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Favorite Quotes

"All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side."

Herman Melville in Moby-Dick

"I try all things; I achieve what I can."

Herman Melville in Moby-Dick

"What is best let alone, that accursed thing is not always what least allures."

Herman Melville in Moby-Dick

"'Why do you doubt your senses?'
'Because,' said Scrooge, 'a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!'"

Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol

"[F]or it is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would unquestionably have done it."

Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol

"Falling in love and falling to your death feel about the same, I thought. And I almost laughed."

Shannon Hale in Dangerous

"Generally speaking, if a guy breaks your jaw and leg and cuts off your robotic arm, you file charges and get a restraining order. The only exception is when subtle machinations are needed to save the world from a massive, catastrophic alien takeover. But in no other circumstance."

Shannon Hale in Dangerous

"'The ultimate meaning to which all stories refer has two face: the continuity of life, the inevitability of death.'"

Italo Calvino in If On a Winter's Night a Traveler

I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Sign of the Four

First of all, he did not know if there was such a thing as a fair price for trouble.

Haruki Murakami in 1Q84

Her readers followed along, very naturally adopting her point of view, and before they knew it, they were in another world—a world that was not this world, a world in which the Little People made air chrysalises.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Sign of the Four

"But you seem so fond of her. You give her a nickname, and nicknames are always a sign of affection."

Shannon Hale in River Secrets

"Because it would be the first proof I've ever heard of that a lack of faith has any kind of power at all."

Andrzej Sapkowski in The Last Wish

"But, Dandilion, I could never resist the temptation of having a look at something that doesn't exist."

Andrzej Sapkowski in The Last Wish

Rin hugged him tighter, enjoying the feel of his ribs rising and lowering with a breath, the heat of his heart coming through his chest, and considered that a brother, a living big brother, was the best, safest, greatest thing in all the world.

Shannon Hale in Forest Born

It was rather too late in the day to set about being simple-minded and ignorant;

Jane Austen in Emma

A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.

Markus Zusak in The Book Thief

An eleven-year-old girl is many things, but she is not stupid.

Markus Zusak in The Book Thief

Of course, I’m being rude. I’m spoiling the ending, not only of the entire book, but of this particular piece of it. I have given you two events in advance, because I don’t have much interest in building mystery. Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It’s the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me.

Markus Zusak in The Book Thief