Novelist

Explore 912 quotes by Novelists

Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.

Charles Dickens

Great Expectations

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Topic

Doubt and skepticism Evidence Appearance vs. reality

Speaker

Mr. Jaggers

Author

Charles Dickens

Source

Great Expectations

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Dickens, Charles. "Great Expectations." All the Year Round. London: Chapman and Hall, 18 May 1861, ch. 40.

Current Citation

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Penguin Classics, 2002, ch. 40.

Let us leave pretty women to men with no imagination.

Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time

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Topic

Beautiful women

Author

Marcel Proust

Source

The Fugitive In Search of Lost Time

Medium

Novel

Genre

Modernist literature

Language

French

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Proust, Marcel. Albertine disparue [Albertine Gone]. Paris: Gallimard, 1927.

Current Citation

Proust, Marcel. The Fugitive, edited and translated by Peter Collier. Penguin Classics, 2021.

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. It certainly may secure all the myrtle and turkey part of it.

Jane Austen

Mansfield Park

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Topic

Money and happiness Wealth

Speaker

Mary Crawford

Author

Jane Austen

Source

Mansfield Park

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1814 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park. Vol. 2, London: Thomas Egerton, 1814, ch. 22.

Current Citation

Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 22.

What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon? And the day after that, and the next thirty years?

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

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Topic

Purpose of life Killing time

Speaker

Daisy Buchanan

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source

The Great Gatsby

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925, ch. 7.

Here’s the rule for bargains—“Do other men, for they would do you.” That’s the true business precept.

Charles Dickens

The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit

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Topic

Dog eat dog world Business

Speaker

Jonas Chuzzlewit

Author

Charles Dickens

Source

The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1843 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Dickens, Charles. "The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit." London: Chapman and Hall, May 1843, issue 5, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Dickens, Charles. Martin Chuzzlewit. Oxford UP, 2009, ch. 11.

One never ceases to make a hero of one's self (in private).

Mark Twain

The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today

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Topic

Delusion Self-aggrandizement Ego

Author

Mark Twain

Source

The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1873 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark and Charles Dudley Warner. The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1873, ch. 10.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark and Charles Dudley Warner. "The Gilded Age." Mark Twain: The Gilded Age and Later Novels, edited by Hamlin Hill. Library of America, 2002, ch. 10.

Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.

Margaret Mitchell

Gone with the Wind

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Topic

Expectations Entitlement

Author

Margaret Mitchell

Source

Gone with the Wind

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1936 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind. Macmillan Publishers, 1936, pt. 5, ch. 53.

Current Citation

Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind. Scribner, 2007, pt. 5, ch. 53.

If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets.

Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore

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Topic

Memory

Speaker

Miss Saeki

Author

Haruki Murakami

Source

Kafka 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.

A divorce is like an amputation: you survive but there's less of you.

Margaret Atwood

Surfacing

More information about this quote

Topic

Divorce Broken relationships Relationships Marriage

Author

Margaret Atwood

Source

Surfacing

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing. McClelland and Stewart, 1972, ch. 5.

The cruellest lies are often told in silence.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Virginibus Puerisque

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Topic

Lies

Author

Robert Louis Stevenson

Source

Virginibus Puerisque

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1881 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Stevenson, Robert Louis. "Truth of Intercourse." Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1881, pt. 1, ch. 4.

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

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Topic

The rich

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source

The Great Gatsby

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925, ch. 9.

The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little by way of example.

Mark Twain

A Tramp Abroad

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Topic

The Church Hypocrisy and religion Hypocrisy Religion

Author

Mark Twain

Source

A Tramp Abroad

Genre

Travel writing

Language

English

Time

1880 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. A Tramp Abroad. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1880, ch. 36.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "A Tramp Abroad." Mark Twain: A Tramp Abroad, Following the Equator, Other Travels, edited by Roy Blount, Jr. Library of America, 2010, ch. 36.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

George Eliot

Silas Marner

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Topic

Anticipation Disappointment

Speaker

Nancy Lammeter

Author

George Eliot

Source

Silas Marner

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Eliot, George. Silas Marner. Edinburgh/London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1861, ch. 18.

Current Citation

Eliot, George. Silas Marner. Signet, 2007, ch. 18.

I can't stand it to think my life is going so fast and I'm not really living it.

Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises

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Topic

Passage of time Aging Living life to the fullest Wasting time Life

Speaker

Robert Cohn

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.

Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.

Mary Shelley

Frankenstein

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Topic

Innovation Creativity Invention

Author

Mary Shelley

Source

Frankenstein

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1831 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus. Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831, introduction.

Current Citation

Shelley, Mary. "Introduction to Frankenstein, Third Edition (1831)." Frankenstein: The 1818 Text. Penguin Classics, 2018.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

Charles Dickens

Our Mutual Friend

More information about this quote

Topic

Vulnerability Patience Gentleness

Speaker

Jenny Wren aka Fanny Cleaver

Author

Charles Dickens

Source

Our Mutual Friend

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1865 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Dickens, Charles. "Our Mutual Friend." All the Year Round. London: Chapman and Hall, Mar. 1865, pt. 11, bk. 3, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend, edited by Adrian Poole. Penguin, 1998, bk. 3, ch. 2.

It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea

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Topic

Luck Preparation

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.

He took it for granted that she was content; and she resented his settled calm, his serene dullness, the very happiness she herself brought him.

Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary

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Topic

Relationship challenges Relationships

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. 1, ch. 7.

When you hurt people, they begin to love you less. That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.

Arundhati Roy

The God of Small Things

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Topic

Hurting others

Speaker

Ammu

Author

Arundhati Roy

Source

The God of Small Things

Medium

Novel

Genre

Post-colonial literature

Language

English

Time

1997 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. Random House, 1997, ch. 1.

Keep your clothes neat and tidy; it gives you self-confidence and composure in your bearings.

Leo Tolstoy

More information about this quote

Topic

Clothes make the man Dressing well Clothing Confidence

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

Journals of Leo Tolstoy

Medium

Personal journal

Statement Type

Advice

Language

Russian

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Tolstoy's Diaries, edited and translated by R. F. Christian. Vol. 1, Faber and Faber, 2010. Originally diary entry, 6 Jan. 1854.