Books - Favorite Book Quotes

**TheAngel** · 02-01-2007, 12:24 PM

Funny, meaningful, memorable, we all have favorite quotes that touch us and stay with us. This is the place to introduce other people to your inspiration. So please, put your favorite quotes on here. They can be fiction or non-fiction. Please don't include spoilers to a story without a warning and be careful with language but I think this would be interesting as a catch-all for bits and pieces of literary gold. Here are a couple of my favorites:

"To see a world in a grain of sand
and a heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour." ~William Blake

"The mind is its own place, and in it self/ Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n." ~Milton, Paradise Lost

**onionroach** · 02-02-2007, 05:24 AM

I love the imagery of this...
To have loved but been rejected is like being sent to bed without supper; it's nothing more than a bee bite to one's spirit. But to love and be overlooked is to die slowly by starvation, like soap that wastes away, giving up a little of itself with each washing. -Elaine Coffman, For All the Right Reasons

cryurname · 02-02-2007, 09:18 PM

Here are some good quotes from the book New Moon by Stephenie Meyer:

-Bella: "You can have my soul. I don't want it without you--it's yours already!"

-"I could not do anything else. I had to keep moving. If I stopped looking for him, it was over. Love, life, meaning...over," Bella

-"As much as I struggled not to think of him, I did not struggle to forget. I worried--late in the night, when the exhaustion of sleep deprevation broke down my defenses--that it was all slipping away. That my mind was a sieve, and I would someday not be able to remember the precise color of his eyes, the feel of his cool skin, or the texture of his voice. I could not think of them, but I must remember them, " Bella

adambrodyluva · 02-02-2007, 11:15 PM

From Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

"Game shows are designed to make us feel better about the random, useless facts that are all we have left of our education."

chiaren · 02-05-2007, 08:37 AM

from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

Nab · 02-05-2007, 05:54 PM

There are so manyt great quotes from books that just stick with you. Here are a few that I have handy.

You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don't. Trust me, I was there. I know. -From Lamb by Christopher Moore.

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. - From The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

andthenashleysaid · 02-10-2007, 07:20 PM

Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle

"All the things I'm about to tell you are shameless lies."

"The man was a force of nature that no mortal could control."

"I'll accept Fort Jesus."

"You can tell him he isn't my hero, but you can always tell him that thanks to him Jesus Christ is." / "I'm sure he'll be glad to hear it." / "I dont' give a damn if he is or not. This is between Jesus and me."

**TheAngel** · 02-14-2007, 08:44 AM

I was reading The Monk the other night by Matthew Lewis for class and came across a quote that was really funny. Keep in mind that I'm a writer and you'll see why this is amusing.

"An author, whether good or bad, or between both, is an animal whom everybody is privileged to attack: for though all are not able to write books, all conceive themselves able to judge them. A bad composition carries with it its own punishment - contempt and ridicule. A good one excites envy, and entails upon its author a thousand mortifications: he finds himself assailed by partial and ill-humoured criticism: one man finds fault with the plan, another with the style, a third with the precept which it strives to inculate; and they who cannot succeed in finding fault with the book, employ themselves in stigmatizing its author...In short, to enter the lists of literature is wilfully to expose yourself to the arrows of neglect, ridicule, envy, and disappointment."

andthenashleysaid · 02-14-2007, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheAngel (View Post)

I was reading The Monk the other night by Matthew Lewis for class and came across a quote that was really funny. Keep in mind that I'm a writer and you'll see why this is amusing.

"An author, whether good or bad, or between both, is an animal whom everybody is privileged to attack: for though all are not able to write books, all conceive themselves able to judge them. A bad composition carries with it its own punishment - contempt and ridicule. A good one excites envy, and entails upon its author a thousand mortifications: he finds himself assailed by partial and ill-humoured criticism: one man finds fault with the plan, another with the style, a third with the precept which it strives to inculate; and they who cannot succeed in finding fault with the book, employ themselves in stigmatizing its author...In short, to enter the lists of literature is wilfully to expose yourself to the arrows of neglect, ridicule, envy, and disappointment."

That's a fantastic quote, and so true!

**TheAngel** · 02-14-2007, 03:29 PM

In honor of Valentine's day:

Sonnets From The Portuguese: 43
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death."

Frozeninside · 03-07-2007, 05:02 PM

There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
- The Picture of Dorian Gray.

xallyx · 03-08-2007, 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiaren (View Post)

from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

That's a great quote and so very true.

Here's a simple one that I like:
Only the second rate never make mistakes. - Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy.

**taovande** · 03-10-2007, 09:32 AM

A few from The Great Gatsby that have stuck with me since I read it when I was 16or so.

Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock....his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him

tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther....And one fine morning----- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

From Little Women (my favorite quote ever from a book)
“Wouldn’t it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true and we could live in them?”

jalapeno_wildchild · 03-10-2007, 01:48 PM

From Gone With The Wind by:Margarett Mitchell

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" Rhett Butler

I'm Kinda Shallow · 03-14-2007, 08:34 AM

haha. I second Gone With The Wind's "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." That one has stayed with me for a long time.....

But, since that one has been taken, I'll have to go with -

"Is it possible that love can die?" She said with sudden, unreasoning vehemence. "Methought that the passion that you once felt for me would outlast the span of Human life. Is there nothing left of that love, Percy..."