George R.R. Martin once said " I have lived a thousand lives and loved a thousand loves. I've walked on distant worlds and seen the end of time. Because I read." I have yet to love the thousand lives he has, but I have lived plenty of them. Sometimes when you're reading a book, an unexpected quote jumps at and stares right at you. Together these eight quotes from my some of my favorite books had me "struck to the bone in a moment of breathless delight." Do enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea.
1. "Across the Universe" by Beth Revis.
“We all die someday. Maybe the only thing that makes that fact bearable is the idea that death is the only way we can return to the stars.”
2. "The Time Keeper" by Mitch Albom.
"Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. an alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.”
3. "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight, and turning my head to watch it, I saw that I was not alone -- fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor’s mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars.”
4. "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
“In a morbid condition of the brain, dreams often have a singular actuality, vividness and extraordinary semblance of reality. At times monstrous images are created, but the setting and the whole picture are so truth-like and filled with details so delicate, so unexpected, but so artistically consistent, that the dreamer, were he an artist like Pushkin or Turgenev even, could never have invented them in the waking state. Such sick dreams always remain long in the memory and make a powerful impression on the overwrought and deranged nervous system.”
5. "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell.
“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”
6. "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien.
“I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone.”
7. "1984" by George Orwell.
“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”
8. "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner.
“I just... feel like I need to save everyone. To redeem myself.”
9. "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley.
“I want to know what passion is. I want to feel something strongly.”
10. "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen.
“I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.”
