Literature Favorite Quotes

[Naril]

A line that comes to mind is from a scene in Terry Pratchett's novel Thud! -

"Indeed. But I think you misunderstand. I am not here to keep the darkness out. I am here to keep it in." There was a clink of metal as the shadowy watchman lifted a dark lantern and opened its little door. Orange light cut through the blackness. "Call me...the Guarding Dark. Imagine how strong I must be."

The entire scene is lovely, but this is the part that has lived in my mind, rent-free, for a very long time.

 

[Mitheral]

“I believe we have two lives; the lives we learn with and the lives we live with after that.” - The Natural.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

"We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit" - Aristotle

 

[Mitheral]

“I reckon you done what you done because you didn't know we was who we was. And if we hadn't been who we was, we'd have still been much obliged for you to have done what you done.”
JIM VARNEY - Jed Clampett

This one has always been a favorite.

 

[Naril]

These kind of things just spill out of my head. :3

The Brothers Strugatsky (Boris and Arkady) are often-overlooked science fiction authors these days, but the final line of Roadside Picnic is as uplifting as it is, given the rest of the novel, chilling:

"HAPPINESS FOR EVERYONE, FREE, AND MAY NO ONE BE LEFT BEHIND!"

The all-caps are original to the English translation. Unfortunately, I no longer remember enough Russian or Cyrillic to interrogate the original text.

Many of the ideas from the setting of Roadside Picnic, if not necessarily the world or the story, have been made into the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of video games. I like the book better.

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I have a longer discussion of how a particular scene from the film Lawrence of Arabia has been quoted, referenced, and given homage to a number of times, which makes me happy, but the original is still a good one. Here, the context is that the titular Lawrence has just (rather showily) put out a match by pinching the flame with his fingers. A nearby Army officer, William Potter, has just tried the same:

Potter (Surprised): Ooh, it damn well hurts!
Lawrence (Coolly): Certainly it hurts.
Potter (Indignant): What's the trick then?
Lawrence (Gently): The trick, William Potter, is not to mind that it hurts.

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N.K Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy shot through my brain and I've been thinking about it ever since. She really, really knows how to grab your attention. This happens fairly early in the first book, but I remember the feeling of wanting to know how the story was going to go from here, and of almost not being able to read fast enough.

"This is what you must remember: the ending of one story is just the beginning of another. This has happened before, after all. People die. Old orders pass. New societies are born. When we say, "the world has ended," it's usually a lie, because the planet is just fine.
But this is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
For the last time."

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How can you pick a favorite from Disco Elysium? I suppose I can try.

Kim Kitsuragi: Every school of thought and government has failed in this city -- but I love it nonetheless. It belongs to me as much it belongs to you.

And similarly:

Volition: This is somewhere to be. This is all you have, but it's still something. Streets and sodium lights. The sky, the world. You're still alive.

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Okay, one last one.

"Too many words," said Gideon confidentially. "How about these: One flesh, one end, bitch."

(From Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir.)

 

[winterhawk]

I love the way you see the world
I love the way your soul sings
I wish that I could sing like you
I wish that I could feel things
- The Telescope, Ghost Quartet

 

[Rusty of Shackleford]

"There's no mercy in war. People live and people die."
-Solo Wing Pixy, Ace Combat Zero

"War is where the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter to kill one another."
-Nico Bellic, Grand Theft Auto IV

"Who are you, who do not know your history?"
-Ulysses, Fallout New Vegas

 

[Badass_Username]

Trust your gut before head gets in the way.
James SA Corey

 

[Naril]

"Go loud."

Palamedes Sextus to Camilla Hecht, Gideon the Ninth

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"Go loud."

Camilla Hecht to Palamedes Sextus, Nona the Ninth


Oh, my heart.

 

[Speed]

“When does a man die? When he is hit by a bullet? No! When he suffers a disease? No! When he ate a soup made out of a poisonous mushroom? No! A man dies when he is forgotten!”

 

[Purr]

“When does a man die? When he is hit by a bullet? No! When he suffers a disease? No! When he ate a soup made out of a poisonous mushroom? No! A man dies when he is forgotten!”

Nice quote! Source, please?

 

[Speed]

Nice quote! Source, please?

Glad you liked it. Dr. Hiriluk from One Piece.

 

[Purr]

Thank you, Speed! =)

 

[Malphaestus]

“When does a man die? When he is hit by a bullet? No! When he suffers a disease? No! When he ate a soup made out of a poisonous mushroom? No! A man dies when he is forgotten!”

Based on:

“Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name. In some ways men can be immortal.”
--- Ernest Hemingway.

 

[Purr]

Based on:

“Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name. In some ways men can be immortal.”
--- Ernest Hemingway.

Malphaestus Oh and you provided background! Highly cool of you! Thank you!

Hemingway is so deep. I blame all of his cats. =)

 

[ThAtGuY101]

Quotes by the wise Diogenes;

"What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others"

"Of what use is a philosopher who does not hurt anybody's feelings?"

"I pissed on a man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?"

 

[vada]

From The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, which was recommended to me by moonrise

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”

“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”

“We were like gods at the dawning of the world, and our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”

“He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.”

 

[vada]

“Grief is like a splinter deep into every fingertip; to touch anything is torture.”
― Erin Kelly, Broadchurch

“There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is seeing something that isn’t there.”
― Erin Kelly, Broadchurch

 

[moonrise]

honestly, i'd toss the entire script for the princess bride in here if i could--

From The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller:

"He is half of my soul, as the poets say."

"In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun."

These two lines completely broke me.

vada thank you for reading it with me

 

[thewindow]

I was just talking about this quote with someone so I'm gonna post it here

"I love no one but you, I have discovered, but you are far away and I am here alone. Then this is my life and maybe, however unlikely, I'll find my way back there. Or maybe, one day, I'll settle for second best. And on that same day, hell will freeze over, the sun will burn out and the stars will fall from the sky."

From Daniel Handler, who some of you might know by his pseudonym Lemony Snicket, his stories have very much become my comfort books

 

[sailorsdelight]

Based on:

“Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name. In some ways men can be immortal.”
--- Ernest Hemingway.

reminds me of Terry Pratchett!

A man is not dead while his name is still spoken.

Going Postal, Terry Pratchett

GNU Terry Pratchett (:

 

[sailorsdelight]

to contribute with a quote that's been on my mind a lot lately:

The past tense is a very sturdy thing. It's earned, but it does take for granted that one has survived.

Lady Jane Franklin, The Terror episode 4: "Punished, as a Boy"

 

[RVJarrett]

"Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved."

 

[Rusty of Shackleford]

"In the end, you are always alone in your actions."
-Dragon Age 2

 

[Purr]

"Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved."

Source, please? =)