Novel

Explore 898 quotes from the following medium: Novel

To please women you either have to be carefree and play the fool or else be tragic and passionate. When you say to them quite simply that you love them, women laugh at you.

Gustave Flaubert

Sentimental Education

More information about this quote

Topic

Men and women

Speaker

Frederic Moreau

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Sentimental Education

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1869 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. L'Education sentimentale [Sentimental Education]. Paris: Michel Levy, 1869, pt. 3, ch. 3.

Current Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Sentimental Education, translated by Patrick Coleman and Helen Constantine. Oxford University Press, 2016, pt. 3, ch. 3.

Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.

Vladimir Nabokov

More information about this quote

Topic

Mystery of death Life and death Death

Speaker

John Shade

Author

Vladimir Nabokov

Source

Pale Fire

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nabokov, Vladimir. Pale Fire. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962.

In every human being a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place, and often it is only the clothes that keep the male or female likeness, while underneath the sex is the very opposite of what it is above.

Virginia Woolf

More information about this quote

Topic

Gender roles Gender

Author

Virginia Woolf

Source

Orlando

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. Hogarth Press, 1928, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. Penguin Classics, 2019, ch. 4.

Love's a disease. But curable.

Rose Macaulay

More information about this quote

Topic

Love

Speaker

Denham Dobie

Author

Rose Macaulay

Source

Crewe Train

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Macaulay, Rose. Crewe Train. W. Collins Sons & Co./Boni and Liveright, 1926, ch. 13.

Current Citation

Macaulay, Rose. Crewe Train. Virago, 2018, ch. 13.

I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use—silence, exile and cunning.

James Joyce

The Egoist

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Topic

Society and the individual Personal integrity Authenticity Self-expression Being true to oneself

Speaker

Stephen

Author

James Joyce

Source

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man The Egoist

Medium

Novel Magazine

Genre

Modernist literature

Language

English

Time

1915 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Joyce, James. "A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man." The Egoist. 2 Feb. 1914 - 1 Sept. 1915. Serial.

Current Citation

Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, edited by John Paul Riquelme. W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, ch. 5.

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression "As pretty as an airport."

Douglas Adams

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

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Topic

Airports Travel Architecture

Author

Douglas Adams

Source

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Medium

Novel

Genre

Detective fiction

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adams, Douglas. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. William Heinemann, 1988, ch. 1.

Both destiny's kisses and its dope-slaps illustrate an individual person's basic personal powerlessness over the really meaningful events in his life: i.e. almost nothing important that ever happens to you happens because you engineer it. Destiny has no beeper; destiny always leans trenchcoated out of an alley with some sort of Psst that you usually can't even hear because you're in such a rush to or from something important you've tried to engineer.

David Foster Wallace

Infinite Jest

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Topic

Destiny

Author

David Foster Wallace

Source

Infinite Jest

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1996 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wallace, David Foster. Infinite Jest. Little, Brown and Company, 1996.

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

Hunter S. Thompson

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

More information about this quote

Topic

Drugs

Author

Hunter S. Thompson

Source

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Opening lines

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Thompson, Hunter S. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream." Rolling Stone Magazine, 11 Nov. 1971.

The real offence, as she ultimately perceived, was her having a mind of her own at all. Her mind was to be his—attached to his own like a small garden-plot to a deer-park.

Henry James

The Atlantic Monthly/Macmillan's Magazine

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Topic

Oppression of women Men and women

Author

Henry James

Source

The Portrait of a Lady The Atlantic Monthly/Macmillan's Magazine

Medium

Novel Magazine

Language

English

Time

1881 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, Henry. "The Portrait of a Lady." The Atlantic Monthly/Macmillan's Magazine, 1880–81.

Current Citation

James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady, edited by Roger Luckhurst. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Too much happens... Man performs, engenders, so much more than he can or should have to bear. That's how he finds that he can bear anything... That's what is so terrible.

William Faulkner

Light in August

More information about this quote

Topic

Adaptability The human condition

Speaker

Reverend Gail Hightower

Author

William Faulkner

Source

Light in August

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Faulkner, William. Light in August. Smith & Haas, 1932, ch. 13.

Current Citation

Faulkner, William. Light in August, edited by Melanie Taylor. W. W. Norton & Company, 2022, ch. 13.

Everything that is thought and expressed in words is one-sided, only half the truth; it all lacks totality, completeness, unity.

Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha

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Topic

Limits of language Nature of reality

Speaker

Siddhartha

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Siddhartha

Medium

Novel

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha: Eine Indische Dichtung [Siddhartha: An Indian Poetry]. S. Fischer Verlag, 1922.

Current Citation

Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha, translated by Joachim Neugroschel. Penguin Classics, 2002.

In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine.

Milan Kundera

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

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Topic

Nostalgia

Author

Milan Kundera

Source

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Medium

Novel

Language

Czech

Time

1984 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kundera, Milan. L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être [The Unbearable Lightness of Being]. Gallimard, 1984.

Current Citation

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, translated by Michael Henry Heim. Harper Perennial, 2009.

Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.

Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha

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Topic

Wisdom Knowledge Limits of language

Speaker

Siddhartha

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Siddhartha

Medium

Novel

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha: Eine Indische Dichtung [Siddhartha: An Indian Poetry]. S. Fischer Verlag, 1922.

Current Citation

Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha, translated by Joachim Neugroschel. Penguin Classics, 2002.

None among us is superman enough to escape kitsch completely. No matter how we scorn it, kitsch is an integral part of the human condition.

Milan Kundera

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

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Topic

Kitsch

Author

Milan Kundera

Source

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Medium

Novel

Language

Czech

Time

1984 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kundera, Milan. L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être [The Unbearable Lightness of Being]. Gallimard, 1984.

Current Citation

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, translated by Michael Henry Heim. Harper Perennial, 2009.

You must find your dream, then the way becomes easy.

Hermann Hesse

Demian

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More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of life Vocation

Speaker

Frau Eva

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Demian

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Language

German

Time

1919 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Herman. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend [Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth]. Fischer Verlag, 1919.

Current Citation

Hesse, Herman. Demian, translated by Damion Searls. Penguin Classics, 2013.

It was one of those events which at a crucial stage in one's development arrive to challenge and stretch one to the limit of one's ability and beyond, so that thereafter one has a new standard by which to judge oneself.

Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day

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Topic

Overcoming obstacles Personal growth

Author

Kazuo Ishiguro

Source

The Remains of the Day

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. Faber & Faber, 1989.

Several excuses are always less convincing than one.

Aldous Huxley

More information about this quote

Topic

Excuses

Speaker

Walter Bidlake

Author

Aldous Huxley

Source

Point Counter Point

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huxley, Aldous. Point Counter Point. Chatto & Windus/Doubleday Doran, 1928, ch. 1.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Douglas Adams

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

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Topic

Things work out Unintended consequences Serendipity Good luck

Author

Douglas Adams

Source

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Medium

Novel

Genre

Detective fiction

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adams, Douglas. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. William Heinemann, 1988, ch. 13.

Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog.

Roald Dahl

Matilda

More information about this quote

Topic

Going for it

Author

Roald Dahl

Source

Matilda

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature

Language

English

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dahl, Roald. Matilda. Viking Kestrel, 1988.

Without the cold war, what's the point of being an American?

John Updike

More information about this quote

Topic

Cold War America

Author

John Updike

Source

Rabbit at Rest

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1990 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Rabbit at Rest. Alfred A. Knopf, 1990, ch. 3.