quotablebookquotes discussion

What quotes stood out to you?

"Curious how these early linguistic abilities are so fragile, how unthinkingly and easily the brain lets them go." ~ Page 5

"we keep a journal to entrap that collection of selves that forms us, the individual human being." ~ Page 7

"It was pleasant - and the sense of otherness was nice, that there were two people involved in this process, that we were each giving something to the other." ~ Page 18

"A vague worry has started alongside my self-satisfaction: I have established, with amazing rapidity, a reputation for maniacal, self-destructive courage." ~ Page 36

"I write - poignantly, in the most heartfelt way - about how I miss her and how I detest my life in this school and she responds with detailed plans for her future life as an archaeologist or a philosopher or - new, this - a veterinary surgeon." ~ Page 36

"Hot crumpets with butter and jam - what could be more ambrosial?" ~ Page 37

"A Horrible thought: could this be the pattern of my life ahead? Every ambition thwarted, every dream stillborn? But a seconds reflection tells me that what I'm currently experiencing is shared by all sentient, suffering human beings, except for the very, very few: the genuinely talented - the odd, rare genius - and, of course, the exceptionally lucky swine." ~ Page 39

"Are our lives just the aggregate of the lies we've told? ('Lives' - the 'v' is silent.)" ~ Page 45

"I have to start my real life soon, before I die of boredom and frustration." ~ Page 56

"describe your state of mine. Insecure. Uncertain. Feverish" ~ apge 123

"I felt shocked and then saddened. life does this to you sometimes - leads you up a path and then drops you in the shit, to mix a metaphor." ~ Page 133

"When I think of my youth, he went in, what we took for granted, what we assumed was for ever certain, for ever permanent." ~ page 136

"It's amazing how sudden the effect is - it must be the result of a deep atavistic mating urge buried inside us. A glance and you think: 'Yes, this is the one, this one is right for me.' Every instinct in your body seems to sing in unison." ~ Page 155

"It terrifies me, the fragility of these moments in our lives." ~ Page 157

"Then, as I stood in that English garden on the soft early summer night, I felt a surge of pure well-being engulf my whole body. I felt a shivering current of happiness and benevolence flow through me." ~ Page 160

"Humankind can tolerate only so much rejection." ~ Page 161

"We're not ready for it - for people our age to die. We think we're safe for a while, but it's a dream. No one's safe." ~ Page 165

"They are all about romance, about life's excitement and adventure and it's essential sadness and transience. They savour everything both fine and bittersweet that life has to offer us - a stoical in the hedonism." ~ Page 183

"is that a good definition of marking the ageing watershed? That moment when you realize - quite rationally, quite unemotionally - that the world in the not-so-distant future will not contain you: that the trees you planted will continue growing but you will not be there to see them." ~ Page 203

"Sometimes limbo is a tolerable place to be stuck." ~ Page 254

"Why does the sea induce these feelings of transcendence in us? Is it because an unobstructed view of overarching sky meeting endlessly stirring water is as close as we can come on this earth to a visual symbol of the infinite?" ~ Page 281

"So much for my great vendetta, so much for the tireless hunt for my betrayer. Isn't this how life turns out, more often than not? It refuses to conform to your needs - the narrative needs that you feel are essential to give rough shape to your time on this earth." ~ Page 295

"Feelings of depression; feelings of frustration; feelings of emptiness in the face of all this randomness - done down by the haphazard, yet again." ~ Page 295

"what is it about me and basements? Why do I like the semi-subterranean life?" ~ Page 304

"You think it begins to diminish with time, the pain, then it comes back and hits you with a rawness and freshness you had forgotten." ~ Page 311

"I love to use these phrases - 'with the greatest respect', 'in all modest', 'I humbly submit' - which in fact always imply the complete opposite." ~ Page 316

"When it's mutual, a man and a woman know, instinctively, wordlessly. They may do nothing about it, but the knowledge of that shared desire is out there in the world - as obvious as neon, saying: I want you, I want you, I want you." ~ Page 369

Because my edition is a little different on page numbers, I added the dates too just in case :)

"Are there aspects of our lives - things we do, feel and think - that we daren't confess, even to ourselves, even in the absolute privacy of our private record." -page 4

"Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary - it is the respective proportion of those two categories that make that life appear interesting or humdrum." -page 5

"All great artists are doubters." -page 13 (12 December 1923)

"Because it seems to me that to be human you have to be able to compromise." -page 25 (29 December 1924)

"Is it possible to live reasonably without lying? Do lies form the natural foundation of all human relationships, the thread that stitches our individual selves together?" -page 43 (11 March 1924)

"But you can be too intelligent, I said. Sometimes it's not an asset it's a curse." -page 98 (12 November 1926)

"True learning only occurs when you love the subject you are studying and then the acquiring of knowledge is effortless because it is also a pleasure." -page 100 (7 February 1927)