WORDS: What are your favourite lines from a book?

[Mansee]

What's your favourite line from a book..something which has stayed on your mind even years/ months/days after you have read the book..

[Mansee]

I have two favs:

1. "My dear, I don't give a damn" - Rhett Butler to Scarlett O Hara in "Gone with the wind"

though the statement does not have anything profound to say, it is impactful in the situation when it is said...and note the contradiction in it..."my dear" and "I dont give a damn" ...

2. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy- opening sentence and what a profound one!

[Anbu]

My favourites:

1. "When you really want something, whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it" - The Alchemist. One of my all fime favourite.

2. "For you, a thousand times over" - Kite Runner.
I don't know if there is any better sentence of friendship and love..

[Ajay]

"Never try to bullshit a bullshitter..." This same saying came in more than one book of this author..Guess who?

[Parikhit]

There are quite a few. But the opening lines of Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel will always stay on my mind. They go,
"She only stopped screaming when she died. It was then that he started to scream."

[Kunal]

Lt. Col, thanks for starting a new thread at last....the Kite Runner one and the Anna Karenina one remain as amazing as before.....some of the greatest lines indeed.

Top of my mind, three picks, and strangely, I think all three are in some ways, about identity:-

1. "...she didn't feel like an India, even if her colour was rich and high and her long hair, lustrous and black."

(Rushdie, 'Shalimar the Clown')


2. "Remember our freshman year?... Miriam Ball told me nobody wore those kind of dresses in New York, and I cried all night?" Eloise shook Mary Jane's arm. "I was a nice girl," she pleaded, "wasn't I?"

(Salinger, 'Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut')


And lastly, my favorite lines from all of literature.. the bravura Tiffany ending:-

3. "But most of all, I wanted to tell her about her cat.... That I had found him.....I wondered what his name was, for I was certain he had one now, certain that he had arrived somewhere he belonged. African hut or whatever, I hope Holly has, too."

(Capote, 'Breakfast at Tiffany's')

PS: These aren't exactly verbatim but as accurate as I could recall.

[Muddle head]

I can't remember properly, but some of the profound ones i have read are from The picture of Dorian Gray, it went at almost "a quote per page" pace!

[Neha]

The Alchemist
"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it"

& Last line of Gone with the win
" After all... tomorrow is another day"

timeless....

[Neha]

Ajay wrote: ""Never try to bullshit a bullshitter..." This same saying came in more than one book of this author..Guess who?"

Six degrees of separation??

[Priyanka]

Well, I have too many favourite lines. But
"For you, a thousands times over " from Kite Runner tops the list.

and then there is “It is our choices, Harry, that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

And from Atlas shrugged
“You have been called selfish for the courage of acting on your own judgement and bearing sole responsibility for your own life. You have been called arrogant for your independent mind. You have been called cruel for your unyielding integrity. You have been called anti social for the vision that made you venture upon undiscovered roads.”

[Hajarath Prasad]

''Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you thing you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.'' from ATLAS SHRUGGED.

[Kunal]

i cannot believe that i didn't mention these last lines from 'Interpreter of Maladies', these lines that are tragic, storm-ravaged in their sheer, broken magnificence.

"I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."

[Mridupawan]

"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."

vow of the Night's Watch [A Song of Ice and Fire]

[Kunal]

"Throughout Ulrich's life, whenever he has wished to picture her happy, he has returned to one memory...He crawls out into the dawn, fuddled by sleep: the fires are burning for breakfast, a camel coughs clouds in the chill, the horizon is smooth and bichrome. His mother sits on a wooden stool sipping steaming tea and she stares from under her shawl at the sun's bubble, ascending over the edge of the world and turning her smile orange."

Rana Dasgupta, 'Solo'

[Muddle head]

"You see, that means you don't belong to yourself anymore" - Asimov, Prelude to foundation

Even i feel the same way :(

[Hemish]

“People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands - literally thousands - of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss. The unhappiest people I know, romantically speaking, are the ones who like pop music the most; and I don't know whether pop music has caused this unhappiness, but I do know that they've been listening to the sad songs longer than they've been living the unhappy lives."
- Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

[Avisek]

Some one please add quotes from "To kill a mocking bird"...Moving, endearing...I remeber 1 or 2 quotes


Atticus Finch: If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. "


"With you life is routine, without you, unbearable."


