Top Ten Quotes From Books

Top Ten Tuesday is always hosted by The Broke and The Bookish and was created by Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner.

This week’s topic is very near and dear to my heart, top ten quotes from books. I think one of the reasons I love reading so much is because I feel such an incredibly strong connection to the books I read. I’m not dressing this post and list up super fancy, as I feel the words speak for themselves.

Top Ten Quotes From Books:

1. – Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”

 

2. ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

 “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”

3. ― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me.”

4. ― John Green, Looking for Alaska

“Thomas Edison’s last words were ‘It’s very beautiful over there’. I don’t know where there is, but I believe it’s somewhere, and I hope it’s beautiful.”

Thomas Edison's last words were 'It's very beautiful over there. I don't know where there is, but I hope it's beautiful' John Green Looking For Alaska

5. ― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you’re alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.”

6. ― Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light

“What I saw next stopped me dead in my tracks. Books. Not just one or two dozen, but hundreds of them. In crates. In piles on the floor. In bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling and lined the entire room. I turned around and around in a slow circle, feeling as if I’d just stumbled into Ali Baba’s cave. I was breathless, close to tears, and positively dizzy with greed.

7.  ― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn’t already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”

8. ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

“You’ll stay with me?’

Until the very end,’ said James.”

9. ― Gary D. Schmidt, The Wednesday Wars

“When gods die, they die hard. It’s not like they fade away, or grow old, or fall asleep. They die in fire and pain, and when they come out of you, they leave your guts burned. It hurts more than anything you can talk about. And maybe worst of all is, you’re not sure if there will ever be another god to fill their place. Or if you’d ever want another god to fill their place. You don’t want the fire to go out inside you twice.”

10. ― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

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April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.
About April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

Comments

  1. I love love love your To Kill a Mockingbird quote. I’d bet we all can relate 🙂

    Here’s my Top 10 Tuesday!

  2. Ah! The Harry Potter quote! I can remember how uncontrollably I was bawling by the time I read that, which only made it so much worse.

    And I love that Phantom Tollbooth one. I think I’m going to start a quote book today, and that’s going to be the first one on it.

    Happy Tuesday!

  3. Amazing quotes. Looking for Alaska and The Book Thief are two of the most quotable books, I think. There’s always something amazing to be found and repeated.

  4. I love your quotes! Especially the Harry Potter one and one from The Phantom Tollbooth. I like quotes that make me feel sad…and both of those do!

    My TTT: http://www.pocketfulofbooks.com/2012/05/top-ten-tuesday-favourite-book-quotes.html

  5. Aaaah! These are GORGEOUS! I adore quotes. I’ve frequently thought about just completely papering my walls in them! Lol.

  6. Beautiful quotes 😮 ! And thank you because there is one quote here that I love. I’ve read To Kill a Mockingbird a long time ago and I remember that I loved that quote but never wrote it down.

  7. Great mix of quotes. I so wish I would have started collecting quotes sooner.

  8. Eeep that Looking for Alaska quote! LOVE!

  9. Great choices, especially the Harper Lee one! I didn’t go back to a lot of my earlier quotes. I should have…

  10. I love book quotes and I’m adding some of these your listed to my list of quotes. What a great post!

  11. I love so many of these. East of Eden is one of my favorite books and I love the one from The Book Thief!

  12. Maaany amazing books on this list! I definitely love the one from The Phantom Tollbooth – I feel like that entire book as a whole is just so quotable and wonderful 😀

  13. Great quotes! East of Eden is one of my favorite books, and that quote represents such a core theme–excellent choice. Your list also made me want to drop what I’m doing and read In the Name of the Wind, which I’ve got waiting for me on my bookshelf. 🙂

    Thanks for sharing your picks!

  14. Love the To Kill A Mockingbird quote…gotta read that one again!!

  15. Love, love, love your Harper Lee quote! That’s the most fantastic thing. 😀

    My TTT

  16. So…on this group read that Carl’s been hosting of the Mistborn trilogy, several people have recommended The Name of the Wind to me to try next. So it was fun to see it come up in your list here.

