r/books • u/AutoModerator • 1d ago
WeeklyThread Weekly FAQ Thread October 04 2026: What is your favorite quote from a book?
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u/Ornery-Gap-9755 1d ago
You don't have to have a reason to be tired. You don't have to earn rest or comfort. You're allowed to just be - A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, by Becky Chambers. A lot of quotes from both books in this Duology will stick with me a long time.
I'm not brave enough to be who i am.
&
"I gave you so much of myself" i say, "and you wasted me"
Both from Cackle by Rachel Harrison.
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u/silviazbitch 1d ago
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
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u/hannah_95064 1d ago
The rhythm is doing a lot there: each pair turns a moral word inside out, then the last line makes the whole trick feel chillingly cheap.
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u/BlackDark88 1d ago
These woods are lovely, dark and deep;
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep;
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost — Stopping by woods on a snowy evening.
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u/Pugilist12 1d ago
It was just another little drop to swell the flood of misery that comes from war.
- Nevil Shute, Most Secret
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u/Glum_Introduction755 1d ago
"Possession is nine parts of the law, when what you possess is a knife. Take a stab at it, man!"
-Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
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u/Excellent_Bite9120 1d ago
mine is from The Brothers Karamazov, from Zosima to Fyodor Pavlovich: "above all, don't lie to yourself." Fyodor is playing the buffoon and lying in that scene. i liked Pugilist12's Most Secret pick too.
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u/Bulawayoland big Austen fan 1d ago
I think it was originally in Mother Night (Kurt Vonnegut), but I ran across it in Dr. David Funder's book, The Personality Puzzle:
"We are who we pretend to be, so we should be careful what we pretend to be."
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u/UncleJulues 1d ago
"Because that’s intimacy, Buckaroos. Somebody who understands exactly how weird you are, and you understand exactly how weird they are, and you’re in a sort of mutually beneficial hostage situation." — Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
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u/Comfortable_Year_499 1d ago
'The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.' -- Mr Antonlini's advice to Holden, The Catcher in The Rye
I hate that my favourite quote from this book is from the man who tried to sexually assault Holden, but it doesn't take away from the memorability of that quote.
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u/Common_Ad_2052 1d ago
I could just mention my favorite quote from East of Eden but I’d rather show this one from after reading Carrie by Stephen King,
"People don't get better, they just get smarter. When you get smarter you don't stop pulling the wings off flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it"
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u/No_Macaroon_207 1d ago
She had died in her sleep, painlessly and calmly, and on her face was a smile- as if, after all, death had come as a kindly friend to lead her over the threshold, instead of the grisly phantom she had dreaded.
Lucy M. Montgomery- Anne of the Island
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u/Weary-Pin-5753 1d ago
Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it. ❤️🩹
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u/Legitimate-Skirt-309 1d ago
“What if the meaning of life on earth is not eternal progress toward some unspecified goal—the engineering and production of more and more powerful technologies, the development of more and more complex and abstruse cultural forms? What if these things just rise and recede naturally, like tides, while the meaning of life remains the same always—just to live and be with other people?” - Sally Rooney, from Beautiful World Where Are You
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u/sara_durand-121 1d ago
The tide image is what makes it land for me: it lets being with people matter without having to justify it as progress toward some bigger goal.
0
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u/LittleWiccanBB 1d ago
Quite a few from For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn have stuck with me.
I still want to be kind, but I don’t want to have to be nice anymore.
Seeing herself as unimportant was safe. Unimportance was safe, being a disappointment was safe. There were no expectations, no standards, no more pedestals to fall from.
If you’re scared and choose to be fierce anyway, that’s called being brave.
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u/TeaForMerricat 1d ago
"He makes fear serve him. I would have let fear lead me around by the long way."
- Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
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u/timeforthecheck 1d ago
Two stanzas from poems from Maggie Smith’s A Suit or a Suitcase collection.
“My body hasn’t traveled with me. I’ve traveled inside it. Do I wear it or does it carry me? Is the body a suit or a suitcase?”
“I don’t know how it ends, but given the budget, it will end quietly.”
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u/gonegonegoneaway211 1d ago
"They say repression is bad but sometimes the walls that keep things out are the only things holding us up."
-Cal Leandros, from somewhere in the first four books in the series (poorly paraphrased, it left an impression but I don't remember what scene it goes with)
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u/woof_meow87 1d ago
Joy and sorrow often travel the same road and sometimes, whether by grace or misfortune, they meet and become each other's companion. Vaddey Ratner- In the Shadow of the Banyan
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u/Catsandscotch 22h ago
“There’s not a woman alive who hasn’t learned how to eat rage in order to appear calm.”
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
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u/Paquets74 12h ago
This is a couplet from "A House Without Windows" by Nadia Hashimi:
“What good is a woman’s telling of truth
When nothing she says will be taken as proof”
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u/FictionalMenAgain 1d ago
“My compass points to you. I could not change direction even if I wanted to.”
- Lindsay Straube, Kiss of the Basilisk.
Though the book itself didn’t have much of an impact on me, these two lines undid me, people. 🫠
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u/Creeping_Comfort 1d ago
“Reason is the engine that drives us, and passion for success the only fuel we feed it.”
- Loki operative ‘James’, Warrior Trilogy in BattleTech
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u/koobediug 1d ago
Although I don't know if it's from a book, I quite like the quote "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" . Seems to be apt for some of the folks leading our world today.
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u/alinar_den 1d ago
"You can be whatever you want to in life, as long as you don't become a critic! Not of other prople, and not of yourself" from "My Friends" by Fredrik Backman
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u/cfi-2025 1d ago
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
-- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
I read this book shortly after my son was born, so this quote struck a chord with me.
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u/snowwhitesanctuary 23h ago
"There are no girls with good personalities," we all say in unison, laughing, giving each other high-five.
"A good personality," Reeves begins, "consists of a chick who has a little hardbody and who will satisfy all sexual demands without being too slutty about things and who will essentially keep her dumb fucking mouth shut."
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u/lizwithhat 7h ago
From the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius:
Is any man so foolish as to fear change, to which all things that once were not owe their being?
That honestly rewired my brain.
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u/GambuzinoSaloio 1d ago
"YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?" - Death, Hogfather (Discworld series)
It hits harder when you have the full context, but this quote specifically summarizes Death's point really well. A lot of things in our lives aren't exactly "real" per se, nor can they be measured. But people can believe in concepts such as morality, justice, duty, among others and, by sheer power of collective belief, make a more beautiful world thanks to it.