"There is just one kind of folks around this world. Folks !!"

And well, who can forget or even dare to leave this out

"Atticus Finch: [his closing statement] To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place... It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses, whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. Now, there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewel was beaten - savagely, by someone who led exclusively with his left. And Tom Robinson now sits before you having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses... his RIGHT. I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the State. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. But my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. Now I say "guilt," gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She's committed no crime - she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. But what was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was to her a daily reminder of what she did. Now, what did she do? She tempted a Negro. She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that, in our society, is unspeakable. She kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong, young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards. The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption... the evil assumption that all Negroes lie, all Negroes are basically immoral beings, all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women. An assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is, in itself, gentlemen, a lie, which I do not need to point out to you. And so, a quiet, humble, respectable Negro, who has had the unmitigated TEMERITY to feel sorry for a white woman, has had to put his word against TWO white people's! The defendant is not guilty - but somebody in this courtroom is. Now, gentlemen, in this country, our courts are the great levelers. In our courts, all men are created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system - that's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality! Now I am confident that you gentlemen will review, without passion, the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision and restore this man to his family. In the name of GOD, do your duty. In the name of God, believe... Tom Robinson. "

[[deleted user]]

Ok, this isn't my favorite quote from the book, because there were many that I felt were meaningful, and well-written, but this is one of the quotes I liked from The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. :)

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

[Rosun]

"Visionaries hardly age"
APJ Abdul Kalam's 'Ignited minds'

[Amey]

Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the worlds original sin! If the cave-man had known how to laugh, history would have been different!- Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray.

There is a crack in everyone, thats how the light of God comes in!- Elizabeth Gilbert; Eat, Pray, Love.

Its better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else's perfectly!- Elizabeth Gilbert; Eat, Pray, LOve.

[Muddle head]

aaah..Dorian Gray - that book is like a compilation of some profound truths (a.k.a amazing quotes)!! I enjoyed reading it and remember being shocked/surprised at it's surprised ending

[Howard]

Ellsworth Toohey (who had taken upon himself to destroy the protagonist H.Roark): "Mr. Roark, we're alone here. Why don't you tell me what you think of me in any words you wish."
Howard Roark: "But I don't think of you!"


...


Howard Roark to his friend, Gail Wynand: "I would die for you, but I would never live for you"


- Ayn Rand, from 'The Fountainhead'

[Mansee]

@ Avisek - just saw the movie yday and I totally agree-- was floored by it!! the characters...(esp aticus and scout!) and just loved the dialogues..esp the one u mentioned above!

[Avisek]

@mansee : The book is even more moving...

[Kunal]

"...(she) watched his talking face where she didn't live. And where did she live? Whose eyes will hold me, whose eyes will know me when my own eyes look back at me in the morning and I am not in them."

('Miranda over the Valley', Andre Dubus)

[Mansee]

Avisek wrote: "@mansee : The book is even more moving..."

will have to get my hands on it then!

[Rosun]

"Life happens in a certain place for a certain time. But there is a great surplus left over and where will we stow it but in our dreams?"
Solo, Rana Dasgupta

[Mansee]

Rosun wrote: ""Life happens in a certain place for a certain time. But there is a great surplus left over and where will we stow it but in our dreams?"
Solo, Rana Dasgupta"

Nice :) will have to give this book another go!!

[❄️ Propertea Of Frostea ❄️ Bitter SnoBerry ❄]

"I'm more than just a piece in their games" The Hunger Games. I live this quote....I'm more than just a piece of this world...

[[deleted user]]

there's this-"if i can still dream, i will dream of you."- <3 Jace Lightwood <3. its not strictly a part of the book, its from Jace's letter in the 3rd part.(google it n get the letter.

"u told me to be happy by forgetting you but what if i tell u, remembering u right here becomes the happiest moment of my day"- winter sonata, the book


To all the fellow Earthlings- "we may belong to different places and speak in different tongues,our hearts beat as one.- Albus Dumbledore in Diggory's honour.

