Joy > Joy's Quotes

“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Work: A Story of Experience

“Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable.”
― Amos Bronson Alcott, Tablets

“Books... are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

“A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.”
― Dorothy Sayers , Gaudy Night

“I know what you're thinking - that anybody with proper sensitive feelings would rather scrub floors for a living. But I should scrub floors very badly, and I write detective stories rather well. I don't see why proper feelings should prevent me from doing my proper job.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

“To subdue one's self to one's own ends might be dangerous, but to subdue one's self to other people's ends was dust and ashes. Yet there were those, still more unhappy, who envied even the ashy saltness of those dead sea apples.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

“A human being must have occupation if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world. ”
― Dorothy L. Sayers

“We shall know what things are of overmastering importance when they have overmastered us.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

“I think it's fair rude to make him a tree and not know what kind he is.”
― Tamora Pierce, Wolf-Speaker

“I'd like to find whoever taught the Stump that extra work builds character and push him down the stairs," Neal told Kel at lunch.”
― Tamora Pierce, First Test

“A crow may put on human shape or crow shape, but we remain crows,” he replied firmly. “Hawks, too, are the same, whether they are born in human nests or hawk ones. The nestlings must always be protected. Since you have chosen to protect these, I and mine will protect you.”
― Tamora Pierce, Trickster's Choice

“When people say a knight's job is all glory, I laugh and laugh and laugh. Often I can stop laughing before they edge away and talk about soothing drinks.”
― Tamora Pierce, Squire

“I will tell the stork-man.”
― Tamora Pierce

“Does anyone in this land act like they're supposed to?”
― Tamora Pierce, Wild Magic

“Military folk," Neal said with exaggerated patience, shaking his head. "The only way you know to solve problems is by beating them with a stick.”
― Tamora Pierce, Lady Knight

“What has that to do with the price of peas in Persopolis?”
― Tamora Pierce, The Realms of the Gods

“He's just rather more lively than most fossils.”
― Tamora Pierce

“Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“Jane, be still; don't struggle so like a wild, frantic bird, that is rending its own plumage in its desperation."
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.”
― Charlotte Brontë , Jane Eyre

“Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal — as we are!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

“Imagination is the highest kite that can fly.”
― Lauren Bacall, By Myself and Then Some

“If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?”
― Isak Dinesen

“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”
― Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa

“God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.”
― Isak Dinesen

“In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines
Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines
In two straight lines they broke their bread
And brushed their teeth and went to bed.
They left the house at half past nine
In two straight lines in rain or shine-
The smallest one was Madeline.”
― Ludwig Bemelmans, Madeline

“The anateur works until they get something right. The professional works until they can't go wrong.”
― Julie Andrews Edwards

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa