Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday (November 17, 2015)



Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish




Top Ten Quotes I Loved From Books I Read In The Past Year Or So:

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. ~ Opening line from One-Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Two moments later she was kneeling by her bed and weeping silently into the worn cover. She should rather have prayed? But she believed she was praying. ~ Narrative regarding Sarah from The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles

So, I’m Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I’ll be able to make people read my books now. ~ Claudius from I, Claudius by Robert Graves

All the seven deadly sins are peccadilloes but without three of them, Pride, Lust and Sloth, poetry might never have been born. ~ Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

A World is supported by four things…the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these are as nothing…without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. ~ Dune by Frank Herbert

…there never were greed and cunning in the world yet, that did not do too much and overreach themselves. It is as certain as death. ~ David Copperfield from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep… ~ Philip Marlowe from The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

…the Cross that took away indignity from suffering and made pain and poverty a means of fellowship with Christ. ~ Bishop Jean Marie Latour from Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

All he did was smile and say, “Take care of yourself, Denver.” But she heard it as though it were what language was made for. ~ Narrative from Beloved by Toni Morrison
Wanderer's Commentary:  It IS what language was made for.

Only those who still have hope can benefit from tears. But to those without hope, like Homer, whose anguish is basic and permanent, no good comes from crying. ~ Narrative from The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve. ~ the Priest from AFarewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway


And in tiny little font, so I don’t seem too emphatic, and too fussy, but I want to point out these are quotations, not quotes.

7 comments:

  1. Lol that one from I, Claudius.
    I expressed similar thoughts to that Big Sleep one the other day when discussing insurance and funeral expenses.
    Great quotes. Here are mine.

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  2. Great buffet for book lovers! Thanks for the posting. Another approach would be top-ten opening lines in books. Perhaps I'll do that one of these days. One certainly comes to mind given recent events: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . "

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  3. I LOVE One Hundred Years of Solitude and Beloved. Two of my favorite authors :)

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    1. They're two excellent ones. Thanks for the feedback.

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  4. I have yet to read a Charles Dickens, but love the DC quote! I really really really want to read One Hundred Years of Solitude! What a starting sentence! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Expect the unexpected from 100 Years. If I could only recommend one Dickens novel it would be A Tale of Two Cities...but most consider David Copperfield his best.

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