We turn to books for comfort, to understand the meaning of love, or to get over that fateful relationship that tore our hearts apart. From Dumas, to Whitman, and E. E. Cummings, we have learnt the value and the power of the written word. Whether it is a novel or short story, we often find a quote that could easily define us, or which can be used to pin point a significant moment in our lives. Writers possess the ability to voice our most hidden thoughts and desires.
The following words are the most poetic, beautiful, and meaningful quotes in the history of literature.
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.”
The Count of Monte Cristo — Alexandre Dumas
“Love and desire are two different things; not everything that is loved is desired, and not everything that is desired is loved.”
Don Quixote — Miguel Cervantes
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”
“Song of Myself”— Walt Whitman
“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 — Charles Dickens
“He would create a scent that was not merely human, but superhuman, an angel’s scent, so indescribably good and vital that whoever smelled it would be enchanted and with his whole heart would have to love him, Grenouille, the bearer of that scent.”
The Perfume — Patrick Süskind
“Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.”
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — F. Scott Fitzgerald
“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling).”
I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart) — E. E. Cummings
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
The Diary of Anne Frank — Anne Frank
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Man and Superman — George Bernard Shaw
“Death destroys a man: the idea of Death saves him.”
Howards End – E. M. Forster.
“They wanted to speak, but could not; tears stood in their eyes. They were both pale and thin; but those sick pale faces were bright with the dawn of a new future, of a full resurrection into a new life. They were renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other.”
Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostoevsky
“I loved her enough to forget myself, my self pitying despairs, and be content that something she thought happy was going to happen.”
Breakfast at Tiffany’s — Truman Capote
“The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair.”
The White Company — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
“As long as the heart beats, as long as body and soul keep together, I cannot admit that any creature endowed with a will has need to despair of life.”
Journey to The Center of Earth — Jules Verne
“You made me confess the fears that I have. But I will tell you also what I do not fear. I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have to leave. And I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a lifelong mistake and perhaps as long as eternity too.”
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man — James Joyce
“I call people rich when they’re able to meet the requirements of their imagination.”
The Portrait of a Lady — Henry James
“What does the brain matter compared with the heart?”
Mrs. Dalloway — Virgina Woolf
“The Sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.”
The Old Curiosity Shop — Charles Dickens
“Someday, somewhere- anywhere, unfailingly, you’ll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.”
Pablo Neruda
“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 — George Orwell
“I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the success, take all the failure; in short, take me.”
Great Expectation— Charles Dickens
“A thousand Dreams within me softly burn.”
Arthur Rimabud
“There is nothing in the world, neither man nor Devil nor any thing, that I hold as suspect as love, for it penetrates the soul more than any other thing. Nothing exists that so fills and binds the heart as love does. Therefore, unless you have those weapons that subdue it, the soul plunges through love into an immense abyss.”
The Name of the Rose — Umberto Eco
“All human wisdom is contained in these two words – Wait and Hope”
The Count of Montecristo — Alexandre Dumas
“Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will.”
The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays — Charles Baudelaire
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What other quotes would you include in the list?
