman


“I made a long speech in bad French in which I admitted that I was no critic, that I was always passionate and prejudiced, that I had no reverence for anything except what I liked. I told them that I was an ignoramus, which they tried to deny vigorously. I saidl would rather tell them stories. I began—about a bum who had tried to hit me up for a dime one evening as I was walking towards the Brooklyn Bridge. I explained how I had said No to the man automatically and then, after I had walked a few yards it suddenly came to me that a man had asked me for something and I ran back and spoke to him. But instead of giving him a dime or a quarter, which I could easily have done, I told him that I was broke, that I had wanted to let him know that, that was all. And the man had said to me—"do you mean that, buddy? Why, if that's the way it is, I'll be glad to give you a dime myself." And I let him give it to me, and I thanked him warmly, and walked off.

They thought it a very interesting story. So that's how it was in America? Strange country ... anything could happen there.

"Yes," I said, "a very strange country," and I thought to myself that it was wonderful not to be there any more and God willing I'd never return to it.

"And what is it about Greece that makes you like it so much?" asked someone.

I smiled. "The light and the poverty," I said.

"You're a romantic," said the man.

"Yes," I said, "I'm crazy enough to believe that the happiest man on earth is the man with the fewest needs. And I also believe that if you have light, such as you have here, all ugliness is obliterated. Since I've come to your country I know that light is holy: Greece is a holy land to me."

"But have you seen how poor the people are, how wretchedly they live?"

"I've seen worse wretchedness in America," I said. "Poverty alone doesn't make people wretched."

"You can say that because you have sufficient …."

"I can say it because I've been poor all my life," I retorted. "I'm poor now," I added. "I have just'enough to get back to Athens. When I get to Athens I'll have to think how to get more. It isn't money that sustains me—it's the faith I have in myself, in my own powers. In spirit I am a millionaire—maybe that's the best thing about America, that you believe you'll rise again."

"Yes, yes," said Tsoutsou, clapping his hands, "that's the wonderful thing about America: you don't know what defeat is." He filled the glasses again and rose to make a toast "To America!" he said, "long may it live!"

"To Henry Miller!" said another, "because he believes in himself.”
― Henry Miller, quote from The Colossus of Maroussi


“People are valuable because they're human, not because of what they do.”
― quote from Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know


“Si alguna ave de las que se hallan en el corral está enferma o lastimada, las otras la acometen a picotazos, la despluman y la matan.
Fiel a esta ley fundamental del egoísmo, el mundo prodiga sus rigores a las miserias bastante osadas para venir a arrostrar sus fiestas, para entristecer sus placeres. El que sufre en el cuerpo o el alma, carece de dinero o de poder, es un paria. ¡Que se quede en su desierto! Si traspasa sus límites, encuentra en todas partes el invierno; miradas, modales, palabras, corazones fríos. ¡Dichoso si no recibe insultos en donde debía hallar consuelo! ¡Moribundos, quédense en sus lechos abandonados!”
― Honoré de Balzac, quote from The Wild Ass's Skin


“Dear sensibility! Source inexhausted of all that's precious in our joys, or costly in our sorrows! Eternal fountain of our feelings! 'tis here I trace thee and this is thy divinity which stirs within me...All comes from thee, great-great SENSORIUM of the world!”
― Laurence Sterne, quote from A Sentimental Journey


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