Share a quote from what you're reading...

[Werner]

"'...here the people rule --but to rule is not enough. The people must also be watchful, they must care for their country and its future.... What we have most to fear, I believe, are those within our own borders who think less of country than of themselves, who are ambitious for money, for power, for land. Some of these men would subvert anything, anything at all, my dear sir, for their own profit.... You must remember, my friend, that if we leave the governing to others, then others will govern, and possibly not as we would like. In a country such as this, none of us is free of responsibility.'" --Louis L'Amour, Rivers West

[Nicole]

Good quote!

[Werner]

Thanks, Callista! I thought it was really worth taking to heart.

[Erin E]

Just started this one...

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

"She knew the bureaucratic archives inside out. Above all, she had the ability to get under the skin of the person she was investigating." p.30

[Erin E]

Werner wrote: ""...a girl who'll deliberately throw herself at two loaded guns doesn't have to comb her hair to earn my respect, no matter what her politics." --Donald Hamilton, Death of a Citizen"

Ooooh! Sounds intriguing!

[Werner]

Actually, Erin, the particular character the speaker in that quote was referring to doesn't really play a big role in the novel. But I still thought it was worth quoting! :-)

[Erin E]

It makes the book intriguing. :)

[Werner]

Erin, for what it's worth, here's the link to my review of that book, Death of a Citizen: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... .

[Werner]

"There is fact in every fiction, and truth in every lie." --Krisi Keley, On the Soul of a Vampire

[Werner]

"Wasn't there really only one being from whom any might expect unlimited forgiveness of superficial evil to understand the essence buried in all that darkness?" -- Krisi Keley, On the Soul of a Vampire

[Erin E]

"If it were up to me, I would try to forget the hunger games entirely" -- Catching Fire

[Nicole]

...this gave her an unchallenged market for her own product, known wherever men fell backward into a ditch as "suicider." --Terry Pratchett, Maskerade

[Werner]

"...it is said that pleasure bought at the cost of another's suffering is no pleasure at all." --John Brunner, "The Things That Are Gods"

[Werner]

"I have never scoffed at sentiment. Cynicism is ever the outward face of emptiness.... Some have said this is the age of the nonhero, that the day of the hero is gone. That's nonsense. When the hero is gone, man himself will be gone, for the hero is our future, our destiny." --Louis L'Amour, Introduction to Yondering

[Amanda]

"...They were all, the human race, like the drops of water in the river and they flowed on, each so close to the other and yet so far apart, a nameless flood to the sea. When all things lasted so short a time and nothing mattered very much, it seemed pitiful that men, attaching themselves to trivial objects should make themselves and one another so unhappy." - The Painted Veil

[Werner]

"...pride can be an ally when put in its proper place, but be watchful my friend: It can easily become a stone of stumbling that leads to a most disastrous fall. It is a rickety thing... When placed under pressure, it will not support you, and you may find yourself plummeting into some very deep depths indeed." --Scott Stabler, The Knights of the Dawn King

[Werner]

"...frequently, what man did in the name of God in fact had little or nothing to do with Him. He may convince himself he did what he did in the Church's defense or for the spread of truth but, in reality, he only deluded himself into believing that his quest for political power or money or land was justified, as was anything he did for it, so long as he proclaimed his faith at the same time." --Krisi Keley, Pro Luce Habere (To Have Before the Light) Volume 1

[Werner]

"...if I claimed no belief in God, in real and absolute goodness, why did I still hold to any notion of its lack? That is all evil was, after all; but if there was no Good, there was no Evil either, for it was not possible to have an absence of what did not exist to begin with. No good, no evil; no angels and no demons. Just man and his own made up rules of right and wrong. Man-made and so not absolute and eternal, but subjective and changeable, and leaving me free to make up my own morality as I chose. Yet I did not and could not." --Krisi Keley, Pro Luce Habere (To Have Before the Light) Volume 1

[Reggia]

Very thought-provoking quote; glad you shared it!

[Reggia]

But for reasons not attributable to medical science or understood by her professional caregivers, Wanda chose to remain mute. She communicated through the use of facial expressions, or a simple nod or shake of her head. On the infrequent occasions when words were required, she scrawled her responses on a yellow legal pad. And in order to clarify her choice to those with whom she was acquainted, she hung a sign around her neck, "Not deaf," the sign said. "Mute by choice."

