Quotes from Books

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So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!

J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan

No villain comes in black, screaming obscenities. All evil has children, homes, regard for self, fear of enemies.

Greg Bear, Anvil of Stars

Cynical? 'Cynic' is a word invented by optimists to criticize realists.

Gregory Benford, In the Ocean of Night

Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore.

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

 

I'd made the vampire cry. Great. I felt like a real superhero. Harry Dresden, breaker of monsters' hearts.

Jim Butcher, Storm Front

"They do you a great honor. In Krasia, if no one is trying to kill you, it is because you're not worth killing." - Abban

Peter Brett, The Desert Spear

Honor is not diminished for being shared.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honor

People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large. Solitary confinement is a punishment in every human culture

Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance

Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.

Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign

Mornings are wonderful! The only drawback is that they come at such an inconvenient time of day!

Glen Cook, Sweet Silver Blues

This is the way the world ends; not with a bang, but a whimper.

T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men

"If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction-and ultimately, without a major resolution."

Jasper Fforde, Something Rotten

"I would so hate to be a first-person character! Always on your guard, always having people reading your thoughts! Here we do what we are told but think what we wish. It is a much happier circumstance, believe me!"
(Marianne, from Sense and Sensibilities, expressing sympathy for Jane Eyre)

Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book

"If you hear me screaming, run away."
"You never scream, Sam," corrected the Barigan...Sam smiled
"That's why you'd run away."

Eve Forward, Villains by Necessity

If Sam were a hero, tracking down a villain, he would, at this point, have said a few choice dramatic words along the lines of Mizzamir being his now, or perhaps a suggestion for the mage to make preparation to meet whatever deities he favored. But as it was, Sam was a villain and didn't mess about with such things.

Eve Forward, Villains by Necessity

"It would be nice just to slip in there and set a few things ablaze," said Valerie wistfully. " I bet all that dry wood would go up like a--"
"Save the world first, my fellows, and you can come back to enjoy it later," interrupted Kaylana.

Eve Forward, Villains by Necessity 

Have you ever had one of those days when something just seems to be trying to tell you somebody?

Neil Gaiman, Sandman

All Bette's stories have happy endings. That's because she knows where to stop. She's realized the real problem with stories -- if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death.

Neil Gaiman, Sandman

I will be a wise and tolerant monarch, dispensing justice fairly, and only setting nightmares to rip out the minds of the evil and wicked. Or just anybody I don't like.

Neil Gaiman, Sandman

Wizard's First Rule: People can be made to believe any lie, either because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it's true.
Wizard's Second Rule: The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.
Wizard's Third Rule: Passion rules reason.
Wizard's Fourth Rule: There is Magic to heal. In the forgiveness you grant, and more so in the forgiveness you receive.
Wizard's Fifth Rule: Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.
Wizard's Sixth Rule: The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.
Wizard's Seventh Rule: Life is the future, not the past.

Terry Goodkind, Sword of Truth

Knowledge is a weapon. I intend to be formidably armed.

Terry Goodkind, Sword of Truth

A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.

Frank Herbert, Dune

Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain you cannot see the mountain.

Frank Herbert, Dune

Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place.
Frank Herbert, Dune

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.

Frank Herbert, Dune

Duty is heavier than a mountain, Death is lighter than a feather.

Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time

"I'd lay even odds that between the people following us and the people hunting us, we've become this city's principle means of employment."

Scott Lynch, Red Seas Under Red Skies

"You're ten pints of crazy in a one-pint glass"

Scott Lynch, Red Seas Under Red Skies

'This is where you and I are headed.... Look for us in history books and you'll find us in the margins. Look for us in legends and you might just find us celebrated.' (Jean to Locke)

Scott Lynch, Red Seas Under Red Skies

"Has anyone ever tried to cut out that disgustingly silver tongue of yours, Master Kosta?'"
"It's become a traditional pastime in several cities I could mention."
(Madam Durenna to Lock Lamora (posing as Master Kosta)

Scott Lynch, Red Seas Under Red Skies

Your hair looks like a haystack, but I like it.

