This post is sharing all the bookish quote love, which makes me so happy I could dance a jig. Quotes and pretty line-age are my favorite. They make my heart sing and ache and I can’t describe how much I adore words, people.
So here is a generous handful — several handfuls, actually — of favorite quotes from my reads of twenty-fifteen.
(pretend it’s not Wednesday, everyone.)
“She didn’t like me,” the cat said, speaking in the language of his race. “I thought she’d say, ‘Oh, look at the fluffy sweetness!’ and fold me into her arms. Instead, she drew a knife on me.” — Golden Daughter
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“To Marcus, running with the rest, it seemed suddenly that there was no weight in his body, none at all. He was filled through and through with a piercing awareness of life and the sweetness of life held in his hollowed hand, to be tossed away like the shining balls that the children played with in the gardens of Rome. At the last instant, when the charge was almost upon them, he swerved aside from his men, out and back on his tracks, and flinging aside his sword, stood poised to spring, full in the path of the oncoming chariots.” — The Eagle of the Ninth
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“He had a heart that could have held the entire empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to content himself with a cellar.” ― The Phantom of the Opera
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“The only thing I’m afraid of about this country is that its government will someday become so monstrous that the smallest person in it will be trampled underfoot, and then it wouldn’t be worth living in.” ― Go Set a Watchman
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“Who can say what astonishments are hidden inside the most mundane being?” ― Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
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“Pascal,” said Dr. Meescham, “had it that since it could not be proven whether God existed, one might as well believe that he did, because there was everything to gain by believing and nothing to lose. This is how it is for me. What do I lose if I choose to believe? Nothing!”
“Take this squirrel, for instance. Ulysses. Do I believe he can type poetry? Sure, I do believe it. There is much more beauty in the world if I believe such a thing is possible.” ― Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
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“To die will be an awfully big adventure.” ― Peter Pan
“There could not have been a lovelier sight; but there was none to see it except a little boy who was staring in at the window. He had ecstasies innumerable that other children can never know; but he was looking through the window at the one joy from which he must be for ever barred.” ― Peter Pan
“It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this and you would find it very interesting to watch. It’s quite like tidying up drawers.” — Peter Pan
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“Don’t make the error of believing the papers know everything, and strive to know everything the papers won’t believe.” ― Anon, Sir, Anon
“Murder was the venality of theft combined with the cruelty of ending a life; it was robbing a person of their story. It was spilling blood over the best chapters of a book to purposely mar the sanctity of the tale.” — Anon, Sir, Anon
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“We give all we have, lives, property, safety, skill…we fight, we die, for a simple thing. Only that a man can stand up.” ― Johnny Tremain
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“If all men matter, all murders matter. That which He has so mysteriously created, we must not suffer to be mysteriously destroyed.” — The Quiet One, a Father Brown mystery
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“Everybody makes mistakes, some more than others, some bigger than others. And I’m sorry to say, you cannot move forward in life if you are continually looking over your shoulder.” ― Monster
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And now for a plethora of P.G. Wodehouse quotes because I discovered his delightful comedic literature in April and I love it with all the love. I could rave on about it for paragraphs, but I will be kind and refrain.
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“There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, ‘Do trousers matter?'”
“The mood will pass, sir.”
― The Code of the Woosters
“She laughed – a bit louder than I could have wished in my frail state of health, but then she is always a woman who tends to bring plaster falling from the ceiling when amused.” ― The Code of the Woosters
“I don’t know if you have had the same experience, but the snag I always come up against when I’m telling a story is this dashed difficult problem of where to begin it.” ― Right Ho, Jeeves
“Am taking legal advice to ascertain whether strangling an idiot nephew counts as murder. If it doesn’t look out for yourself.” ― Right Ho, Jeeves
“There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action.” ― Joy in the Morning
“A hoarse shout from within and a small china ornament whizzing past my head informed me that my old friend was at home.” ― Joy in the Morning
“I asked you to wear a pink chrysanthemum. So I could recognize you, you know.”
“I am wearing a pink chrysanthemum. I should have imagined that that was a fact that the most casual could hardly have overlooked.”
“That thing?” the other gazed disparagingly at the floral decoration. “I thought it was some kind of cabbage. I meant one of those what-d’you-may-call-its that people do wear in their button-holes.”
“Carnation, possibly?”
“Carnation! That’s right.”
Psmith removed the chrysanthemum and dropped it behind his chair. He looked at his companion reproachfully.
“If you had studied botany at school, comrade,” he said, “much misery might have been averted. I cannot begin to tell you the spiritual agony I suffered, trailing through the metropolis behind that shrub.” — Leave It to Psmith
“We must always remember, however,’ said Psmith gravely, ‘that poets are also God’s creatures.” ― Leave It to Psmith
“He picked up one of the dead bats and covered it with his handkerchief. ‘Somebody’s mother,’ he murmured reverently.” ― Leave It to Psmith
“It seems to me that you and I were made for each other. I am your best friend’s best friend and we both have a taste for stealing other people’s jewellery.” ― Leave It to Psmith
“One of the King Georges – I forget which – once said that a certain number of hours´ sleep each night – I cannot recall at the moment how many – made a man something which for the time being has slipped my memory.” ― Something Fresh
“Mr Beach was too well bred to be inquisitive, but his eyebrows were not.
“Ah!” he said.
‘?’, cried the eyebrows. ‘? ? ?’
Ashe ignored the eyebrows.
[…]
Mr Beach’s eyebrows were still mutely urging him to reveal all, but Ashe directed his gaze at that portion of the room which Mr Beach did not fill. He was hanged if he was going to let himself be hypnotized by a pair of eyebrows into incriminating himself.” ― Something Fresh
“You can’t rush up to pretty girls in the street and tell them you are lonely. At least, you can, but it doesn’t get you anywhere except the police station.” — A Damsel in Distress
“There are doubtless men so constructed that they can find themselves accepted suitors without any particular whirl of emotion. King Solomon probably belonged to this class, and even Henry the Eighth must have become a trifle blasé in time.” — The Intrusion of Jimmy
“What passed for brain in him was to genuine grey matter what just-as-good imitation coffee is to real mocha.” — The Intrusion of Jimmy
“Ashe! What are you doing?” Ashe paused a moment to reply. “I’m kissing you,” he said.
“But you mustn’t! There’s a scullery maid or somebody looking through the kitchen window. She’ll see us.”
Ashe drew her to him. “Scullery maids have few pleasures,” he said. “Theirs is a dull life. Let her see us.” — Something Fresh
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Alrighty, humans. Have you read any of these books this year? Which quote(s) I shared are your favorite? What are some of YOUR favorite quotes from 2015? SHARE WITH ME SO I MAY APPRECIATE THE WONDER TOO.
Curious Wren 