Broken for You

[Werner]

"Now there is a sort of sympathy among those who love books, an understanding that knows no bounds of race, creed, or financial rating." --Louis L'Amour, "The Man Who Stole Shakespeare"

That sounds a lot like the premise, and reality, that's the foundation of Goodreads!

[H]

'citizens not in the literary trades will understand that there is no order in the world around us, that we must adapt ourselves to the requirements of chaos instead.'
-Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

[Werner]

"Only the innocent speak of adventure, for adventure is only a romantic name for trouble, and when one is having 'adventures' one wishes it were all over and he was elsewhere and safe. "Adventure' is not nice. It is more often than not rough and dirty, cruel and harsh...." --Louis L'Amour, "Author's Tea"

[H]

This one's cheating a bit. It's from a video-game, which has been painstakingly converted by a fan into a readable e-book. (It's free to download, and I can share the file in various formats if anyone is interested)

'With bony hands I hold my partner/On soulless feet we cross the floor/The music stops as if to answer/An empty knocking at the door/It seems his skin was sweet as mango/When last I held him to my breast/But now we dance this grim fandango/And will four years before we rest.'
- 'Grim Fandango', Tim Schafer (original writer), Charles Fredrick (compiler/writer)

[Werner]

"A man's work, or a woman's, is whatever needs to be done.... If they believe I'm any less of a man for helping you, then they're fools." --Christopher Paolini, Inheritance

[Werner]

"Nearly all men are ugly, it's necessary to admit; but custom, vanity, ignorance of the true principles of physical beauty, the pleasure one experiences in fooling one's very self, usually hide from them this cruel infirmity." --Alfred Assollant, "Claude and Juliette"

[Reggia]

"Thrusting their way through the most impenetrable bushes, they walked in single file, the colonel leading slowly casting their lanterns from side to side and halting at every sign that someone might recently have passed that way, while Alveston manoeuvered the long poles of the stretcher with difficulty under the low-hanging branches of the trees." ~Death Comes to Pemberley, PD James

[Werner]

"Because a nylon stocking is the perfect article of clothing symbolizing the female: ...elegant, feminine and sexy, and at the same time strong and durable." -- Teric Darken, KILL FM 100 - Night Shift Edition

[Werner]

"Tell them, that the Being we all worship, under different names, will be mindful of their charity; and that the time shall not be distant when we may assemble around his throne without distinction of sex, or rank, or color." --James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans

[Werner]

"...in the battle between good and evil, mercy carries the victory much more successfully than judgment." -- Krisi Keley, Pro Luce Habere (To Have Before the Light) Volume 2

[Werner]

"A man does not need grand actions to be good.... Grand actions are often performed by those who only look for renown, and that makes a thing no more important than simple right living every day. You do what in your heart you believe is right and right is right if no man knows the name of he who performs the deed." --Krisi Keley, Pro Luce Habere (To Have Before the Light) Volume 2

[Werner]

"The book has survived innumerable death sentences. Not only has it survived, it has thrived. There is no reason to suppose that it will not continue to do so for a half century or more; perhaps for ever." --John Sutherland, How to Read a Novel: A User's Guide

[Werner]

"It is not power and wealth that corrupt, my lady, but the lust for power and wealth. When that lust takes precedence over the needs of others, corruption becomes true evil."

"I hate getting old. Why can't we all stay twenty until the end, then fall over?"

"And this is what's worth having: freedom, and friends, and the ability to see a thing of beauty and not want it all for myself, or because of the power it represents."

--Mercedes Lackey, "Wings of Fire"

[Reggia]

Enjoying these quotes -- thanks for sharing, Werner!

[H]

'that's the sort of chap he is. Kind of shrinking, diffident kind of fellow. Hasn't got the nerve. Thinks you so much above him, don't you know. Looks on you as a sort of goddess. Worships the ground you tread on, but can't whack up the ginger to tell you so.'

P. G. Wodehouse, The World of Jeeves

[Werner]

You're welcome, Reggia; glad you like 'em! :-)

[Werner]

"And ye that name me in after years,
This shall ye say of me:
...
That I lived to a straight and simple creed
The whole of my worldly span
White or black or yellow I dealt
Foursquare with my fellow man."

