Have you ever read a book and found yourself pausing and reading the same sentence again and again? You may have found a favorite book quote. Book lovers know how important quotes are. Even though taken out of context most of the time, they touch the reader's heart inside the context of the book (or not).
There are times I want to underline whole paragraphs and pages, but really don't want to ruin my book. How am I going to sell them after that? Of course, I'm kidding. Only a monster would sell their books instead of letting them dust on a bookshelf, or the floor, or the closet - let's be real, you probably keep your books everywhere, because you no longer have space for them - for an eternity, just because they bring them joy.
Books bring me joy.
And now that we're clear about this, in this post, I list some of my favorite book quotes of all time. These quotes are not just phrases that sound nice or deep. They are quotes that ring a bell and open wounds I thought had healed a very long time ago. Quotes that mean something to me.
I tried to keep this list short, and I only included one quote from each book. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Some quotes are taken out of context. I only mention why they were powerful to me, and not to the book as a whole.
1. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.”
Growing up, I tried to please the people around me, mostly relatives, friends, teachers and whatnot. I feared I might do something they did not approve of. All while feeling guilty and bitter. That was until I realized I was only getting older, and the years I spent doing something other than following my passion would be lost forever. I could never get those years back. I'll never get a second chance to live my younger years the way I want to. That's why this quote means so much to me since I came to realize that it does not do to dwell on the past.
2. Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra “Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
When I was a toddler I always had this fear of going crazy for whatever reason. I feared that if I laughed too much, or if I danced too hard, or do something that would make people turn around and look at me as if I was weird, that would mean I was crazy and had to be locked up. With that said, as a child I spent so many hours awake at night silently reading books, that when I came upon this quote I was terrified of my brain being "dried up". Needless to say, I now sleep a full 8 hours and I only read during the day.
3. London Fields, Martin Amis “And meanwhile time goes about its immemorial work of making everyone look and feel like shit.”
This goes well with growing older with each day and maturing, and finding out things about yourself you had never considered. Your body changes, your mind changes. And the more you sit with yourself and your thoughts, the more you discover that you are not who you think you are. This quote is always relevant.
4. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens “We need never be ashamed of our tears.”
You know this means a lot to you when you're an emotional person. I'm emotional. And I've been hearing all my life how tears are a sign of weakness. But to me tears are a sign of fragility. Even the strongest people have fragile moments, that doesn't mean they're weak. I like to think of myself as emotional but strong.
5. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley “If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear.”
This quote kind of hit a soft spot I have for the horror genre. As an aspiring horror writer, it made me wonder whether the fear I'm trying to cause with my writing is a consequence of lack of love. And then I wondered whether all horror stories are a result of lack of love. Of course, this thought alone is ridiculous, but it's a thing that might keep you up at night if you brood over it for some time.
6. Valis, Philip K. Dick “It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”
Related to the previous quote from Don Quixote, the fear of going crazy, and losing my mind was a companion for many years. The idea this quote brings fed the fear to the point of realizing that anything in life could be the turning point.
7. The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford
“Why can’t people have what they want? The things were all there to content everybody; yet everybody has the wrong thing.”
Although not the original point of this quote, in my mind it is aligned with aspiration, passions and dreams. I know plenty who are in jobs that make them miserable, while others would love to be in their position. Sometimes a job is just a job. It helps you earn money until you can find something better. Not all jobs are meant to be fulfilling. They are meant to prevent you from starving. However, having an unfulfilling, "wrong" job for all my life is one thing I find very difficult to accept.
8. The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.”
Being a writer and a reader, I feel like I have never come across so powerful words that say exactly how I feel about books. Every character I write about has a little part of me in them. And every book I read, I go through journeys with the protagonists and share their life and in the end, when I've finished reading the book cover to cover, a part of me stays in it, accompanied by all the other souls who have shared the same experience. There is no greater truth than this.
9. The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
Gatsby believed in the green light, just as all of us believe in our dreams. Even though Gatsby's goal was to win the girl, while we have totally different goals to achieve (a writing career perhaps), we, too, believe in the green light. Tomorrow we will run faster and fail again, and then one fine morning... As a person who used to dwell in the past and look at what I'd missed (sometimes bitterly, totally honest here), this one's very strong. And even now when I've stopped looking back and only live my life in the present with a plan in hand for future goals, I still can't get over this line: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Those were some of the most powerful and meaningful quotes to me. Quotes I have bothered to memorize. I know what you're thinking. No Stephen King quotes? Well, I said I'd keep this list short, didn't I? I'll probably create a post entirely on quotes from his books alone. But that would be a long one. Do you have quotes that mean a lot to you?
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