Book quotes can mean so much to so many people.
For some people, book quotes can help them change or frame their world view. I know some of the most profound quotes for myself, would mean nothing to others. For example, my favorite book quote is, “It was a pleasure to burn.” It didn’t come from a horror novel, or maybe it did depending on how you view some dystopic fiction. It was the opening quote for Fahrenheit 451. A story about burning books as a means of controlling information and ideas. It means so much to me because it is the antithesis of everything I believe and hold dear to my heart.
Check out some of these quotes. Are there some new ones here you haven’t heard of?
Are there ones I should know about? Let me know!
“Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”
— Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am.”
“Why did you do all this for me? he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.’ —
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”—
“I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane”
John Green, Looking for Alaska
“By Aladdin’s lamplit scrotum, man! Everything is a story. What is there but stories? Stories are the only truth”
Christopher Moore, Practical Demonkeeping
“We accept the love we think we deserve.”
Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“With her eyes alone she could give this response, this absolutely erotic response, as if febrile waves were trembling there, pools of madness… something devouring that could lick a man all over like a flame, annihilate him, with a pleasure never known before.”
“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
I thought long and hard about including a book by the author who shall not be named. But, I decided that while she has political views I find abhorrent, I cannot deny the effect that the language of her writing had on me as a younger reader. I call this the Orson Scott Card affect. The magic of Harry should not die because of how I feel about the author. So I included one of my favorite quotes from the series.
“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”
Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince and Other Stories
“God is in the rain.”
“DON’T CRY BECAUSE IT’S OVER, SMILE BECAUSE IT HAPPENED”
or
Nicht weinen, weil sie vorüber!
Lächeln, weil sie gewesen!English translation:
Do not cry because they are past!
Smile, because they once were
EIN MODERNES DICHTERBILD
Whom actually said this first is a mystery. However, the sentiment holds true either way.
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes, a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
J.R.R Tolkien, Fellowship of The Ring
“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.”
“I LOVE DEADLINES. I LOVE THE WHOOSHING NOISE THEY MAKE AS THEY GO BY.”
Douglas Adams, Salmon of Doubt
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