Top 100 continued again
I promised I'd get to the top 50 book quotes someday. Here they are. I'm sure I'm going to forget some and kick myself later, but I have so very many quotes collected in journals and such that there's not much I can do to avoid that anyway. Enjoy. (The top 50 movie quotes are linked over on the left-hand side of my blog.)
1. "The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies."
--Fahrenheit 451
2. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.
--The Notebook
High Fidelity was such a good book that it gets a few quotes on the countdown.
3. All relationships need the kind of violent shove that a crush brings.
4. I know what's wrong with Laura. What's wrong with Laura is that I'll never see her for the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd time again.
5. It seems to me that if you place music (and books, probably, and films, and anything that makes you feel) at the center of your being, then you can't afford to sort out your love life, start to think of it as a finished product. You've go to pick at it and unravel it until it all comes apart and you're compelled to start all over again.
6. There comes a time, Laurana, when you've got to risk your life for something you believe in - something that means more than life itself. --Tanis, Dragonlance Chronicles
7. “We may not have won the war,”Tanis
Raistlin coughed and shook his head sadly.
“Do you see no hope?”
“Hope is the denial of reality.”
--Tanis and Raistlin, Dragonlance Chronicles
8. Suicide is just a moment, Lexy told me. . . . The day was hers to choose, and perhaps in that treetop moment when she looked down and saw the yard, the world, her life, spread out below her, perhaps she chose to plunge toward it headlong. Perhaps she saw before her a lifetime of walking on the ruined earth and chose instead a single moment in the air.
--Dogs of Babel
9. "Tata Jesus is bangala!" declares the Reverend every Sunday at the end of his sermon. Bangala means precious and dear. But the way he pronounces it, it means the poisonwood tree. Praise the lord, hallelujah, my friends! For Jesus will make you itch like nobody's business.
--Adah, The Poisonwood Bible
10. "It makes no sense to try, or even to want, to fit into a place where you don't belong...It's not going to happen, and if it ever did, it's not what you would want anyway."
--Jesse Dailey, Geeks
11. Maybe the one positive legacy the Trenchcoat Mafia left was to ensure that this message got heard by a society that seems desperate not to hear it.
--Geeks
12. "I thought you thought I was a bad guy."
"It's a possibility," I said.
"Does that mean you have to kill me?"
I wasn't sure if he was joking or not. I said, "I don't know. What's the location of the rebel base?"
--Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille
13. "You had a crush on her, didn't you?" said Riker.
Wesley glanced at him. "Was it that obvious?"
Riker shrugged. "Teenage boys are very good at thinking they've got their feelings completely hidden." . . .
Riker smiled. "Remember that blue-green outfit of hers?"
"Ohhh, yes. That was my favorite."
"Mine too. Every so often, when I was feeling frivolous, I'd put it on and romp around the holodeck."
Crusher stared at Riker's deadpan expression. "You...?"
"I'm kidding, Wesley."
"Oh." He laughed uncertainly. "Oh."
"Gave you a strange mental picture there for a second, though, didn't it?"
--Imzadi Forever
14. "Hiyyyy!" I yell.
"Don't," he says, backing away.
"Hiyyyy!" I yell, stepping toward him, because threatening children with seventeen-inch knives is funny.
--A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
15. "... The Ku Klux Klan even used it for a while in the twenties."
"Great," I said.
"Every community had the Klan back then," he said. "It was like a fraternal organization. They put their hoods on and marched in parades on the Fourth of July and so forth."
"Like Rotary, but with cross burnings and lynchings?"
"You have a very peculiar sense of humor."
"Racism is always funny."
--Hinterland
16. "I love you, Allie. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, every day we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours."
--The Notebook
17. "Do this." I make the "okay" sign. Clare makes the "okay" sign. "Opposable thumbs means you can do that. It means you can open jars and tie your shoes and other things animals can't do."
Clare is not happy with this. "Sister Carmelita says animals don't have souls."
"Of course animals have souls. Where did she get that idea?"
"She said the Pope says."
"The Pope's an old meanie. Animals have much nicer souls than we do. They never tell lies or blow anybody up."
--The Time Traveler's Wife
18. .... For example, that he would sell the kids to a pedophile ring - for a piffling amount of money - just because it really upset me? True, he loves his kids. But he really, really hates me, so it's a tough one to call.
--How to be good
19. What you don't ever catch a glimpse of on your wedding day - because how could you? - is that some days you will hate your spouse, that you will look at him and regret ever exchanging a word with him, let alone a ring and bodily fluids.