  17. Fantastic quotes! The only books I’ve read on your list is Harry Potter, and I must say that particular HP quote has me in tears every time, and The Book Thief… but I honestly want to read the rest of them just to get to those quotes!

  18. That Harry Potter quote kills me every single time.

  19. I’m so glad you included that East of Eden quote — I really need to reread it. If my baby turns out to be a boy we are naming him Cal after East of Eden. 🙂

  20. They’re all beautiful! I especially love The Wednesday Wars and The Book Thief quotes – two of my very favorites as well.

  21. I love the quote from ‘East of Eden’. I just read it this year and it’s one of my new favorites.

  22. That Harry quote gets me every time. I love this list! Another great balance of different books! (You also reminded me my husband wrote a guest post about Moby Dick and I have yet to look it over. ha ha)

  23. Great list, April! Love the To Kill a Mockingbird quote 🙂

  24. Every single time I read that Harry Potter quote you featured I get chills and want to bust out bawling. I completely forgot about To Kill a Mockingbird and that quote is amazing – love all of your choices!

  25. I have a couple of quotes from East of Eden today too. Such a great book!

  26. Man, that Harry Potter quote was SUCH A PUNCH TO THE GUT! I actually forgot about it, it’s so underrated! Kind of disappointing he didn’t say it in the film, James doesn’t get enough credit. Thank you for sharing these quotes, they’re beautiful.

  27. Now it’s my turn to cry! Ahhhh! That Harry Potter quote!

    I love the quote from the Jennifer Donnelly novel as well. Can you imagine? Wow.

    Great choices. I seriously could talk about each of them.

  28. I legit just teared up reading the HP quote. GOD that part in the audiobook had me bawling my effing eyes out on the way to work at 5am in my car. My heart just stopped doing anything that it was supposed to be doing. I almost died. True story.

  29. Awww I should have remembered that TKAM quote! THIS is why I need to write more of my favorites down. Great list 🙂

  30. In my original draft of this TTT I had the SAME quote from Looking for Alaska!! I had three from that book though, so I had to narrow it down! Ha! Also, I think I need to read Northern Light now!

  31. Ok, so I must now read The Book Thief. I don’t know why I hadn’t needed to before, but I have been convinced. 🙂 Awesome list!

  32. Great post! I might shamelessly pilfer the idea for my blog some day. I love reading awesome quotes out of context because you can find your own meaning to them. One of my favorite ways to make up story ideas is to read quotes out of context, decide what they mean to me or one of my potential characters, and build a story around them. These are pure fiction fodder! Thanks for sharing!

    Blog: lkhill.blogspot.com

  33. To Kill a Mockingbird, A Northern Light, The Book Thief and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Um, hello. You totally just name dropped and quoted four of my very favorite books. Like you, I am SO GLAD I found your blog. I have decided, based on your fabulous reading taste, that I will basically read anything you tell me to. I trust your opinion that much.

  34. I love the quote you chose from The Book Thief, love it!

  35. Oh my gosh, the Harry Potter one makes me want to hear up just reading that tiny little bit.

    The one from To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my personal favorites, too.

    Laura @ The Traveling Owl

  36. Until the very end.

    UGLY CRYING FOREVER.

  37. 10 is my favorite part of East of Eden. I love the whole explanation of timshel. And, I’m teary-eyed just from reading number 8.

  38. I love the HP and Looking for Alaska ones! Making my list made me want to reread Harry Potter so bad. Oh, the nostalgia!

  39. Amazing top10 April!! LOVE LOVE LOVE all these quotes <3 🙂

  40. Jasmine Rose says

    I adore The Phantom Tollbooth, but I’m terrible at remembering quotes. This one is so completely true, though. You’ve inspired me to read it again :]

  41. I’ve been saving this on my Google Reader forever meaning to tell you how much I love your quotes <3

    They are very insightful and intelligent and awesome.

  42. Great list of quotes. I’m a big fan of John Green, glad you used a picture quote for ‘Looking for Alaska’. I also like the ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ quote. =)