Classic Fiction Quotes

“Little Jane's love would have been my best reward, without it, my heart is broken.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Classics aren't books that are read for pleasure. Classics are books that are imposed on unwilling students, books that are subjected to analyses of "levels of significance" and other blatt, books that are dead.”
― Alexei Panshin, Rite of Passage

“Passion-means to live for life's sake but I am well aware you Germans live for the sake of experience. Passion means to forget ones self. But you do things in order to enrich yourselves.”
― Thomas Mann

“The soul, you see, is a shy and retiring thing. It lurks in dark places and dislikes sunlight. And so, if you do not keep the skylight open at all times, the soul will rot. It easily decays, like a fresh sea urchin.”
― Yukio Mishima, The Frolic of the Beasts

“I am asked to tell the story of the Diamond and, instead of that, I have been telling the story of my own self.”
― Wilkie Collins

“I don't think children's inner feelings have changed.”
― Beverly Cleary