--How to be Good
20. Why do you want to dye your hair, anyways? To look punk? Don't you know, everyone dyes their hair to look punk? Duh.
--Hairstyles of the Damned
21. There is an art, or rather a knack, to flying. The knack lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
--Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
22. The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the "Star Sprangled Banner", but in fact the message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish.
23. The story so far:
In the beginning, the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people mad and been widely regarded as a bad idea.
24. Ever since I can remember I have loved books. Not just loved, but been passionate about. I regularly spend hours at a time browsing in bookshops, losing track of time, losing myself in another world.
--Bookends
25. I was remembering the way it feels at just that moment when you begin to turn, when you're poised exactly between the things in life you want to do and those you need to do, and it seems for a few blessed seconds that they are all going to be the same.
--While I was gone
26. And there was a voice, a high clear, female voice which said, "Ow," and then, very quietly, it said "Fuck," and then it said "Ow," once more. And then it said nothing at all, and there was silence in the glade.
--Stardust
27. "You are young, and in love," said Primus. "Every young man in your position is the most miserable young man who ever lived."
--Stardust
28. He opened the front door, and breathed a huge and quite heartfelt sigh of relief. It wasn't Jessica. It was - what? Mormons? Jehovah's Witnesses? The police? He couldn't tell. There were two of them, at any rate.
--Neverwhere
29. There are two Londons. There's London Above - that's where you lived - and then there's London Below - the Underside - inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world. Now you're one of them. Good night."
--Neverwhere
30. The first divorce is okay, it can happen to anyone - too young, too romantic, unrealistic - but the second divorce is different. The second divorce is a stigma.
--Best Friends
31. "Love you," she said when she hung up. I didn't respond for a second, surprised to hear those words. We used to say them all the time.
"Love you too," I answered.
--Best Friends
32. "What is love? As far as I can tell,
it is passion, admiration and respect.
If you have two, you have enough.
If you have all three, you don't
have to die to go to heaven."
--William Wharton, Straight Talking
33. I watch Adam's big burly frame as he walks through the restaurant, feeling a pang of affection.
It's funny, isn't it, how your true family are not your flesh and blood? They are the people you meet throughout your life who prove themselves to you. The people who you grow to love, who love you equally in return, who are always there for you.
Mel is my family, Emma and Andy are my family. And now Adam is my family. And it's becoming increasingly difficult to remember what my life was like before I met them.
--Straight Talking
34. We both recline on my couch, feet to head, and watch the movie we have seen together countless times - When Harry Met Sally. Darcy talks out loud constantly, quoting the parts she knows. I don't shush her once. Because even though she says talking during movies irritates Dex, I don't mind. Not even when she gets the line slightly wrong, so that I can't tell what Meg Ryan is really saying. It's just Darcy. This is what she does.
And like a favorite old movie, sometimes the sameness in a friend is what you like the most about her.
--Something Borrowed
35. I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane.
--Fahrenheit 451
36. But you see, Meg, just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist.
--A Wrinkle in Time
37. I held Leo and he held me and we rocked back and forth on the old elm trunk, weeping, and the salt wind brushed against the salt of our tears. And I discovered that there is something almost more intimate about crying that way with someone than there is about kissing, and I knew I'd never again be abel to think of Leo as nothing but a slob.
--A ring of endless light
38. Suzy still sounded angry. "Prayer didn't keep Jeb from being hit bya motorcycle. It didn't stop Grandfather from having leukemia."
"Prayer was never meant to be magic," Mother said.
"Then why bother with it?" Suzy scowled.
"Because it's an act of love," Mother said.
--A ring of endless light
39. "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
--1984
40. We crossed back onto the Maine Turnpike, passing the sign that reads WELCOME TO MAINE: THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE. I've always hated that sign.
--Love in the Asylum
41. Not all those who wander are lost.
--Lord of the Rings
42. Professor Johnston often said that if you didn't know history, you didn't know anything. You were a leaf that didn't know it was part of a tree.
--Timeline
43. Gently he stroked teh gully dwarf's rough hair. "No, Raistlin would never laugh at you, little one. He knew, he remembered. There were too many who had laughed at him."
--Par-Salian, Time of the Twins
44. They reached the door. Tas regarded it for a moment, then looked up wistfully at Raistlin. "I don't suppose you could. . .sort of swoosh me somewhere, like you did the last time? It's great fun..."
Checking a sigh, Raislin obligingly "swooshed" the kender into a duck pond, to Tas's vast amusement. The kender couldn't recall, in fact, when Raislin had been so nice to him.
