Joy's quotes

(showing 1-50 of 132)

"She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain."
— Louisa May Alcott (Work: A Story of Experience)

tags: books
836 people liked it

"Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable."
— Louisa May Alcott

tags: books
97 people liked it

"Books... are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development."
— Dorothy L. Sayers

tags: books
20 people liked it

"A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.
-Lord Peter Wimsey, Gaudy Night (1935)"
— Dorothy L. Sayers

15 people liked it

"I know what you're thinking - that anybody with proper sensitive feelings would rather scrub floors for a living. But I should scrub floors very badly, and I write detective stories rather well. I don't see why proper feelings should prevent me from doing my proper job.

-Harriet Vane
"
— Dorothy L. Sayers (Gaudy Night)

6 people liked it

""To subdue one's self to one's own ends might be dangerous, but to subdue one's self to other people's ends was dust and ashes. Yet there were those, still more unhappy, who envied even the ashy saltness of those dead sea apples.""
— Dorothy L. Sayers (Gaudy Night)

tags: inspirational
3 people liked it

"A human being must have occupation if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world. "
— Dorothy L. Sayers

4 people liked it

"We shall know what things are of overmastering importance when they have overmastered us."
— Dorothy L. Sayers (Gaudy Night)

4 people liked it

"I think it's fair rude to make him a tree and not know what kind he is."
— Tamora Pierce

tags: apple, daine, numair, speaker, staghorn, tree, trystan, wolf
63 people liked it

"I'd like to find whoever taught the Stump that extra work builds character and push him down the stairs," Neal told Kel at lunch."
— Tamora Pierce (First Test)

tags: nealan
41 people liked it

"A crow may put on human shape or crow shape, but we remain crows,” he replied firmly. “Hawks, too, are the same, whether they are born in human nests or hawk ones. The nestlings must always be protected. Since you have chosen to protect these, I and mine will protect you."
— Tamora Pierce (Trickster's Choice)

26 people liked it

"When people say a knight's job is all glory, I laugh and laugh and laugh. Often I can stop laughing before they edge away and talk about soothing drinks."
— Tamora Pierce

tags: knighthood, raoul
61 people liked it

"I will tell the stork-man."
— Tamora Pierce

tags: cloud, immortals, numair
27 people liked it

"Does anyone in this land act like they're supposed to?"
— Tamora Pierce

tags: daine, tortall
25 people liked it

"Military folk. The only way you know to solve problems is by beating them with a stick."
— Tamora Pierce

45 people liked it

"What has that to do with the price of peas in Persepolis?"
— Tamora Pierce

30 people liked it

"He's just rather more lively than most fossils."
— Tamora Pierce

35 people liked it

"There are plenty of fish in the sea besides Prince Jonathan, and this particular fish loves you with all his crooked heart."
— George via Tamora Pierce

16 people liked it

"Does the walker choose the path or the path choose the walker?"
— Garth Nix (Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr)

69 people liked it

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will."
— Charlotte Brontë

tags: freedom, inspirational, literature
162 people liked it

"Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal — as we are! (Jane to Mr. Rochester-Ch. 23)"
— Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre)

tags: chapter, xxiii
78 people liked it

"He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."
— Emily Brontë

tags: love
394 people liked it

"imagination is the highest kite than one can fly"
— Lauren Bacall

tags: imagination
13 people liked it

"You do know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."
— Lauren Bacall

4 people liked it

"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?"
— Isak Dinesen

tags: africa
19 people liked it

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills."
— Isak Dinesen (Out of Africa)

9 people liked it

"God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.

"
— Isak Dinesen

19 people liked it

"In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines
Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines
In two straight lines they broke their bread
And brushed their teeth and went to bed.
They left the house at half past nine
In two straight lines in rain or shine-
The smallest one was Madeline."
— Ludwig Bemelmans (Madeline)

15 people liked it

"The anateur works until they get something right. The professional works until they can't go wrong."
— Julie Andrews Edwards

13 people liked it

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
— Dr. Seuss

tags: cry, crying, experience, happiness, joy, life, optimism, sadness, smile, smiling
14,417 people liked it

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth."
— Mark Twain

tags: dance, heaven, hurt, inspirational, life, love, sing
15,746 people liked it

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
— Albert Einstein

tags: einstein, human, humor, infinity, nature, philosophy, science, stupidity, universe
11,793 people liked it

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
— Maya Angelou

tags: life
10,993 people liked it

"So many books, so little time."
— Frank Zappa

tags: books, humor
9,194 people liked it

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
— John Lennon

tags: beatles, fate, life, planning, plans
6,732 people liked it

"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 frost."
— J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring)

tags: frost, glitter, gold, lost, poetry, roots, strength, strong, wander, wither
6,114 people liked it

"Women are like teabags; you never know how strong they are until they're put in hot water."
— Eleanor Roosevelt

tags: women
6,823 people liked it

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."
— Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)

tags: books, classic, humor
5,455 people liked it

"Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away."
— Robert Maynard Hutchins

tags: exercise, humor, laziness
5,813 people liked it

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."
— William Shakespeare (As You Like It)

tags: wisdom
6,212 people liked it

"Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

tags: integrity
4,775 people liked it

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
— Douglas Adams

tags: deadlines, humor, work
5,265 people liked it

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one."
— C.S. Lewis

tags: friendship
7,235 people liked it

"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb...," He murmured.
"What a stupid lamb, " I sighed.
"What a sick, masochistic lion."
— Stephenie Meyer

tags: idiotic-book, love, romance, romantic
5,521 people liked it

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
— Oscar Wilde (Lady Windermere's Fan)

tags: inspirational, optimism, perception, pessimism
4,925 people liked it

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."
— Oscar Wilde

tags: enemies, forgiveness, strategy
5,976 people liked it

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all."
— Oscar Wilde

tags: books, reading
2,260 people liked it