Whitney > Whitney's Quotes

“What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?”
― V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

“The old gods may be great, but they are neither kind nor merciful. They are fickle, unsteady as moonlight on water, or shadows in a storm. If you insist on calling them, take heed: be careful what you ask for, be willing to pay the price. And no matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark.”
― V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

“Because time is cruel to all, and crueler still to artists. Because visions weakens, and voices wither, and talent fades.... Because happiness is brief, and history is lasting, and in the end... everyone wants to be remembered”
― V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

“And taking pride in your beauty is a damning act. Because you allow yourself to believe that the only thing notable about yourself is something with a very short shelf life.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“It’s always been fascinating to me how things can be simultaneously true and false, how people can be good and bad all in one, how someone can love you in a way that is beautifully selfless while serving themselves ruthlessly.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“A swamp knows all about death, and doesn’t necessarily define it as tragedy, certainly not a sin.”
― Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing

“If love is a thing held in common, I suppose we had that in common, too.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“Betrayal. Translation means doing violence upon the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So then where does that leave us? How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal?”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“There was no straddling the line; he knew that now. No stepping back and forth between two worlds, no seeing and not seeing, no holding a hand over one eye or the other like a child playing a game. You were either a part of this institution, one of the bricks that held it up, or you weren’t.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“This is how colonialism works. It convinces us that the fallout from resistance is entirely our fault, that the immoral choice is resistance itself rather than the circumstances that demanded it.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“But who, in living history, ever understands their part in the tapestry?”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

“No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck.”
― Erich Maria Remarque

“The mind destroys, the heart devours.”
― Ann Liang, A Song to Drown Rivers

“History seemed to be holding its breath, gazing down upon us.”
― Ann Liang, A Song to Drown Rivers

“When men say they want a lover, what they often mean is they want a mirror; they wish to see themselves reflected back at them in the best light.”
― Ann Liang, A Song to Drown Rivers

“Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“The fates were laughing at me, at Athena, at all of us. It was their favorite bitter joke: those who fight against prophecy only draw it more tightly around their throats.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“All those years of pain and wandering. Why? For a moment’s pride. He would rather be cursed by the gods than be No one.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“Loyal, songs called her later. Faithful and true and prudent. Such passive, pale words for what she was.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“What hope was there then if you could outrun the disease but not the hate and stigma?”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“A good lie’s always easier to stomach than the truth.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“The dead have no right to privacy–even if a part of them is still alive.”
― Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

“The more one contemplates the hot viruses, the less they look like parasites and the more they look like predators.”
― Richard Preston, The Hot Zone: the Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus

“Who would dream that one can love without being crushed under the weight of it?”
― Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest

“I remember thinking: How dare the sun rise, as if it were any other day, after such a gruesome night.”
― Sandra Uwiringiyimana, How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child

“To me, the allure of history lay in the minutiae of life long ago, the untold secrets of ordinary people.”
― Sarah Penner, The Lost Apothecary

“Want is a kind of thief. It’s a door in your heart, and once you know it’s there, you’ll spend your life longing for whatever’s behind it.”
― Emily Henry, Happy Place

“I’ve put so much time and distance between myself and that lonely girl, and what does it matter? Here is a piece of my past, right in front of me, miles away from home. You can’t outrun yourself. Not your history, not your fears, not the parts of yourself you’re worried are wrong.”
― Emily Henry, People We Meet on Vacation