My Favourite Book Quotes
I may be a bit biased in saying this since I am both a reader and writer, but I believe words stick with you. I’ve had family members and friends say things to me that have sometimes stuck with me for years, oftentimes without them knowing. So, it comes as no surprise to me that many books I’ve read have done the same.
Today I want to share some of my favourite passages from some of my favourite books. So, without further ado.
“I thought to myself that he contained a whole universe that I had yet to know.”
― Patti Smith, Just Kids
Photo is from GoodReads.
“We deny the severity of our loved one’s problem not because we are naive, but because we can’t know.”
― David Sheff, Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction
“People don’t see things and hear things as objectively as they might think. The visual and auditory information that enters the mind is distorted by experiences, thoughts, circumstances, wild fancies, prejudices, preferences, knowledge, awareness, and countless other workings of the mind.”
― Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before the Coffee Gets Cold #1
“What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
“He had withdrawn solely for his own personal pleasure, only to be near to himself. No longer distracted by anything external, he basked in his own existence and found it splendid.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
“I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to “I hate to read new books,” and I hollered “Comrade!” to whoever owned it before me.”
― Helene Hanff, 84, Charing Cross Road
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, “O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?” Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”
― N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society
“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”
― Tom Schulman, Dead Poets Society
Paige Petrovsky 