Top Ten Picks: Favorite Book Quotes

Monday, August 30, 2010


Random Ramblings asked the question, what are your top 10 favorite quotes from books, authors, and writers. I love this one, but it's hard to narrow it down. Here's what I came up with...

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." - Douglas Adams

"I ordered a coffee and a little something to eat and savoured the warmth and dryness. I watched the rain beat down on the road outside and told myself that one day this would be twenty years ago." - Bill Bryson (Notes From a Small Island)

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” - Roald Dahl

"Humans are divided between those who can still look through the eyes of youth and those who cannot." - Dave Eggers

"What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?" - E. M. Forster

"Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.” - Jack Kerouac

"Her kiss was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering." - Nicole Krauss (The History of Love)

"Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination." - Jhumpa Lahiri

"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." - Edgar Allan Poe

"After all, what was the whole wide world but a place for people to yearn for their heart's impossible desires, for those desires to become entrenched in defiance of logic, plausibility, and even the passage of time, as eternal as polished marble." - Richard Russo


Do you guys have any favorite author quotes?

8 comments:

Natalie~Coffee and a Book Chick said...

Love these quotes -- good choices! I don't know if I have a top 10 in my head, but usually my favorite quotes come about from what I'm currently reading -- like The Handmaid's Tale! There are so many to choose from there!

Enbrethiliel said...

+JMJ+

I recognise the E.M. Forster quote from A Room with a View! =)

What a great, balanced, eclectic selection, Avid Reader! I enjoyed going through them.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Thanks guys!

Coffee- I agree that it's hard to choose. I'm always writing down new quotes from whatever I'm reading at the moment.

TexasRed said...

Great quotes! I especially love the Douglas Adams quote.

Jeanne said...

I do love to see anyone quote Douglas Adams!

Here's one I like from Margaret Atwood: "never pray for justice, because you might get some."

nat @book, line, and sinker said...

i love bill bryson and you picked a great quote. i turned my favorite book quotes into artwork--http://booklineandsinker.com/2010/04/19/ive-been-framed/--and plan to create more once i finish redecorating my office. :)

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Texas - Adams is never quoted enough.

Jeanne - I love that Atwood quote! It's so true.

Nat - That's such a wonderful idea! I did something similar ...
http://avidreader25.blogspot.com/2010/02/wedding-centerpieces.html
...but I love your pictures of the actual texts. Brilliant!

Jenners said...

These are some great quotes!! Love them!! I really liked the Eggers, the Nicole Krauss One and of course, Lahiri!