Stephanie Meyer, Twilight (Edward Cullen)

I promise to love you forever - every single day of forever.

Stephanie Meyer, Twilight (Edward Cullen)

I know about people who talk about suffering for the common good. It's never bloody them! When you hear a man shouting "Forward, brave comrades!" you'll see he's the one behind the bloody big rock and the wearing the only really arrow-proof helmet!"

Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times

Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out til too late that he's been playing with two queens all along.

Terry Pratchett

All tapes left in a car for more than about a fortnight metamorphose into Best of Queen albums.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

Aziraphale collected books. If he were totally honest with himself he would have to have admitted that his bookshop was simply somewhere to store them. He was not unusual in this. In order to maintain his cover as a typical second-hand book seller, he used every means short of actual physical violence to prevent customers from making a purchase. Unpleasant damp smells, glowering looks, erratic opening hours - he was incredibly good at it.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

 

Well, he's going to America, isn't he? Don't see how you could have anythin' better than going to America. They've got thirty-nine flavors of ice cream there. Maybe even more.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.

Terry Pratchett, Discworld

She'd become a governess. It was one of the few jobs a known lady could do. And she'd taken to it well. She'd sworn that if she did indeed ever find herself dancing on rooftops with chimney sweeps she'd beat herself to death with her own umbrella.

Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

"You're dead," he said. Keli waited. She couldn't think of any suitable reply. "I'm not" lacked a certain style, while "Is it serious?" seemed somehow too frivolous.
-- Mort to Princess Keli, after her death

Terry Pratchett, Mort

"While I'm still confused and uncertain, it's on a much higher plane, d'you see, and at least I know I'm bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe." 

Treatle nodded. "I hadn't looked at it like that," he said, "But you're absolutely right. He's really pushed back the boundaries of ignorance."

Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

They both savored the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things.

Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always . All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.

Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

To deem us simply enemies is to lose the true flavor of our relationship. It was more like the two of us entered into a business partnership in order to more efficiently pursue our mutual interest of hating each other.

Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

Call a jack a jack, call a spade a spade, but always call a whore a lady.

Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.

Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

It does not do to dwell on dreams, and forget to live.

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.

J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Let the snow fall deep, the rain drive down, and the wind buffet my cloak. I care not for I've a road worth walking!

R.A. Salvatore, The Thousand Orcs

No, I would not want to live in a world without dragons, as I would not want to live in a world without magic, for that is a world without mystery, and that is a world without faith. And that, I fear, for any reasoning, conscious being, would be the cruelest trick of all.

R.A. Salvatore, Streams of Silver (Forgotten Realms)

People can do great things. However, there are some things they just CAN'T do. I, for instance, have not been able to transform myself into a Popsicle, despite years of effort.

Brandon Sanderson, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

My behavior is nonetheless, deplorable. Unfortunately, I'm quite prone to such bouts of deplorability--take for instance, my fondness for reading books at the dinner table.
- Kelsier

Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Final Empire

If you're always on time, it implies that you never have anything better you should be doing.

Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Final Empire

It's easy to believe in something when you win all the time...The losses are what define a man's faith.

Brandon Sanderson,  The Well of Ascension

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

Dr Seuss

Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you, half as well as you deserve.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

All that is gold does not glitter, not all who wander are lost, the old that are strong do 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 is broken, the crownless again shall be king.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Religion and science have always been matters of faith in something. It is the same something.

Gene Wolfe, Citadel of the Autarch

'You think whatever is wrong with you is contagious, then?'
She laughed again. 'Yes, but you have it already. You caught it from your mother. Death.

Gene Wolfe, Sword & Citadel

History is on the move. Those who cannot keep up with it will be left behind to watch from a distance.

Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: The Last Command

Eric was killing us by inches and hours.

Roger Zelazny, Amber