Classic Quotes

“As we sin, so must we suffer.”
― Stephen A. Reger, Storm Surge: Book Two of the Stormsong Trilogy

“In his entire life, Father Abaddon Sohar had never seen anything like what was in that cell, and he knew instantly that at least one of those fantastic tales of the monstrous birth of some grotesque abomination was, in fact, very, very true.”
― Stephen A. Reger, Storm Surge: Book Two of the Stormsong Trilogy

“„Was glänzt ist für den Augenblick geboren; Das Echte bleibt der Nachwelt unverloren.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, First Part

“You must come to Lockleigh again," said Miss Molyneux, very sweetly, to Isabel, ignoring this remark of Isabel's friend. Isabel looked into her quiet eyes a moment, and for that moment seemed to see in their grey depths the reflexion of everything she had rejected in rejecting Lord Warburton—the peace, the kindness, the honour, the possessions, a deep security and a great exclusion. She kissed Miss Molyneux and then she said: "I'm afraid I can never come again.”
― Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

“She is
a poem.

She is an old one, a new one,
one waiting to be written.

She is.”
― N'Zuri Za Austin

“The whole detachment was so quite that I could distinctly hear all the mingling sounds of night, so full of enchanting mystery: the mournful howling of distant jackals, now like a despairing lament, now like laughter; the sonorous, monotonous song of crickets, frogs, quails; a rumbling noise whose cause baffled me and which seemed to be coming even nearer; and all of Nature's barely audible nocturnal sounds that defy explanation or definition and merge in one rich, beautiful harmony that we call the stillness of the night.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories

“He seemed so confident that I, remembering my own confidence two nights before and with the baneful result, felt awe and vague terror. It must have been my weakness that made me hesitate to tell it to my friend, but I felt it all the more, like unshed tears.”
― Bram Stoker, Bram Stoker's Dracula

“I did make a mistake in judging Anne, but it weren't no wonder, for an odder, unexpecteder witch of a child there never was in this world, that's what. There was no ciphering her out by the rules that worked with other children. It's nothing short of wonderful how she's improved these three years, but especially in looks. She's a real pretty girl got to be, though I can't say I'm overly partial to that pale, big-eyed style myself. I like more snap and color, like Diana Barry or Ruby Gillis. Ruby Gillis' looks are real showy. But somehow- I don't know how it is but when Anne and them are together, though she ain't half as handsome, she makes them look kind of common and overdone- something like them white June lilies she calls narcissus alongside of the big, red peonies, that's what.”
― L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“All the evil in man, one would think, should disappear on contact with Nature, the most spontaneous expression of beauty and goodness.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych & Other Stories

“My Great-aunt Squintina (grand-mother of Cousin Tabitha Twitchit) -- died of a thimble in a Christmas plum pudding.

I never put any article of metal in MY puddings or pies.

(Explained by the very elegantly attired Duchess, at a luncheon party.)”
― Beatrix Potter, The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan

“,,,Art is something which, though produced by human hands, is not wrought by hands alone, but wells up from a deeper source, from man’s soul”_Page.268”
― Vincent van Gogh, The letters vincent van gogh

“Anyone who leads an upright life and experiences real difficulty and disappointment and yet is not crushed by them is worth more than one for whom everything has always been plain sailing and who has known nothing but relative prosperity”_Page.52”
― Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

“,,,can you tell what goes on within by looking at what happens without? There may be a great fire in your soul, but no one ever comes to warm himself by it, all that passers-by can see is a little smoke coming out of the chimney and they walk on”_Page.70-71”
― Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

“How does one become mediocre? By complying with and conforming to one thing today and another tomorrow, as the world dictates, by never contradicting the world and by heeding public opinion”_Page.250”
― Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

“Fru Alving. Gjengangeraktig. Da jeg hørte Regine og Osvald der inne, var det som jeg så gjengangere for meg. Men jeg tror nesten vi er gjengangere alle sammen, pastor Manders. Det er ikke bare det vi har arvet fra far og mor som går igjen i oss. Det er alle slags gamle avdøde meninger og alskens gammel avdød tro og slikt noe. Det er ikke levende i oss; men det sitter i allikevel, og vi kan ikke bli det kvitt.”
― Henrik Ibsen

