Quotes from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

“There is not a man in the world who is worth your dignity. Do not confuse self-sacrifice with love.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

“To love is a beautiful, mysterious event; do not miss it. Be neither too cautious nor too absorbed. Too many of us reason with our heart and experience with our heads.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

“Welcome, my dear, to the Western world, land of democracy, freedom, and bigotry.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

“Until we begin to put pen to paper, we historically do not exist.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

“Racism is a phenomenal thing; it is like a thick mist that obscures the vision and judgement of even great minds.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

“The heart knows no logic beyond need and desire; the head has no senses except the common and the pragmatic. Neither, frankly, is particularly useful in love, anyway.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

“I had once been naïve enough to believe that all would be well if you lived by the rules. Good things happened to good people, blessed are the meek, et cetera, et cetera. How disillusioned I have become since then. It hurt, because I wondered now what all the discipline, repression, and suppression had been for if it had not procured me the thing I had most wanted, and it certainly did not guarantee happiness.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

“Foreign Cash is not the answers to our problems, my friend. Africa needs the hearts and minds of its sons and daughters to nurture it. You were our pride, Mukoma Bryon. When you did not return, a whole village lost its investment. Africa is all that we have. If we do not build it, no one else will.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

“I suspect, even more importantly, the aged are hidden away so that we do not remember that one day we shall all walk that path, that we shall one day grow slow and stooped.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

“You shall be distinguished overseas by your colourful plumage, graceful flight and beautiful songs. There are so many lovely features that will make you conspicuous among the flock.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

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Popular quotes

“Now I don't want to lie to you, there were some Blacks in the neighborhood, but they asses was so uptight I figured if I asked them a question they'd want me to pay for the answer.”
― Sister Souljah, quote from The Coldest Winter Ever

“Defeat is for the valiant. Only they will know the honour of losing and the joy of winning
I am not here to tell you that defeat is a part of life: we all know that. Only the defeated know Love. Because it is in the realm of love that we fight our first battles – and generally lose.
I am here to tell you that there are people who have never been defeated.
They are the ones who never fought.
They managed to avoid scars, humiliations, feelings of helplessness, as well as those moments when even warriors doubt the existence of God.’’
Manuscript Found In Accra – Paulo Coelho”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from Manuscript Found in Accra

“And so I invented a kingdom of dreams where I could accomplish great and daring deeds to make it happen.”
― Judith McNaught, quote from A Kingdom of Dreams

“Waste not, want not’ is the Engineers’ motto, Miss. Properly processed human ordure makes very useful fuel for our city’s engines. And we are experimenting with ways of turning it into a tasty and nutritious snack. We feed our prisoners on nothing else. Unfortunately they keep dying. But that is just a temporary setback, I’m sure.”
― Philip Reeve, quote from Mortal Engines

“Они выбросили из человеческой цивилизации все, что не было подчинено какой-то практической цели, что было связано с игрой, фантазией или древностью, — и тем самым лишили ее всего человеческого, переняв только голый утилитаризм, техническую и практическую ее сторону. И вот эта-то убогая карикатура на человеческую цивилизацию процветает — создает технические чудеса, обновляет нашу старую планету и, в конце концов, начинает вдохновлять само человечество. Фауст теперь будет учиться секретам успеха и посредственности у своего ученика и слуги! Или”
― Karel Čapek, quote from War with the Newts

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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.