--Robert E. Howard, "The Day That I Die"

[Werner]

"It seems to me that the more wildly fantastic a tale is, the more likelihood there is for its being grounded in reality one way or another. The average human is so unimaginative that the highest flights of fantasy are beyond his power to create out of nothing."

--Robert E. Howard, letter to H. P. Lovecraft, Oct. 1930

[Krisi]

Werner wrote: ""It seems to me that the more wildly fantastic a tale is, the more likelihood there is for its being grounded in reality one way or another. The average human is so unimaginative that the highest ..."

Werner, I really like this one and everyone is adding a lot of great quotes. I think anyone can add favorite quotes to Goodreads' quote list. I didn't see this one listed under Robert E. Howard and I'd love to add it to my favorite quotes, but I didn't want to step on anyone's toes by adding some of the ones here to the quotes list. Did anyone on the thread have plans to or want to add some of these favorites to the big list?

[Werner]

Krisi, I don't have any plans to add any of the quotes I've posted here to the big list, so any of those are fair game! (I enjoy posting on this thread; but when it comes to quotes I "like" for my profile page, I try to hold those to a few special ones.)

[Krisi]

Werner wrote: "Krisi, I don't have any plans to add any of the quotes I've posted here to the big list, so any of those are fair game! (I enjoy posting on this thread; but when it comes to quotes I "like" for my..."

Thanks, Werner. I try to limit mine too, but I figured if they weren't in the main quote list, it might be good to share them for anyone who doesn't know about this thread and/or might want to add them as favorites. :-)

[Werner]

Sounds good, Krisi. Go for it! :-)

[Werner]

"After all, a belief in God presupposes a belief in the Devil, doesn't it? There is Biblical evidence; if you believe that Christ said 'Love your enemies' you should also believe that He said, 'Get thee hence, Satan.'"

--Norah Lofts, The Devil in Clevely (American edition titled Afternoon of an Autocrat)

[Werner]

"Richard listened, and saw suddenly that the logical, reasonable and inevitable conclusion of cynicism and boredom was the desire for death, there was no other end."

--Norah Lofts, The Devil in Clevely (American edition titled Afternoon of an Autocrat)

[Reggia]

"It's one of the great fallacies, it seems to me," said Lee, "that time gives much of anything but years and sadness to a man."

"And memory."

"Yes, memory. Without that, time would be unarmed against us."

[Nicole]

"I'm never really comfortable at parties. Maybe I'm just not the partying type.
...I think it's because I'm never sure what to do with myself.
I mean, there're drinks, but I don't like being drunk.... There's music, but I never really learned to dance to anything that involved an electric guitar. There are people to talk to...but once you put all the stupid things I do aside, I'm really not that interesting. I like reading, staying home, going on walks with my dog.... Who wants to hear about that? Especially when I would have to scream it over music to which no one dances.
So I'm there but not drinking, listening to music but not dancing, and trying to have conversations with near-strangers about anything other than my own stupid life.... Leads to a lot of awkward pauses. And then I start wondering why I showed up in the first place."
--Jim Butcher, Cold Days (The Dresden Files Book 14), pg. 33

[Werner]

"'Justice,' she said, 'is a treasure worth dying for.'" --Lee Hoffman, "Water"

[Tria]

From Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch:

"Lesley said that the capacity not to notice a traditional Dutch folk-dancing band walk up behind you was not a survival characteristic in the complex, fast-paced world of the modern policing environment. I'd like to point out that I was trying to give directions to a slightly deaf tourist at the time, and anyway, it was a Swedish dance troupe."

[Werner]

"The great forces of history were real, after a fashion. But when you examined them closely, those great forces always came down to the dreams and hungers and judgments of individuals. The choices they made were real. They mattered."

--Orson Scott Card, "Atlantis"

[Werner]

"People used to say obvious things ironically or as a form of understatement, but in the last few decades they seem to say it with a sense of discovery, and it worries me." --Kevin Hearne, "Clan Rathskeller"

Okay, strictly speaking, that quote is from a story I very recently finished, rather than one I'm "currently reading;" but I thought it's too good to pass up! :-)