There are memorable parts of books that can make us laugh, cry, or reflect. Profoundly inspirational and thought-provoking quotes from famous books will challenge your perspectives.
Reading books have benefits beyond enjoyment. For both your physical and mental health, reading literally changes life. It not only develops our thoughts and gives us endless knowledge, but also strengthens your brain, increases your ability to empathize and reduces stress.
If you’re searching for famous quotes from literature and inspiring lines from movies that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of quotes from children’s books, quotes from young adults books and quotes from self help books.
Famous Quotes from Books
Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. — The Minpins by Roald Dahl
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect. — The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. — I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places. — A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Be yourself and people will like you. — Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun. — Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. — A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. — Autumn Leaves by André Gide
And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. — The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
It can be really exasperating to look back at your past. What’s the matter with you? I want to ask her, my younger self, shaking her shoulder. If I did that, she would probably cry. Maybe I would cry, too. — The Idiot by Elif Batuman
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 you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. — To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human. — Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
This above all: To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. — Hamlet by William Shakespeare
A body could be labeled but a person couldn’t, and the difference between the two depended on that muscle in your chest. That beloved organ, not sentient, not aware, not feeling, just pumping along, keeping you alive. — The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it. — Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will. — Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all. — Beloved by Toni Morrison
I can’t stand it to think my life is going so fast and I’m not really living it. ― The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot. — Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. — Phrynette Married by Marthe Troly-Curtin
That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times. — Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. — The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example. — Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Ever’body’s askin’ that. ‘What we comin’ to?’ Seems to me we don’t never come to nothin’. Always on the way. — The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
We are never so poor that we cannot bless another human, are we? — The Round House by Louise Erdrich
She decided long ago that life was a long journey. She would be strong, and she would be weak, and both would be okay. — Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi
The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42. — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. — Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
Sometimes a person’s unhappiness can make them forget they are a part of something bigger, something like a family, a people, even a tribe. — Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. — The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
There is only one page left to write on. I will fill it with words of only one syllable. I love. I have loved. I will love. — I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
There are years that ask questions and years that answer. — Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. — The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
There is always something left to love. ― One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. — The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
But home isn’t where you land; home is where you launch. You can’t pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land. — An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
The same substance composes us — the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star — we are all one, all moving to the same end. ― Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between. — I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
We’re all under the same sky and walk the same earth; we’re alive together during the same moment. — The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them. — An Autobiography by Agatha Christie
I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.” — Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. — As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination. — The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
And now that you don’t have to be perfect you can be good. — East of Eden by John Steinbeck
[S]he hadn’t the air of a woman whose life had been touched by uncertainty or suffering. Pain, fear, and grief were things that left their mark on people. Even love, that exquisite torturing emotion, left its subtle traces on the countenance. — Passing by Nella Larsen
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. — Animal Farm by George Orwell
A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face. — Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
It is a terrible thing, this kindness that human beings do not lose. Terrible, because when we are finally naked in the dark and cold, it is all we have. We who are so rich, so full of strength, we end up with that small change. We have nothing else to give. — The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
We all require devotion to something more than ourselves for our lives to be endurable. — Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived. — To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches. — The Princess Bride by William Goldman
But man is not made for defeat,’ he said. ‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated.’ ― The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment. — The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
The past is a black hole, cut into the present day like a wound, and if you come too close, you can get sucked in. You have to keep moving. — Severance by Ling Ma
Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise. — Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Time moves slowly, but passes quickly. — The Color Purple by Alice Walker
All we can know is that we know nothing. And that’s the height of human wisdom. — War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
I speak into the silence. I toss the stone of my story into a vast crevice; measure the emptiness by its small sound. — In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. — Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
The beauty of this world where almost everyone was gone. If hell is other people, what is a world with almost no people in it? — Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
It was all very well to be ambitious, but ambition should not kill the nice qualities in you. — Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living. — Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker. It’s an inside kind — wrapped tight like skin. Then there is the loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive. On its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one’s own feet going seem to come from a far-off place. — Beloved by Toni Morrison
Just because your version of normal isn’t the same as someone else’s version doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with you. — The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne
Sleep felt productive. Something was getting sorted out. I knew in my heart — this was, perhaps, the only thing my heart knew back then — that when I’d slept enough, I’d be okay. I’d be renewed, reborn. I would be a whole new person, every one of my cells regenerated enough times that the old cells were just distant, foggy memories. My past life would be but a dream, and I could start over without regrets, bolstered by the bliss and serenity that I would have accumulated in my year of rest and relaxation. — My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
You are your best thing. — Beloved by Toni Morrison
There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. ― The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost. — The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for. — Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am. — The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for. — The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn’t know if she would ever find out where it was or become part of it. — Normal People by Sally Rooney
There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name. — The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. — Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful. — Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley
Tomorrow I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day. — Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
I don’t understand it any more than you do, but one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to understand things for them to be. — A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The only love Red knew was that simple, uncomplicated, lonely love one feels for oneself in the quiet moments of the day. It was there, steady and solid in the laughter and talk of the television and with her in the grocery aisles on the weekends. It was there every night, in the dark, spectacular and sprawling in the quiet. And it all belonged to her. — How to Pronounce Knife’ by Souvankham Thammavongsa
You pierce my soul. I am half agony. Half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. — Persuasion by Jane Austen
My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time. — David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet? — Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
It is nothing to die; it is dreadful not to live. — Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe. — The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Some people dislike diagnoses, disagreeably calling them, boxes and labels, but I’ve always found comfort in preexisting conditions; I like to know that I’m not pioneering an inexplicable experience. — The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang
We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep. — The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading. — Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. — Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm. — The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there… and still on your feet. — The Stand by Stephen King
What does the brain matter compared with the heart? — Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart. — Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. — The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. —The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
‘What day is it?’, asked Winnie the Pooh.
‘It’s today,’ squeaked Piglet.
‘My favorite day,’ said Pooh.
—The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
All human wisdom is summed up in these two words – ‘Wait and hope.’ — The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. — Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship. — Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. — Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Time is the longest distance between two places. ― The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible. — The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget. — The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. — Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
It was a pleasure to burn. — Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart. — Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger. — Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new. — The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering. — The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. — Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past. — Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner
From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. — A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