"the pen is mightier than the word processor" dont remember the book.

[Yunoth]

"sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener by constant use" (from Rip Van Winkle)

[Balaji]

I will give him an offer that he can't refuse
- The Godfather

[Kunal]

"I will give him an offer that he can't refuse"

Edit: I'm gonna/I will make him an offer he can't refuse

[Balaji]

Kunal wrote: ""I will give him an offer that he can't refuse"

Edit: I'm gonna/I will make him an offer he can't refuse"

Ya thank you! Forgot the other one

[Rosun]

Balaji wrote: "I will give him an offer that he can't refuse
- The Godfather"

Ah!

[Muddle head]

"Today is the tomorrow that i was dreading yesterday"
I suddenly remembered this when something happened today. Can any of you help me find the origin of this line, which book/author etc...

[Adam]

“This novel isn’t about India. I don’t know India. I was there once, for less than a month…” . John Irving: "A SON OF THE CIRCUS"

See my review for an explanation: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Nithish]

This is one from the Nero Wolfe series:
“She turned back to me, graceful as a big cat, straight and proud, not quite smiling, her warm dark eyes as curious as if she had never seen a man before. I knew damn well I ought to say something, but what? The only thing to say was “Will you marry me?” but that wouldn’t do because the idea of her washing dishes or darning socks was preposterous.” Rex Stout

[Kunal]

"I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination." (from "The Third and Final Continent")”

― Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies

just can't get enough of these lines, this ending. lahiri, you're a goddess!

[Suchitra]

Julian Barnes..in the sense of an ending

-I certainly believe we all suffer damage, one way or another. How could we not, except in a world of perfect parents, siblings,neighbours, companions? And then there is the question, on which so much depends, of how we react to the damage: whether we admit it or repress it, and how this affects our dealings with others. Some admit the damage, and try to mitigate it; some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged; and then there are those whose main concern is to avoid further damage to themselves, at whatever cost. And those are the ones who are ruthless, and the ones to be careful of.

[Prashanth]

"The operation has to be performed with a surgically military precision, if not in scope but in precision, of the allied landings in wartime Europe."

- The very first few lines of "The Golden Gate" by Alistair MacLean.

When I read the book, it was my first book with long sentences and it took me all of ten minutes to understand exactly what it meant. I found it refreshing, challenging and intriguing.

[Rosun]

"Men look for character only in a woman he intends to marry"
Godan, Munshi Premchand.

[* chocomusic *]

It is kinda , " LIFE IS HARDER, DEATH IS PEACEFUL."- twilight

[King☚☠☛ℱα₪ℊ ☄ ℒïካ₭ïᾔ ℘αℜⓀ ♬]

Numey♥{Gifted~Cats*Books}☮ wrote: ""I'm more than just a piece in their games" The Hunger Games. I live this quote....I'm more than just a piece of this world..."

Good one sis:)

[King☚☠☛ℱα₪ℊ ☄ ℒïካ₭ïᾔ ℘αℜⓀ ♬]

* chocomusic * wrote: "It is kinda , " LIFE IS HARDER, DEATH IS PEACEFUL."- twilight"

I like that too!!!

[Sruti]

'whenever you feel like criticising anyone,just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had'
the great gatsby.

[Prasan]

Amey wrote: "Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the worlds original sin! If the cave-man had known how to laugh, history would have been different!- Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray.

There is a crac..."

Amey i guess the line from Eat Pray Love you were trying to quote goes like this................ ;-)

“It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly then to live an imitation of someone’s life with perfection “Elizabeth Gilbert - EAT PRAY LOVE

[Vinay]

Big dreams, are so damn tiring - Andre Agassi

[Rosun]

Sruti wrote: "'whenever you feel like criticising anyone,just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had'
the great gatsby."

Ah! Likes...

[Abhineet]

My fav quote is not really from a book. 'Tis from the movie "Carlito's Way" and is very powerful. I think of it whenever I am down with depression and it gives me the power to sail through. Goes like this:

"My heart, it don't ever quit. I ain't ready to check out."