sjac > sjac's Quotes

“God, or whoever fills in during his absence, has seen fit to make it easier to become a father than to pass one's driving test.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Marina, the Shadow of the Wind, the Angel's Game & The Prince of Mist

“One writes for oneself, and one rewrites for others.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Marina, the Shadow of the Wind, the Angel's Game & The Prince of Mist

“When you're surrounded by endless possibilities, one of the hardest things you can do is pass them up.”
― Huraki Mirakami, 1 Q 8 4

“Love enters by the eyes and also leaves by the eyes.”
― Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

“The only difference between everybody and nobody is all the shoes.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“the Count threaded the needle faster than saints enter the gates of heaven.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“In moments of high emotion, if the next thing you're going to say makes you feel better, then it's probably the wrong thing to say.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“If one is to read Dante, and understand him, one must become a Christian if only for a few hours.”
― Donna Tartt

“to live without forgiveness was a kind of death with breathing and movement.”
― Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

“He was on familiar terms with everybody he drank champagne with, and he drank champagne with everybody.”
― Leo Tolstoy

“That realisation showed him the eternal error men make by imagining that happiness consists in the gratification of their wishes.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Perhaps she had nodded to Tengo before hanging up the receiver. Unfortunately, though, body language generally fails to have its intended effect on the phone.”
― Huraki Mirakami, 1 Q 8 4

“A long time ago, man would listen in amazement to the sound of regular beats in his chest, never suspecting what they were.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“People always think that if they are expert at something, that thing must therefore be extremely important.”
― Louis de Bernières, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts

“The mayor was also the local policeman, which meant that only one man needed to be bribed rather than two... The community was proud that he was their mayor and their policeman even though he had sold his neice to Pedro the Grocer for one hundred and twenty-two words.”
― Louis de Bernières, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts

“Our liberties are imperiled by overly competent beaurocrats.”
― Malcolm Gladwell

“Life is cheerful, that's the devil's talk.”
― Alain de Botton

“Isolation and depravation were considered the reason Aboriginal people did not 'advance' like Europeans, but it is also true the idea to pour boiling oil on enemies seems not to have occurred to anyone in Australia.”
― Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu

“A momentous but until then overlooked fact was making its first appearance: that I had inadvertently brought myself with me to the island.”
― Alain de Botton

“What we complain of in others, others will complain of in us.”
― Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel