Bel > Bel's Quotes

“I plod, I ponder. Some days, I simply persist.”
― Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air

“She can turn any ordinary moment into an adventure. When Hurricane Sandy destroyed the bottom floor of our house, she decorated the rubble in Christmas lights.”
― Brandon Stanton, Humans of New York: Stories

“You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and not get wet.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play

“There will be times we feel all is futile and we are powerless. There will be days when we have opportunities and years when we continually slam ourselves against shut doors. We must remind each other then that we are not alone. We act because we have to and we act because, together, we can create something new, something else.”
― You Yenn Teo, This Is What Inequality Looks Like

“What is the bravest thing you've ever said? asked the boy.
'Help,' said the horse.
'Asking for help isn't giving up,' said the horse. 'It's refusing to give up.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Kind," said the boy.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“The greatest illusion," said the mole, "is that life should be perfect.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“When things get difficult remember who you are.'
'Who am I?' asked the boy
'You are loved' said the horse”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“Sometimes I think you believe in me more than I do," said the boy
"You'll catch up," said the horse.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“How do they look so together and perfect?" asked the boy.
"There's a lot of frantic paddling going on beneath," said the horse.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“Sometimes I worry you'll all realise I'm ordinary," said the boy.
"Love doesn't need you to be extraordinary." said the mole.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“To be honest, I often feel I have nothing interesting to say," said the fox.

"Being honest is always interesting," said the horse.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
― A.A. Milne, The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh

“We always think there's enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on to words like 'if'.”
― Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“Now you listen to me," says Ove calmly while he carefully closes the door. "You've given birth to two children and quite soon will be squeezing out a third. You've come here from a land far away and most likely you fled war and persecution and all sorts of other nonsense. You've learned a new language and got yourself an education and you're holding together a family of obvious incompetents. And I'll be damned if I've seen you afraid of a single bloody thing in this world before now....I'm not asking for brain surgery. I'm asking you to drive a car. It's got an accelerator, a brake and a clutch. Some of the greatest twits in world history have sorted out how it works. And you will as well." And then he utters seven words, which Parvaneh will always remember as the loveliest compliment he'll ever give her. "Because you are not a complete twit.”
― Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“Nothing lies like memory.”
― John Green

“Time can be a greedy thing-sometimes it steals the details for itself.”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner