July 20, 2012

top ten...

In honor of Broke & Bookish, who I totally borrowed some book quotes from, I'm going to post a top ten list of some of MY favorite quotes taken from the written story.  These are in no particular order. (though I will tell you the one by Lewis is perhaps my most favorite ever!)

1. But then there are those whose minds are merely a bouquet of stalks that bud as they learn new information—a new bud for each new fact—but yet they never open, never flourish.  They are the people of capital letters and full stops but never of question marks and ellipses…(The Book of Tomorrow by Ceclia Ahern)

2. Fate never promises to tell you everything up front.  You aren’t always shown the path in life you’re supposed to take.  But if there was one thing she’d learned in the past few weeks, it was that sometimes, when you’re really lucky, you meet someone with a map. (The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen)

3. There were many kinds of loneliness, she discovered. There was the loneliness that came from understanding but not being understood. There was the loneliness of having no one to banter or argue with, no one to be challenged by. Loneliness at night was different from the daylight loneliness that sometimes overwhelmed her in the midst of a crowd. She became a connoisseur of loneliness, and the worst kind of all, she discovered, came after a night when she dreamed of Isaac laughing.(Children of God by Mary Doria Russell)

4.  It has seemed to him that unhappiness had its own distinct scent, and suddenly that sour, stale smell crept into his nostrils. Or maybe it was just acid fumes from the wine and dust from old record sleeves. (False Mermaid by Erin Hart)

5.  He had also discovered the outermost limit of faith and, in doing so, had located the exact boundary of despair. It was at that moment he learned, truly, to fear God. (The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell)

6. On the other hand, all those doubts which I had felt before I entered the cottage as to whether these creatures were friend or foe, and whether Ransom were a pioneer or a dupe, had for the moment vanished.  My fear was now of another kind.  I felt sure that the creature was what we call “good,” but I wasn’t sure whether I liked “goodness” so much as I had supposed.  This is a very terrible experience.  As long as what you are afraid of is something evil, you may still hope that the good may come to your rescue.  But suppose you struggle through to the good and find that it also is dreadful?  How if food itself turns out to be the very thing you can’t eat, and home the very place you can’t live, and your very comforter the person who makes you uncomfortable?  Then, indeed, there is no rescue possible: the last card has been played.  For a second or two I was nearly in that condition.  Here at last was a bit of that world from beyond the world, which I had always supposed that I loved and desired, breaking through and appearing to my senses: and I didn’t like it, I wanted it to go away.  I wanted every possible distance, gulf, curtain, blanket, and barrier to be placed between it and me.  But I did not fall quite into the gulf.  Oddly enough my very sense of helplessness saved me and steadied me.  For now I was quiet obviously “drawn in.”  The struggle was over.  The next decision did not lie with me. (Perelandra by C.S. Lewis)

7.   The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it, under its roof." (Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver)

8.  If God is anything like a middle-class white chick from the suburbs, which I admit is a long shot, it’s what you do about what you feel that matters. (The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell)

9. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.(The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams)

10. There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing. (Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury)

4 comments:

stephanie said...

I've only read 3 of these books. I don't think I could come up with a list of favorite quotes. Have missed your book reviews.

Sara said...

Thanks Stephanie :) It's been a crazy year, and I haven't been reading as much, but I might be able to whip one together :)

Valerie said...

I really like the quotes from the books by Mary Doria Russell. I may have to add her to my reading list.

Sara said...

Mom, those two (especially the first one) is a very tough read,as in, it's emotionally difficult to read, and if you don't handle horrid things real well, then I'd avoid it (it's one of the few that I require my teens to have permission from the mentor team before they attempt, even when they are in college, because of the content). Other than those two, Russell writes historical fiction, which I haven't read. But she IS a fantastic writer.