It must be because of my ending the Cataclysm, Tas decided. He's probably really grateful, just doesn't know how to express it properly. Or maybe he's not allowed to be grateful since he's evil.
45. "Graphic novels are great, because they're more durable than traditional comics, so they can be read without damaging our precious first printings, heavy enough to be used as a weapon in dire circumstances, and their shiny covers can be used to reflect the sunlight and signal a plane, should the reader become lost or stranded."
--Wil Wheaton
46. Faukman was still shaking his head. “But with all these books written about it, why isn’t this theory more widely known?”
“These books can’t possibly compete with centuries of established history, especially when that history is endorsed by the ultimate best-seller of all time.’
Faukman’s eyes went wide. “:Don’t tell me Harry Potter is actually about the Holy Grail.”
“I was referring to the Bible.”
Faukman cringed. “I knew that.”
--The Da Vinci Code
47. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew - and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that there was all the difference in the world.
--Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
48. "We are grateful," Goldmoon said slowly, as if unused to expressing appreciation. "You risk your lives for us, and we are strangers."
Tanis smiled and clasped her hand. "I am Tanis. The brothers are Caramon and Raistlin. The knight is Sturm Brightblade. Flint Fireforge carries the win and Tasslehoff Burrfoot is our clever locksmith. You are Goldmoon and he is Riverwind. There - we are strangers no longer."
--Dragons of Autumn Twilight
49. "While it is nerve-wracking to be in the presence of a kender, it is even more nerve-wracking to discover that a kender has gone off on his own."
--Margaret Weis, footnotes of Dragonlance Chronicles
50. "Wait! Raistlin!" Caramon cried raggedly. "I'll go with you!"
"Would you?" Raistlin asked softly, laying a soothing hand upon the dragon's neck. "Would you go with me into darkness?"
Caramon hesitated, his lips grew dry, fear parched his throat. He could not speak, but he nodded, twice, biting his lip in agony as he heard Tika sobbing behind him.
Raislin regarded him, his eyes golden pools within the deep blackness. "I truly believe you would," the mage marveled, almost to himself.
--Legends
There are so many more quotes that I love. I tried to be balanced about it but Dragonlance just has some really awesome quotes so it has the majority of the list taken. Anyway, that's it for now. If there are books on here that seem unfamiliar I suggest checking them out. They're all on my bookshelves and I love them all. :)
1. "The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies."
--Fahrenheit 451
2. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.
--The Notebook
High Fidelity was such a good book that it gets a few quotes on the countdown.
3. All relationships need the kind of violent shove that a crush brings.
4. I know what's wrong with Laura. What's wrong with Laura is that I'll never see her for the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd time again.
5. It seems to me that if you place music (and books, probably, and films, and anything that makes you feel) at the center of your being, then you can't afford to sort out your love life, start to think of it as a finished product. You've go to pick at it and unravel it until it all comes apart and you're compelled to start all over again.
6. There comes a time, Laurana, when you've got to risk your life for something you believe in - something that means more than life itself. --Tanis, Dragonlance Chronicles
7. “We may not have won the war,”
Raistlin coughed and shook his head sadly.
“Do you see no hope?”
“Hope is the denial of reality.”
--Tanis and Raistlin, Dragonlance Chronicles
8. Suicide is just a moment, Lexy told me. . . . The day was hers to choose, and perhaps in that treetop moment when she looked down and saw the yard, the world, her life, spread out below her, perhaps she chose to plunge toward it headlong. Perhaps she saw before her a lifetime of walking on the ruined earth and chose instead a single moment in the air.
--Dogs of Babel
9. "Tata Jesus is bangala!" declares the Reverend every Sunday at the end of his sermon. Bangala means precious and dear. But the way he pronounces it, it means the poisonwood tree. Praise the lord, hallelujah, my friends! For Jesus will make you itch like nobody's business.
--Adah, The Poisonwood Bible
10. "It makes no sense to try, or even to want, to fit into a place where you don't belong...It's not going to happen, and if it ever did, it's not what you would want anyway."
--Jesse Dailey, Geeks
11. Maybe the one positive legacy the Trenchcoat Mafia left was to ensure that this message got heard by a society that seems desperate not to hear it.
--Geeks
12. "I thought you thought I was a bad guy."
"It's a possibility," I said.
"Does that mean you have to kill me?"
I wasn't sure if he was joking or not. I said, "I don't know. What's the location of the rebel base?"
--Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille
13. "You had a crush on her, didn't you?" said Riker.
Wesley glanced at him. "Was it that obvious?"
Riker shrugged. "Teenage boys are very good at thinking they've got their feelings completely hidden." . . .
Riker smiled. "Remember that blue-green outfit of hers?"
"Ohhh, yes. That was my favorite."
"Mine too. Every so often, when I was feeling frivolous, I'd put it on and romp around the holodeck."
Crusher stared at Riker's deadpan expression. "You...?"
"I'm kidding, Wesley."
"Oh." He laughed uncertainly. "Oh."
"Gave you a strange mental picture there for a second, though, didn't it?"
--Imzadi Forever
14. "Hiyyyy!" I yell.
"Don't," he says, backing away.
"Hiyyyy!" I yell, stepping toward him, because threatening children with seventeen-inch knives is funny.
--A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
15. "... The Ku Klux Klan even used it for a while in the twenties."
"Great," I said.
"Every community had the Klan back then," he said. "It was like a fraternal organization. They put their hoods on and marched in parades on the Fourth of July and so forth."
"Like Rotary, but with cross burnings and lynchings?"
"You have a very peculiar sense of humor."
"Racism is always funny."
--Hinterland
16. "I love you, Allie. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, every day we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours."
--The Notebook
17. "Do this." I make the "okay" sign. Clare makes the "okay" sign. "Opposable thumbs means you can do that. It means you can open jars and tie your shoes and other things animals can't do."
Clare is not happy with this. "Sister Carmelita says animals don't have souls."
"Of course animals have souls. Where did she get that idea?"
"She said the Pope says."
"The Pope's an old meanie. Animals have much nicer souls than we do. They never tell lies or blow anybody up."
--The Time Traveler's Wife
18. .... For example, that he would sell the kids to a pedophile ring - for a piffling amount of money - just because it really upset me? True, he loves his kids. But he really, really hates me, so it's a tough one to call.
--How to be good
19. What you don't ever catch a glimpse of on your wedding day - because how could you? - is that some days you will hate your spouse, that you will look at him and regret ever exchanging a word with him, let alone a ring and bodily fluids.
--How to be Good
20. Why do you want to dye your hair, anyways? To look punk? Don't you know, everyone dyes their hair to look punk? Duh.
--Hairstyles of the Damned
21. There is an art, or rather a knack, to flying. The knack lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
--Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
22. The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the "Star Sprangled Banner", but in fact the message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish.
23. The story so far:
In the beginning, the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people mad and been widely regarded as a bad idea.
24. Ever since I can remember I have loved books. Not just loved, but been passionate about. I regularly spend hours at a time browsing in bookshops, losing track of time, losing myself in another world.
--Bookends
25. I was remembering the way it feels at just that moment when you begin to turn, when you're poised exactly between the things in life you want to do and those you need to do, and it seems for a few blessed seconds that they are all going to be the same.
--While I was gone
26. And there was a voice, a high clear, female voice which said, "Ow," and then, very quietly, it said "Fuck," and then it said "Ow," once more. And then it said nothing at all, and there was silence in the glade.
--Stardust
27. "You are young, and in love," said Primus. "Every young man in your position is the most miserable young man who ever lived."
--Stardust
28. He opened the front door, and breathed a huge and quite heartfelt sigh of relief. It wasn't Jessica. It was - what? Mormons? Jehovah's Witnesses? The police? He couldn't tell. There were two of them, at any rate.
--Neverwhere
29. There are two Londons. There's London Above - that's where you lived - and then there's London Below - the Underside - inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world. Now you're one of them. Good night."
--Neverwhere
30. The first divorce is okay, it can happen to anyone - too young, too romantic, unrealistic - but the second divorce is different. The second divorce is a stigma.
--Best Friends
31. "Love you," she said when she hung up. I didn't respond for a second, surprised to hear those words. We used to say them all the time.
"Love you too," I answered.
--Best Friends
32. "What is love? As far as I can tell,
it is passion, admiration and respect.
If you have two, you have enough.
If you have all three, you don't
have to die to go to heaven."
--William Wharton, Straight Talking
33. I watch Adam's big burly frame as he walks through the restaurant, feeling a pang of affection.
It's funny, isn't it, how your true family are not your flesh and blood? They are the people you meet throughout your life who prove themselves to you. The people who you grow to love, who love you equally in return, who are always there for you.
Mel is my family, Emma and Andy are my family. And now Adam is my family. And it's becoming increasingly difficult to remember what my life was like before I met them.
