Shefali Gupta > Shefali's Quotes

“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”
― Carl Sagan

“Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“One should never be ashamed to cry. Tears are rain on the dust of earth.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“Scattered wits take a long time in picking up.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“She must have made Joe Gargery marry her by hand.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“The nightmares arrived like they always did, much like the best player in the opposition when you've heard rumors that he might be injured or sick-but there he is, warming up with the rest of them, ready to take the field.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Now more than ever, 33 Himmel Street was a place of silence, and it did not go unnoticed that the Duden Dictionary was completely and utterly mistaken, especially with its related words.

Silence was not quiet or calm, and it was not peace.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“What would you do if you weren't afraid?”
― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

“I learned that effective communication starts with the understanding that there is MY point of view, (my truth), and someone else's point of view (his truth). Rarely is there one absolute truth, so people who believe that they speak THE truth are very silencing of others. When we realize and recognize that we can see things only from our own perspective, we can share our views in a nonthreatening way. Statements of opinion are always more constructive in the first person "I" form. The ability to listen is as important as the ability to speak. Miscommunication is always a two way street.”
― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors.”
― Khaled Hosseini

“It's a funny thing... but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they're afraid of. What they don't want.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”
― Albert Einstein

“For you, a thousand times over”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

“But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.”
― Khaled Hosseini

“And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

“I'm so afraid. Because I'm so profoundly happy. Happiness like this is frightening...They only let you this happy if they're preparing to take something from you.”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

“That's how children deal with terror, they fall asleep.”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

“I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

“It would be erroneous to say Sohrab was quiet. Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life.

Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.

Sohrab's silence wasn't the self imposed silence of those with convictions, of protesters who seek to speak their cause by not speaking at all. It was the silence of one who has taken cover in a dark place, curled up all the edges and tucked them under.”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“My soul is in the sky.”
― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

“That's what happens when you free people from the restraints of time. They make their own rigid schedule.”
― Keigo Higashino, The Devotion of Suspect X

“I asked you here tonight because when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“Humans often fail to see what is close to them and obvious to others.”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“You can’t go through life not listening to music.”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“But why, why, why can't people just say what they mean?”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
― Roald Dahl