Best Literature Quotes

• So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Inspirational, Tattoo, Time

  The Great Gatsby ch. 9 (1925).

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• It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

  George Orwell

  Nineteen, April, Cold

  Nineteen Eighty-Four pt. 1, ch. 1 (1949)

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• the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.

  Jack Kerouac

  Inspirational, Friends, Horse

  On the Road pt. 1, ch. 1 (1957)

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• Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.

  J. D. Salinger

  Funny, Memorable, Missing

  J.D. Salinger (1951). “The Catcher in the Rye”

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• In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Father, Years, Advice

  Great Gatsby (1925) ch. 1

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• The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved.

  Jack Kerouac

  Hippie, Yawning, People

  On the Road pt. 1, ch. 1 (1957)

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• 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.

  Charles Dickens

  Spring, Communication, Winter

  A Tale of Two Cities bk. 1, ch. 1 (1859)

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• Because the only people for me are the mad ones.

  Jack Kerouac

  Hippie, Yawning, People

  On the Road pt. 1, ch. 1 (1957)

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• One man in his time plays many parts.

  William Shakespeare

  Birthday, Character, Men

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

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• All the world's a stage, and all the men and women mearly players.

  William Shakespeare

  Friendship, Birthday, Men

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

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• Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.

  Emily Bronte

  Love, Romantic, Anniversary

  Wuthering Heights ch. 9 (1847)

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• The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

  Oscar Wilde

  Writing, Media, Differences

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• It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

  Charles Dickens

  Inspirational, Time, Cities

  A Tale of Two Cities bk. 1, ch. 1 (1859)

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• After all, tomorrow is another day.

  Margaret Mitchell

  Birthday, Movie, Hope

  Gone with theWind pt. 5, ch. 63 (1936) See Proverbs 302

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• Literature is news that stays news.

  Ezra Pound

  Book, Inspiration, Reading

  The ABC of Reading ch. 2 (1934)

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• Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.

  Ezra Pound

  Inspirational, Hygiene, Degrees

  How to Read pt. 2 (1931)

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• You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,' but that ain't no matter. That book was made by a Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.

  Mark Twain

  Book, Adventure, Names

  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ch. 1 (1884)

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• 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, his acts being seven ages.

  William Shakespeare

  Birthday, Time, Player

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

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• Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, I Miss You, Good Night

  'Romeo And Juliet' (1595) act 2, sc. 2, l. 176

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• Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Death, Running

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 2, sc. 2, l. 30

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• All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Inspirational, Funny, Family

  Anna Karenina pt. 1, ch. 1 (1875 - 1877) (translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude) See Susan Cheever 1

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• The best literature is always a take [in the musical sense]; there is an implicit risk in its execution, a margin of danger that is the pleasure of the flight, of the love, carrying with it a tangible loss but also a total engagement that, on another level, lends the theater its unparalleled imperfection faced with the perfection of film. I don’t want to write anything but takes.

  Julio Cortazar

  Writing, Loss, Perfection

  36 Copy quote

• I think that the best literature has a core that you can't lock to a time or place but that can generate lots of meanings and translations.

  Karl Ove Knausgard

  Thinking, Locks, Literature

  8 Copy quote

• My greatest influence has been the blues. And that's a literary influence, because I think the blues is the best literature that we as black Americans have.

  August Wilson

  Thinking, Black, Literature

  Interview with Miles Marshall Lewis, believermag.com. November 1, 2004.

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• No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, or its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature.

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Reading, People, Fiction

  8 Copy quote