Sunday, August 22, 2010

Top Ten Favorite Book Quotes

Amanda from The Zen Leaf posted her Top 10 Favorite Book Quotes and I am a big fan of quotes in general. I collect quotes like other people collect stamps or coins.  This meme comes from Jillian at Random Ramblings so I thought I'd join in.

1.
"Freedom is an illusion. It always comes at a price."
— Jonathan Stroud (The Amulet of Samarkand)

2.
"It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things."
— Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)


3.
"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
— Lewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

4.
"Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can."
— Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)

5.
"Touchstone watched, suddenly conscious that he probably only had five seconds left to be alone with Sabriel, to say something, to say anything. Perhaps the last five seconds they ever would have alone together.
I am not afraid, he said to himself.
'I love you," he whispered. "I hope you don't mind.'"
— Garth Nix (Sabriel)

6.
"To get something you must give something away.
To hold something you must give something away.
To love something you must give something away."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

7.
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
— Douglas Adams (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe)

8.
"Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling that they are all alone in the world, and that nobody loves them now and that nobody will ever love them, and that they will never have a decent night's sleep again and will spend their lives wandering blearily around a loveless landscape, hoping desperately that their circumstances will improve, but suspecting, in their heart of hearts, that they will remain unloved forever. The best thing to do in these circumstances is to wake somebody else up, so that they can feel this way, too."
— Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)

9.
"Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words "make" and "stay" become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free."
— Tom Robbins (Still Life with Woodpecker)

And last, I love this quote.  It is the most perfect quote about Louisiana weather I have ever seen.

10.
"Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air - moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh - felt as if it were being exhaled into one's face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing."
— Tom Robbins (Jitterbug Perfume)

7 comments:

  1. You've got some great quotes up here! One of my favorites is a short one:

    "And in that moment, we were infinite." from Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

    I saw you had a couple Lemony Snicket quotes, so I wanted to share my favorite of his as well:

    "People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict." - Snicket (The Grim Grotto)

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  2. What a great list! I read Practical Magic in 1999 and I still remember that now that I've read it again. :)

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  3. Great quotes! The Douglas Adams one is one of my faves

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  4. I LOVE Practical Magic and Alice Hoffman. That book is by far one of my favorites.
    EXCELLENT pick :)

    My hubbie loves Tom Robbins.

    AWESOME post. I really enjoyed reading this.

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  5. What a great list! I collect book quotes, too - I have a journal just for favorite book quotes. I used to do a weekly book quote feature on my other book blog. I'm not currently updating that one regularly, but here are the past quotes if you're interested:

    http://bookbybook.blogspot.com/search/label/Quotes

    I love the ones you've chosen here. You're right - the Louisiana one is perfect! And Jitterbug Perfume was a great book - haven't thought of that book in years.

    Sue

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  6. So glad you could join us this week! And I love #2! Lemony Snicket is such an incredible writer, I don't think I'll ever get old to read his works.

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