While scrolling through Facebook this week (which, not surprisingly, is where I get most article ideas), I saw an article about the top 51 quotes in literature. Unfortunately I haven't had time to read much these days, but reading has always been a deep love of mine, and so seeing those quotes made me smile. I'd actually read almost every book they mentioned. So I thought - why not look through the books on my bookshelf? I underline in all of them so I never forget the quotes that packed a punch the first time around (and then underline in different colors on the rereading, because although I have 100 books I've never even opened yet, there are some I can't leave alone after just one read through).
So this week, I've decided to pick out my favorite quotes from books sitting on my bookshelf currently (there's a lot to choose from... I have a whole wall of books!). Hopefully you'll appreciate these quotes as much as I do. When I read these books, these are the quotes that hit me so hard I had to stop reading for a minute - they're good ones.
1. "For you, a thousand times over." Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
2. “Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all.” Beloved, Toni Morrison
3. "Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe." Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom
4. "War never stops; it only pauses." Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom
5. “Hunger of the body is altogether different from the shallow, daily hunger of the belly. Those who have known this kind of hunger cannot entirely love, ever again, those who have not.” Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
6. "When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that." Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
7. “I'm not saying that everything is survivable. Just that everything except the last thing is.” Paper Towns, John Green
8. "No one dies for anything anymore." Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
9. "If your belly was empty and you saw whole baskets of bread on the other side of a window, would you continue waiting patiently? Or would you throw a rock?" Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
10. "Sometimes life doesn't give you all that many chances at being good." Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
11. "Faith is only a word, embroidered." Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
12. “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.” Crazy Love, Francis Chan
13. "You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope." The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
14. "In the English language there are orphans and widows, but there is no word for the parents who lose a child." My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult
15. "Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations." Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
16. “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.” Looking for Alaska, John Green
17. "When you love someone, you say their name different. Like it's safe inside your mouth." Handle with Care, Jodi Picoult
18. "Even our beliefs have become trend statements." Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
19. "I love to give to charity, but I don't want to be charity. This is why I have so much trouble with grace." Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
20. "I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it." Wild, Cheryl Strayed
21. "Words are like nets - we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, or grief, or wonder." Change of Heart, Jodi Picoult
Obviously there are more. There are so many more. If I had the time to flip through every page of every book in my room right now, I'd probably come up with a hundred more. But these few are a good start. If you haven't read some of these books, definitely look into them (and other books these authors have written). Words are powerful; I hope I showed that. And I hope you keep looking for more powerful words and phrases out there!
