Novelist

Explore 912 quotes by Novelists

Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

Mark Twain

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Topic

Conservatism Progress

Speaker

Mark Twain

Source

Consistency (speech) Speeches of Mark Twain

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1884 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. "Consistency." Hartford Monday Evening Club. 5 Dec. 1884, Hartford, CT, USA.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "The Czar's Soliloquy." Collected Nonfiction of Mark Twain. Vol. 1, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.

The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him; they crush those beneath them.

Emily Brontë

Wuthering Heights

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Topic

Shit rolls downhill Human nature

Speaker

Heathcliff

Author

Emily Brontë

Source

Wuthering Heights

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1847 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Brontë, Emily, [published as Ellis Bell]. Wuthering Heights. Vol. 1, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights, edited by Alexandra Lewis. W. W. Norton & Company, 2019, ch. 11.

There is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.

Herman Melville

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

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Topic

Man and animals

Author

Herman Melville

Source

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1851 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. London: Richard Bentley/New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851, ch. 87.

Current Citation

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick or, The Whale. Penguin Classics, 2002, ch. 87.

See many skies and seas.

Gustave Flaubert

More information about this quote

Topic

Broadening one's horizons Travel

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Advice

Language

French

Time

1857 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to Mademoiselle Leroyer de Chantepie. c. 1840.

The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is.

Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time

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Topic

Travel Discovery Different perspectives Empathy

Author

Marcel Proust

Source

The Prisoner In Search of Lost Time

Medium

Novel

Genre

Modernist literature

Language

French

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Proust, Marcel. La Prisonnière [The Prisoner]. Paris: Gallimard, 1923.

Current Citation

Proust, Marcel. The Prisoner. Penguin Classics, 2019.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

George Eliot

Felix Holt, the Radical

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Topic

Campaign promises Politics and lies Political campaigns Elections Politics

Speaker

Felix Holt

Author

George Eliot

Source

Felix Holt, the Radical

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1866 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Eliot, George. Felix Holt, the Radical. Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1866, ch. 5.

Current Citation

Eliot, George. Felix Holt, the Radical, edited by Lynda Mugglestone. Penguin Classics, 1995, ch. 5.

Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Marble Faun

More information about this quote

Topic

Passage of time Effects of time Time

Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Source

The Marble Faun

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1860 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni. Vol. 2, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1860, ch. 24.

Current Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Marble Faun, edited by Susan Manning. Oxford University Press, 2009, ch. 24.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita

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Author

Vladimir Nabokov

Source

Lolita

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Opening lines Assonance

Language

English

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. Olympia Press, 1955, ch. 1.

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

Victor Hugo

More information about this quote

Topic

Limits of language

Author

Victor Hugo

Source

William Shakespeare

Language

French

Time

1864 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hugo, Victor. William Shakespeare. Paris: Lacroix & Verboeckhoven & Cie, 1864, pt. 1, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford

Molly Bawn

More information about this quote

Topic

Preferences Beauty Relativism

Speaker

Marcia

Author

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford

Source

Molly Bawn

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1878 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Hungerford, Margaret Wolfe. Molly Bawn. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz/Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1878.

There are no foreign land; it is the traveller only that is foreign.

Robert Louis Stevenson

More information about this quote

Topic

Travel

Author

Robert Louis Stevenson

Source

The Silverado Squatters

Genre

Autobiography and memoir Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Silverado Squatters. London: Chatto & Windus, 1883, pt. 2, ch. 3.

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

William Faulkner

Requiem for a Nun

More information about this quote

Topic

Effects of the past Past and present The past

Speaker

Stevens

Author

William Faulkner

Source

Requiem for a Nun

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Faulkner, William. Requiem for a Nun. Random House, 1951.

Current Citation

Faulkner, William. Requiem for a Nun. Vintage, 2012.

Other people's words are the bridge you use to cross from where you were to wherever you're going.

Zadie Smith

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of words Language

Author

Zadie Smith

Source

That Crafty Feeling Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays

Medium

Essay

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

2010 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Smith, Zadie. "That Crafty Feeling." 24 Mar. 2008, Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA. Lecture.

We are all travellers in what John Bunyan calls the wilderness of this world....and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend.

Robert Louis Stevenson

More information about this quote

Topic

Friends Existential solitude Travel

Author

Robert Louis Stevenson

Source

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes

Genre

Autobiography and memoir Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1879 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1879.

Current Citation

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. Dover Publications, 2019.

His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide. He heard what her eyes said to him from beneath their cowl and knew that in some dim past, whether in life or reverie, he had heard their tale before.

James Joyce

The Egoist

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Topic

Being in love Memory

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. 2.

When the lambs is lost in the mountain, he said. They is cry. Sometime come the mother. Sometime the wolf.

Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West

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Topic

Predator and prey Dangerous world

Author

Cormac McCarthy

Source

Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West

Medium

Novel

Genre

Western literature

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West. Random House, 1985, ch. 5.

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Marthe Troly-Curtin

Phrynette Married

More information about this quote

Topic

Leisure Killing time Time

Author

Marthe Troly-Curtin

Source

Phrynette Married

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1912 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Troly-Curtin, Marthe. Phrynette Married. The Macmillan Company of Canada, 1912.

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.

Thomas Pynchon

Gravity's Rainbow

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More information about this quote

Topic

Questions Questioning authority The man Politics

Author

Thomas Pynchon

Source

Gravity's Rainbow

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow. Viking Press, 1973.

There's no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves.

Frank Herbert

More information about this quote

Topic

Balance Flexibility Adaptability Waves

Speaker

Darwi Odrade

Author

Frank Herbert

Source

Chapterhouse: Dune

Genre

Science fiction

Statement Type

Advice Zen koan

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Herbert, Frank. Chapterhouse: Dune. Putnam, 1985.

The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one’s own.

Willa Cather

The Professor's House

More information about this quote

Topic

Limits of knowledge Inscrutability Connecting with others Intimacy

Author

Willa Cather

Source

The Professor's House

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cather, Willa. The Professor's House. Alfred A. Knopf, 1925, bk. 1, ch. 8.