Novelist

Explore 912 quotes by Novelists

Tis not the dying for a faith that's so hard, Master Harry-every man of every nation has done that-'tis the living up to it that's difficult.

William Makepeace Thackeray

The History of Henry Esmond

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Topic

Dying for one's religion

Speaker

The Trooper

Author

William Makepeace Thackeray

Source

The History of Henry Esmond

Medium

Novel

Genre

Historical fiction

Language

English

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thackeray, William Makepeace. The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1852, bk. 1, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Thackeray, William Makepeace. The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. Penguin Classics, 1970, bk. 1, ch. 6.

There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years.

Willa Cather

O Pioneers!

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Topic

Plus ça change Stories The human condition

Speaker

Carl (O Pioneers!)

Author

Willa Cather

Source

O Pioneers!

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1913 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Cather, Willa. O Pioneers! Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913, pt. 2, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Cather, Willa. O Pioneers, edited by Sharon O'Brien. W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, pt. 2, ch. 4.

People live through such pain only once. Pain comes again-but it finds a tougher surface.

Willa Cather

The Song of the Lark

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Topic

Pain Thick skin Toughness

Author

Willa Cather

Source

The Song of the Lark

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1915 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Cather, Willa. The Song of the Lark. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915, pt. 2, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Cather, Willa. The Song of the Lark. Vintage, 1999, pt. 2, ch. 11.

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending

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Topic

History

Speaker

Adrian Finn

Author

Julian Barnes

Source

The Sense of an Ending

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2011 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Jonathan Cape/Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, ch. 2.

God made man, without man's consent, and made his nature, too; made it vicious instead of angelic, and then said, Be angelic, or I will punish you and destroy you. But no matter, God is responsible for everything man does, all the same; He can't get around that fact. There is only one Criminal, and it is not man.

Mark Twain

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Topic

God and man Nature of God God

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Little Bessie Fables of Man

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. "Little Bessie." Fables of Man. University of California Press, 1972, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "Little Bessie." The Devil's Race-Track: Mark Twain's "Great Dark" Writings. University of California Press, 2005, ch. 2.

Nature has left this Tincture in the Blood,
That all Men wou'd be Tyrants if they cou'd.

Daniel Defoe

More information about this quote

Topic

Tyranny Abuse of power Human nature

Author

Daniel Defoe

Source

The History of the Kentish Petition

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1701 1700s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Defoe, Daniel. The History of the Kentish Petition. London, 1701.

If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.

John Green

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Topic

Opposites attract Metaphor, analogy and simile

Author

John Green

Source

Looking for Alaska

Medium

Novel

Genre

Young adult fiction

Language

English

Time

2005 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Green, John. Looking for Alaska. Dutton Juvenile, 2005.

Learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do.

Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose

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Topic

Learning Wisdom

Speaker

William

Author

Umberto Eco

Source

The Name of the Rose

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Eco, Umberto. Il nome della rosa [The Name of the Rose]. Bompiani, 1980.

Current Citation

Eco, Humberto. The Name of the Rose, translated by William Weaver. HarperVia, 2014.

Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

The Way of All Flesh

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Topic

Artistic expression

Author

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

Source

The Way of All Flesh

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Butler, Samuel. The Way of All Flesh. Grant Richards, 1903, ch. 14.

Current Citation

Butler, Samuel. The Way of All Flesh. Everyman's Library, 1993, ch. 14.

War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.

Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West

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Topic

Man and war War

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. 17.

Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe.

David Foster Wallace

2005 Kenyon College commencement address

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Read this speech at purdue.edu

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Topic

Narcissism Perception vs. reality The universe

Speaker

David Foster Wallace

Source

2005 Kenyon College commencement address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Commencement address

Language

English

Time

2005 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Wallace, David Foster. Commencement address at Kenyon College. Commencement. 21 May 2005, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA.

Current Citation

Wallace, David Foster. This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion about Living a Compassionate Life. Little, Brown and Company, 2009.

I am not over-fond of resisting temptation.

William Beckford

Vathek

More information about this quote

Topic

Temptation

Speaker

Vathek

Author

William Beckford

Source

Vathek

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1786 1780s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Beckford, William [published anonymously]. An Arabian Tale, From an Unpublished Manuscript, translated by Samuel Henley. London: J. Johnson, 1786.

Current Citation

Beckford, William. Vathek, translated by Samuel Henley. Oxford University Press, 2013.

My heart was a habitation large enough for many guests, but lonely and chill, and without a household fire. I longed to kindle one! It seemed not so wild a dream.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter

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Topic

Loneliness

Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Source

The Scarlet Letter

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1850 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter: A Romance. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1850, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter, edited by Brian Harding. Oxford University Press, 2009, ch. 4.

What you end up remembering isn't always the same as what you have witnessed.

Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending

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Topic

Memory

Author

Julian Barnes

Source

The Sense of an Ending

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2011 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Jonathan Cape/Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, ch. 1.

I don't mind if you don't like my manners. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings.

Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep

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Topic

Manners

Speaker

Philip Marlowe

Author

Raymond Chandler

Source

The Big Sleep

Medium

Novel

Genre

Detective fiction

Statement Type

Sarcasm

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep. Alfred A. Knopf, 1939, ch. 3.

Sin is a queer thing. It isn't the breaking of divine commandments. It is the breaking of one's own integrity.

D.H. Lawrence

More information about this quote

Topic

Sin

Author

D.H. Lawrence

Source

Studies in Classic American Literature

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lawrence, D.H. Studies in Classic American Literature. Thomas Seltzer, 1923, ch. 8.

Some say that we shall never know, and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer's day, and some say, to the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God.

Thornton Wilder

The Bridge on San Luis Rey

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More information about this quote

Topic

God and man God and nature

Author

Thornton Wilder

Source

The Bridge on San Luis Rey

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1927 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Albert & Charles Boni, 1927.

Current Citation

Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Vintage, 2023.

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

W. Somerset Maugham

More information about this quote

Topic

Moral principles Moral flexibility

Speaker

C.C.

Author

W. Somerset Maugham

Source

The Circle

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Statement Type

Irony

Language

English

Time

1921 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. The Circle: A Comedy in Three Acts. 3 Mar. 1921, Haymarket Theatre, London, England, UK, act 3.

Current Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. The Circle: A Comedy in Three Acts. Cornell University Library, 2009, act 3.

When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the "big canoe" of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the viper whose sting is destined to poison all their joys.

Herman Melville

Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life

More information about this quote

Topic

European imperialism

Author

Herman Melville

Source

Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life

Language

English

Time

1846 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Melville, Herman. Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. New York: Wiley and Putnam/London: John Murray, 1846, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Melville, Herman. Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. Dover Publications, 2019, ch. 4.

The future belongs to crowds.

Don DeLillo

More information about this quote

Topic

The masses The crowd Individual vs. the collective

Author

Don DeLillo

Source

Mao II

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1991 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

DeLillo, Don. Mao II. Scribner, 1991.