Novelist

Explore 912 quotes by Novelists

No people in the world ever did achieve freedom by goody-goody talk and moral suasion: it being immutable law that all revolutions that will succeed must begin in blood.

Mark Twain

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

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Topic

Limits of nonviolence Nonviolence Revolution

Author

Mark Twain

Source

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1889 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. A Yankee in King Arthur's Court. New York: Charles L. Webster and Co., 1889, ch. 20.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, edited by Henry B. Wonham. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, ch. 20.

No matter how a man alone ain't got no bloody fucking chance.

Ernest Hemingway

To Have and Have Not

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Topic

Man as social animal

Speaker

Harry Morgan

Author

Ernest Hemingway

Source

To Have and Have Not

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1937 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hemingway, Ernest. To Have and Have Not. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937, ch. 23.

Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things.

Willa Cather

Death Comes for the Archbishop

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Topic

Technological progress Technology Progress Modern life The human condition

Speaker

Eusabio

Author

Willa Cather

Source

Death Comes for the Archbishop

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1929 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Cather, Willa. Death Comes for the Archbishop. Alfred A. Knopf, 1927, bk. 9, ch. 6.

The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Radicalism Conservatism Progress

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 31. Originally from Notebook, c. 1897

Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces,—and as it gets older and stronger it will tear deeper,—love her, love her, love her!

Charles Dickens

Great Expectations

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Topic

Vulnerability Commitment Love

Speaker

Miss Havisham

Author

Charles Dickens

Source

Great Expectations

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Statement Type

Orders and commands

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Dickens, Charles. "Great Expectations." All the Year Round. London: Chapman and Hall, 30 Mar. 1861, issue 17, ch. 29.

Current Citation

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Penguin Classics, 2002, ch. 29.

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.

Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary

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Topic

Limits of language Language

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Madame Bovary

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1856 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary: Moeurs de Province [Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners]. Revue de Paris, 1 Oct. 1856 - 15 Dec. 1856. Serial.

Current Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary, edited and translated by Lydia Davis. Penguin Classics, 2011, pt. 2, ch. 12.

Shut your eyes and see.

James Joyce

Ulysses

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Topic

Perception Observation

Author

James Joyce

Source

Ulysses

Medium

Novel

Genre

Modernist literature

Statement Type

Orders and commands Zen koan

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Joyce, James. Ulysses. Shakespeare and Company, 1922, bk. 1, ch. 3.

Current Citation

Joyce, James. The Cambridge Centenary Ulysses: The 1922 Text with Essays and Notes, edited by Catherine Flynn. Cambridge University Press, 2022, ch. 3.

Memories warm you up from the inside but they also tear you apart.

Haruki Murakami

Kakfa on the Shore

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Topic

Memories Nostalgia The past

Author

Haruki Murakami

Source

Kakfa on the Shore

Medium

Novel

Language

Japanese

Time

2002 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Murakami, Haruki. 海辺のカフカ [Kafka on the Shore]. Shinchosha, 2002.

An uneasy conscience is a hair in the mouth.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Guilty conscience Conscience

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 35. Originally from Notebook, c. 1904.

Pretty girls make graves.

Jack Kerouac

The Dharma Bums

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Topic

Beautiful women Beauty Dangers of love

Author

Jack Kerouac

Source

The Dharma Bums

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1958 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kerouac, Jack. The Dharma Bums. Viking Press, 1958, ch. 5.

There are no second acts in American lives.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

More information about this quote

Topic

Second chances Redemption America

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source

The Last Tycoon

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Last Tycoon. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1941, notes.

Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same colour as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.

Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea

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Topic

Eyes Inner strength

Author

Ernest Hemingway

Source

The Old Man and the Sea

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.

John Steinbeck

East of Eden

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Topic

Perfection Expectations

Author

John Steinbeck

Source

East of Eden

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. The Viking Press, 1952, ch. 53, pt. 3.

Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.

Leo Tolstoy

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Topic

Nature of art Purpose of art Art

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

What Is Art?

Medium

Essay

Language

Russian

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. What is Art? London: The Brotherhood Publishing Company, 1898.

Current Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. What Is Art? Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Penguin Classics, 1996.

He folded his fear into a perfect rose. He held it out in the palm of his hand. She took it from him and put it in her hair.

Arundhati Roy

The God of Small Things

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Topic

Vulnerability Fear

Author

Arundhati Roy

Source

The God of Small Things

Medium

Novel

Genre

Post-colonial literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1997 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. Random House, 1997, ch. 21.

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.

Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre: An Autobiography

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Topic

Female independence Independence Freedom

Speaker

Jane Eyre

Author

Charlotte Brontë

Source

Jane Eyre: An Autobiography

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Language

English

Time

1847 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Brontë, Charlotte, [published as Currer Bell]. Jane Eyre: An Autobiography. Vol. 2, London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1847, ch. 23.

Current Citation

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Penguin Classics, 2006, ch. 23.

Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Topic

The rich Economic inequality

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source

The Rich Boy

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "The Rich Boy." Redbook, Jan. - Feb. 1926.

Current Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "The Rich Boy." F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, All the Sad Young Men & Other Writings 1920-1926, edited by James L. W. West, III. Library of America, 2022.

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it.

Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness

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Topic

Anti-imperialism Imperialism

Author

Joseph Conrad

Source

Heart of Darkness

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1899 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness." Blackwood's Magazine. London and Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, Feb. 1899 - Apr. 1899.

Current Citation

Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness." Heart of Darkness and Other Tales, edited by Cedric Watts. Oxford University Press, 2008, ch. 1.

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Martyrdom

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 33. Originally from Notebook, 23 May 1903.

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird

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Topic

Empathy Perspective

Speaker

Atticus Finch

Author

Harper Lee

Source

To Kill a Mockingbird

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1960, ch. 3.