--Straight Talking
34. We both recline on my couch, feet to head, and watch the movie we have seen together countless times - When Harry Met Sally. Darcy talks out loud constantly, quoting the parts she knows. I don't shush her once. Because even though she says talking during movies irritates Dex, I don't mind. Not even when she gets the line slightly wrong, so that I can't tell what Meg Ryan is really saying. It's just Darcy. This is what she does.
And like a favorite old movie, sometimes the sameness in a friend is what you like the most about her.
--Something Borrowed
35. I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane.
--Fahrenheit 451
36. But you see, Meg, just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist.
--A Wrinkle in Time
37. I held Leo and he held me and we rocked back and forth on the old elm trunk, weeping, and the salt wind brushed against the salt of our tears. And I discovered that there is something almost more intimate about crying that way with someone than there is about kissing, and I knew I'd never again be abel to think of Leo as nothing but a slob.
--A ring of endless light
38. Suzy still sounded angry. "Prayer didn't keep Jeb from being hit bya motorcycle. It didn't stop Grandfather from having leukemia."
"Prayer was never meant to be magic," Mother said.
"Then why bother with it?" Suzy scowled.
"Because it's an act of love," Mother said.
--A ring of endless light
39. "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
--1984
40. We crossed back onto the Maine Turnpike, passing the sign that reads WELCOME TO MAINE: THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE. I've always hated that sign.
--Love in the Asylum
41. Not all those who wander are lost.
--Lord of the Rings
42. Professor Johnston often said that if you didn't know history, you didn't know anything. You were a leaf that didn't know it was part of a tree.
--Timeline
43. Gently he stroked teh gully dwarf's rough hair. "No, Raistlin would never laugh at you, little one. He knew, he remembered. There were too many who had laughed at him."
--Par-Salian, Time of the Twins
44. They reached the door. Tas regarded it for a moment, then looked up wistfully at Raistlin. "I don't suppose you could. . .sort of swoosh me somewhere, like you did the last time? It's great fun..."
Checking a sigh, Raislin obligingly "swooshed" the kender into a duck pond, to Tas's vast amusement. The kender couldn't recall, in fact, when Raislin had been so nice to him.
It must be because of my ending the Cataclysm, Tas decided. He's probably really grateful, just doesn't know how to express it properly. Or maybe he's not allowed to be grateful since he's evil.
45. "Graphic novels are great, because they're more durable than traditional comics, so they can be read without damaging our precious first printings, heavy enough to be used as a weapon in dire circumstances, and their shiny covers can be used to reflect the sunlight and signal a plane, should the reader become lost or stranded."
--Wil Wheaton
46. Faukman was still shaking his head. “But with all these books written about it, why isn’t this theory more widely known?”
“These books can’t possibly compete with centuries of established history, especially when that history is endorsed by the ultimate best-seller of all time.’
Faukman’s eyes went wide. “:Don’t tell me Harry Potter is actually about the Holy Grail.”
“I was referring to the Bible.”
Faukman cringed. “I knew that.”
--The Da Vinci Code
47. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew - and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that there was all the difference in the world.
--Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
48. "We are grateful," Goldmoon said slowly, as if unused to expressing appreciation. "You risk your lives for us, and we are strangers."
Tanis smiled and clasped her hand. "I am Tanis. The brothers are Caramon and Raistlin. The knight is Sturm Brightblade. Flint Fireforge carries the win and Tasslehoff Burrfoot is our clever locksmith. You are Goldmoon and he is Riverwind. There - we are strangers no longer."
--Dragons of Autumn Twilight
49. "While it is nerve-wracking to be in the presence of a kender, it is even more nerve-wracking to discover that a kender has gone off on his own."
--Margaret Weis, footnotes of Dragonlance Chronicles
50. "Wait! Raistlin!" Caramon cried raggedly. "I'll go with you!"
"Would you?" Raistlin asked softly, laying a soothing hand upon the dragon's neck. "Would you go with me into darkness?"
Caramon hesitated, his lips grew dry, fear parched his throat. He could not speak, but he nodded, twice, biting his lip in agony as he heard Tika sobbing behind him.
Raislin regarded him, his eyes golden pools within the deep blackness. "I truly believe you would," the mage marveled, almost to himself.
--Legends
There are so many more quotes that I love. I tried to be balanced about it but Dragonlance just has some really awesome quotes so it has the majority of the list taken. Anyway, that's it for now. If there are books on here that seem unfamiliar I suggest checking them out. They're all on my bookshelves and I love them all. :)
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