Novel

Explore 898 quotes from the following medium: Novel

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1 of 898

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

Yann Martel

Life of Pi (novel)

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Topic

Doubt and skepticism

Author

Yann Martel

Source

Life of Pi (novel)

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2001 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Knopf Canada, 2001, ch. 7.

2 of 898

Hello babies. Welcome to earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies- "God damn it, you've got to be kind."

Kurt Vonnegut

More information about this quote

Topic

Kindness How to behave

Speaker

Eliot Rosewater

Author

Kurt Vonnegut

Source

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965, ch. 7.

3 of 898

Longing on a large scale is what makes history.

Don DeLillo

More information about this quote

Topic

Forces of history Desire

Author

Don DeLillo

Source

Underworld

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1997 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

DeLillo, Don. Underworld. Scribner, 1997, prologue.

4 of 898

We have to live without sympathy, don't we? That's impossible of course. We act it to one another, this hardness; but we aren't like that really. I mean... One can't be out in the cold all the time; one has to come in from the cold... Do you see what I mean?

John le Carré

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

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Topic

Vulnerability

Speaker

Control

Author

John le Carré

Source

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Medium

Novel

Genre

Spy novel Spy

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Carré, John le. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Victor Gollancz & Pan, 1963, ch. 2.

5 of 898

The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.

Kate Chopin

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Topic

Sound of water Ocean and sea

Author

Kate Chopin

Source

The Awakening

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1899 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Chicago and New York: Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1899, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." The Awakening and Selected Stories. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 6.

6 of 898

For the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her.

Kate Chopin

The Awakening

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Topic

Experiencing things

Author

Kate Chopin

Source

The Awakening

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1899 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Chicago and New York: Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1899, ch. 39.

Current Citation

Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." The Awakening and Selected Stories. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 39.

7 of 898

The first breath of adultery is the freest; after it, constraints aping marriage develop.

John Updike

Couples

More information about this quote

Topic

Infidelity

Author

John Updike

Source

Couples

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Couples. Alfred A. Knopf, 1968, ch. 5.

8 of 898

It came to him that he had turned away from the buffalo not because of a womanish nausea at blood and stench and spilling gut; it came to him that he had sickened and turned away because of his shock at seeing the buffalo, a few moments before proud and noble and full of the dignity of life, now stark and helpless, a length of inert meat, divested of itself, or his notion of its self, swinging grotesquely, mockingly, before him. It was not itself; or it was not that self that he had imagined it to be. That self was murdered; and in that murder he had felt the destruction of something within him, and he had not been able to face it. So he had turned away.

John Williams (novelist)

Butcher's Crossing

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Topic

Animal cruelty Man and animals Interconnectedness of all things

Author

John Williams (novelist)

Source

Butcher's Crossing

Medium

Novel

Genre

Western fiction Western

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Williams, John. Butcher's Crossing. Macmillan, 1960, pt. 2, ch. 5.

9 of 898

We have two lives...The life we learn with and the life we live with after that.

Bernard Malamud

The Natural

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Topic

Life lessons

Speaker

Iris Lemon

Author

Bernard Malamud

Source

The Natural

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Malamud, Bernard. The Natural. Harcourt Brace and Company, 1952.

10 of 898

Through his passion nature has given man into woman's hands, and the woman who does not know how to make him her subject, her slave, her toy, and how to betray him with a smile in the end is not wise.

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Venus in Furs

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Topic

Men and women

Speaker

Madame Venus

Author

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Source

Venus in Furs

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1870 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Sacher-Masoch, Leopold. Venus im Pelz [Venus in Furs]. Stuttgart, 1870.

Current Citation

Sacher-Masoch, Leopold. Venus in Furs, translated by Joachim Neugroschel. Penguin Classics, 2000.

11 of 898

You live all your life on lies, and then maybe when you're ready to die, it comes to you-that there's nothing, nothing but yourself and what you could have done.

John Williams (novelist)

Butcher's Crossing

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Topic

Living inauthentically Lying to oneself Regrets

Speaker

J.D. McDonald

Author

John Williams (novelist)

Source

Butcher's Crossing

Medium

Novel

Genre

Western fiction Western

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Williams, John. Butcher's Crossing. Macmillan, 1960, pt. 3, ch. 1.

12 of 898

How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea... All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Zorba the Greek

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Topic

The little things Happiness

Author

Nikos Kazantzakis

Source

Zorba the Greek

Medium

Novel

Language

Greek

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kazantzakis, Nikos. Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά [Life and State of Alexis Zorba]. Athens: Dimitrakou, 1946, ch. 7.

Current Citation

Kazantzakis, Nikos. Zorba the Greek, translated by Peter Bien. Simon & Schuster, 2014, ch. 7.

13 of 898

The great mystery is not that we should have been thrown down here at random between the profusion of matter and that of the stars; it is that from our very prison we should draw, from our own selves, images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.

Andre Malraux

More information about this quote

Topic

The human condition

Speaker

Walter

Author

Andre Malraux

Source

The Walnut Trees of Altenburg

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Malraux, Andre. Les Noyers de l'Altenburg [The Walnut Trees of Altenburg]. Gallimard, c. 1948.

14 of 898

When you love someone you leave every possibility open to them, and in spite of all the memories of the past you are ready to be surprised, again and again-surprised, at how different they are, how various, not a finished image.

Max Frisch

I'm Not Stiller

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of love Love

Speaker

Julika Stiller-Tschudy

Author

Max Frisch

Source

I'm Not Stiller

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1954 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Frisch, Max. Stiller [I'm Not Stiller]. Suhrkamp, 1954, bk. 2.

15 of 898

Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father's heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?

Thomas Wolfe

More information about this quote

Topic

Existential solitude

Author

Thomas Wolfe

Source

Look Homeward, Angel

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age

Language

English

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929, foreword.

16 of 898

From the earliest times, human civilization has been no more than a strange luminescence growing more intense by the hour, of which no one can say when it will begin to wane and when it will fade away. For the time being, our cities still shine through the night, and the fires still spread.

Max Sebald

The Rings of Saturn

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Topic

Civilization

Author

Max Sebald

Source

The Rings of Saturn

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sebald, Winfried Georg. Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt [The Rings of Saturn: An English Pilgrimage]. Eichborn, 1995, pt. 7.

17 of 898

To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.

Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice

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Topic

Dancing Falling in love

Author

Jane Austen

Source

Pride and Prejudice

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1813 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Vol. 1, London: Thomas Egerton, 1813, ch. 3.

Current Citation

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Penguin Books, 2002, ch. 3.

18 of 898

There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.

Mark Twain

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Topic

Embellishment Truth

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature Adventure novel

Language

English

Time

1884 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. London: Chatto & Windus, 1884, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, edited by R. Kent Rasmussen. Penguin Classics, 2014, ch. 1.

19 of 898

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

Albus Dumbledore

Quoted in Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, by J.K. Rowling

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Topic

Courage Friends and enemies

Speaker

Albus Dumbledore

Author

J.K. Rowling

Source

Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1997 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Bloomsbury, 1997, ch. 17.

20 of 898

Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters.

Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises

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Topic

Living life to the fullest

Speaker

Jake Barnes

Author

Ernest Hemingway

Source

The Sun Also Rises

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926, bk. 1, ch. 2.