“Los retratos que se han hecho de mí, sin ningún parecido con el original, son principalmente debidos a mi reserva en el hablar. La multitud es demasiado superficial, demasiado inatenta para tomarse el tiempo requerido, para ver a los individuos tal como son.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'outre-tombe

“he sought her lips again...now you know what i have been fighting against since last summer at grand isle; what drove me away and drove me back again...i couldn't help loving you if you were ten times his wife...”
― Kate Chopin, The Awakening

“messenger: polybos was not your father.
oedipus: not my father!
messenger: no more your father than the man speaking to you.
oedipus: but you are nothing to me!
messenger: neither was he.”
― Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone

“I need a watchman to go forth and proclaim to them all that twenty-six years is too long to play a joke on anybody, no matter how funny it is. (pg. 182)”
― Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman

“Welcome to my house. Come freely; and leave something of the happiness you bring”
― Bram Stoker, Dracula

“Police internal affairs is your classic rigged system.”
― Steven Magee

“Thus the ideal marriage at the end of a Jane Austen novel is not simply a conventional happy ending . . . It offers itself as an emblem of the ideal union of property and propriety -- a model to be emulated, a paradigm for a more general combination of the two on which the future of her society depends.”
― Tony Tanner, Jane Austen

“.....that for people to benefit by what they repeat or read, it is rather necessary they should understand something about it.
~ A Child's History Of England”
― Charles Dickens, A Childs History of England also a Holiday Romance and Other Pieces

“This book is written for all those who loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when they were young, and those who love it now. It's for anyone who wants to know a bit more about how it came to be, how it managed to permeate readers' worlds and the world at large, and how it has endured so happily for fifty years - and counting.”
― Lucy Mangan, Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory: The Complete Story of Willy Wonka, the Golden Ticket, and Roald Dahl's Most Famous Creation.

“Gente alicorta, ¿qué más os hace falta para entender? ¿Es que no sabéis que la humanidad puede seguir viviendo sin los ingleses, sin Alemania y, por descontado, sin los rusos; que es posible vivir sin ciencia, vivir sin pan, pero en cambio es imposible vivir sin belleza, pues no habría nada que hacer en el mundo? ¡Ahí está todo el secreto, ahí está toda la historia. ¡Nos precipitaríamos en la barbarie...”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons

“Sospeché de inmediato que, si usted me evitaba, era porque estaba casado y no porque me despreciase. Comprendí que era a mí, a una insensata como yo, a quien trataba de proteger con su huida. Ya ve como aprecio su generosidad. Me he quemado en una vela, nada más. Tampoco quiero ser la enfermera de un corazón herido”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons

“...been a spring-time in the haggard winter of his life.”
― Charles Dickens, A Chistmas Carol

“this look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven, and fiends will snatch at it. cold, cold, my girl? even like thy chastity.”
― William Shakespeare

“The dragon is withered,
His bones are now crumbled;
His armour is shivered,
His splendour is humbled!
Though sword shall be rusted,
And throne and crown perish
With strength that men trusted
And wealth that they cherish,
Here grass is still growing,
And leaves are yet swinging,
The white water flowing,
And elves are yet singing
Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
Come back to the valley!”
― Tolkien J.R.R

“The dragon is withered,
His bones are now crumbled;
His armour is shivered,
His splendour is humbled!
Though sword shall be rusted,
And throne and crown perish
With strength that men trusted
And wealth that they cherish,
Here grass is still growing,
And leaves are yet swinging,
The white water flowing,
And elves are yet singing
Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
Come back to the valley!

The stars are far brighter
Than gems without measure,
The moon is far whiter
Than silver in treasure:
The fire is more shining
On hearth in the gloaming
Than gold won by mining,
So why go a-roaming?
O! Tra-la-la-lally
Come back to the Valley.”
― Tolkien J. R. R.