I’m putting together a series of quote squares for The Mapmaker Chronicles, which I’ll share soon (that one on the left is a sneak preview).
It got me thinking about all the quotes from all the books I’ve read over the years. Quotes that I’ve loved and written down and shared with friends.
When I was about 14, there was a new production of Anne of Green Gables shown on TV. One of the newspapers ran a fantastic advertising campaign, with different quotes from the books each day. I cut those quotes out and collected them, plastering my school folders with them.
Many of my favourite quotes of all time come from one passage from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery:
“You’d find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair.”
“People who haven’t red hair don’t know what trouble is.”
“Mrs. Thomas told me that God made my hair red on purpose, and I’ve never cared about Him since.”
There are many other thousands of words that I’ve loved over the years. But these ones really stick with me.
I wonder why…
What’s your favourite quote from a book? Why?
“It is better to be a good street sweeper than a bad writer….” Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island
That statement is the perfect illumination of my daily struggle. I may be unpublished, but my mother-in-law complimented my sweeping skill the other day….
đ
I love all too many quotes, I collect them like a squirrel collects nuts (or a nut collects squirrels, as it happens). I’ve recently been trotting out some favourites to go with blog posts and that’s no end of fun.
I think my fave of all time and I can’t even tell you exactly why is this:
BREATHLESS, we flung us on the windy hill,
Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass.
It’s from The Hill, a poem by Rupert Brooke that I read sometime in Yr 11 at school and have never forgotten. It just seems a good way to be. x
Who’d have thought Year 11 poetry would come in so handy!
My absolute favourites are:
“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
~ Dr. Seuss
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
~ Albert Einstein
I am beginning to like Einstein more and more…
Mine is one of Einstein’s quotes they’re:
‘I think and think for months and years, ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.’
‘If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.’
‘I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.’
That last one made me laugh out loud! Thank you for sharing.
I may have corruptef it over time through crap memory – but it’s J RR Tolkien:
“Around the corner there may wait… a new road or secret gate….”
Who doesn’t love a secret gate? And an unnexplored path? It’s not just about the glories of adventures and travel it’s a reminder that even though life may seem overwhelming or stale and we can see no light – we don’t know what experiences yet await us and how quickly things can change. Just ask Bilbo amd Frodo!
Oh yes! Personally, I love a secret gate – and I also love The Lord of The Rings.
Since having children I have developed a fresh appreciation for “tomorrow is a fresh day with no mistakes” (!)
Love it! And so true. đ