“Poetic concision demands a the avoidance of a pair of words when a single word will suffice”. ”With all due respect to poetic concision, the male of the species was endowed with a pair when a single might have sufficed”
— A Gentleman in Moscow
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”
— A Gentleman in Moscow
“‘I do not foretell, for all foretelling is now vain: on the one hand lies darkness, and on the other only hope. But if hope should not fail, then I say to you, Gimli son of Glóin, that your hands shall flow with gold, and yet over you gold shall have no dominion.”
— Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
“Oh, but my treasure, it is so much less exhausting. You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day. ”
— Frank, The Light Between Oceans
“The light came in crooked through the clouds, seeking refuge from the rain that hovered in the distance.”
— M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans
“To meet, to know, to love—and then to part, Is the sad tale of many a human heart. ”
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“There’s a difference between the dishonest bribe and the honest bribe. The dishonest bribe is the same in every country, but the honest bribe is india’s alone ”
— Didier Levy, Shantaram
“I don’t have much interest in building mystery. Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It’s the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest and astound me.”
— Death, The Book Thief
“Very tall; fair; as graceful, as full of blood and as cruel as the usual degenerate Derby winner. Inbred for generations for one purpose: to madden men of one type …”
— Christopher Tietjens, Parade’s End
“As for the living, we shall have our servants do that for us.”
— Villiers de L'isle-Adam, Axel
“Sleep is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it ”