Cultivate Happiness?
No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato. ~ Villette by Charlotte Bronte
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Holmes and Watson in 2016!
You can see this design on clothing and bags at the LitQuotes gift shop.
I’m not sure about you, but this election brings to mind this quote from Conan Doyle:
“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.” ~ A Case of Identity by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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7 Quotes About the Heart from Literature
These are some of the sweetest quotes about hearts from literature.
“Friendship, I fancy, means one heart between two.” ~ Diana of the Crossways by George Meredith
Life’s more than breath and the quick round of blood;
It is a great spirit and a busy heart. ~ Festus by Philip James Bailey
Men who look on nature, and their fellow-men, and cry that all is dark and gloomy, are in the right; but the sombre colours are reflections from their own jaundiced eyes and hearts. The real hues are delicate, and need a clearer vision. ~ Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Maybe, he thought, there aren’t any such things as good or bad friends – maybe there are just friends, people who stand by you when you’re hurt and who help you feel not so lonely. Maybe they’re always worth being scared for, and hoping for, and living for. Maybe worth dying for, too, if that’s what has to be. No good friends. No bad friends. Only people you want, need to be with; people who build their houses in your heart. ~ It by Stephen King
She had found her heart at last. Never having known its worth till now, she had never known the worth of his. ~ Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
“I carry my own church about under my own hat,” said I. “Bricks and mortar won’t make a staircase to heaven. I believe with your Master that the human heart is the best temple.” ~ The Stark Munro Letters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. ~ Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
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20 Funny Quotes from Literature
“To win back my youth, Gerald, there is nothing I wouldn’t do—except take exercise, get up early, or be a useful member of the community.” ~ A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde
“I always say beauty is only sin deep.” ~ Reginald by Saki
It is the necessary nature of a political party in this country to avoid, as long as it can be avoided, the consideration of any question which involves a great change. ~ Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast. ~ Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime by Oscar Wilde
“Prophecy is like a half-trained mule,” he complained to Jorah Mormont. “It looks as though it might be useful, but the moment you trust in it, it kicks you in the head.” ~ A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
You can’t expect the fatted calf to share the enthusiasm of the angels over the prodigal’s return. ~ Reginald by Saki
Fox terriers are born with about four times as much original sin in them as other dogs are. ~ Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Discovering that priests were infinitely more attentive when she was in process of losing or regaining faith in Mother Church, she maintained an enchantingly wavering attitude. ~ This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie.” ~ The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.” ~ An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
In one respect at least the Martians are a happy people; they have no lawyers. ~ A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
“I discovered early that crying makes my nose red, and the knowledge has helped me through several painful episodes.” ~ The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
In all the thousands of times I have asked other people for advice, I never yet got the advice I wanted. ~ Armadale by Wilkie Collins
A story with a moral appended is like the bill of a mosquito. It bores you, and then injects a stinging drop to irritate your conscience. ~ Strictly Business by O. Henry
Mrs. Bittacy rustled ominously, holding her peace meanwhile. She feared long words she did not understand. Beelzebub lay hid among too many syllables. ~ The Man Whom the Trees Loved by Algernon Blackwood
“Unbidden guests
Are often welcomest when they are gone.” ~ Henry VI, Part One by William Shakespeare
The bishop did not whistle: we believe that they lose the power of doing so on being consecrated. ~ The Warden by Anthony Trollope
What the eye does not see, the stomach does not get upset over. ~ Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
I don’t want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again. ~ This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible. ~ Dolly Dialogues by Anthony Hope
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New Quotes – Bronte, Herbert and More
New quotes were added to the site today. As per usual, all of the quotes list an author and a source. We’re proud that this quotation collection is curated by people and NOT by a computer program.
Here are some quotes from the new additions, but you can see them all on the new quotes page. If you have a quote that you’d like to see added to the site, you can contribute a quote.
Men must want to do things of their own innermost drives. People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness — they cannot work and their civilization collapses. ~ Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
“A sermon is not to tell you what you are, but what you ought to be, and a novel should tell you not what you are to get, but what you’d like to get.” ~ The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope
“Must we be strangers, you and I, because there was a time in which we were almost more than friends?” ~ Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope
Your man with a thin skin, a vehement ambition, a scrupulous conscience, and a sanguine desire for rapid improvement, is never a happy, and seldom a fortunate politician. ~ The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope
Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth. ~ The Young Duke by Benjamin Disraeli
“God did not give me my life to throw away.” ~ Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The wild rains of the day are abated; the great single cloud disparts and rolls away from heaven, not passing and leaving a sea all sapphire, but tossed buoyant before a continued, long-sounding, high-rushing moonlight tempest. The moon reigns glorious, glad of the gale, as glad as if she gave herself to his fierce caress with love. ~ Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
We should acknowledge God merciful, but not always for us comprehensible. ~ Villette by Charlotte Bronte
“Your father, Jo. He never loses patience, never doubts or complains, but always hopes, and works and waits so cheerfully that one is ashamed to do otherwise before him.” ~ Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
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A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde
A Woman of No Importance is a play written by Oscar Wilde. The play premiered on 19 April 1893 at London’s Haymarket Theatre.
The play starts at a swanky house party located at Lady Hunstanton’s country estate. It’s announced that Gerald Arbuthnot has been appointed as Lord Illingworth’s secretary. Drama ensues because of a scandalous secret regarding Gerald’s mother. Will Gerald’s prospects be derailed?
“Men always want to be a woman’s first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about things. What we like is to be a man’s last romance.” ~ A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde
More about A Woman of No Importance
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Five Quotes about the Ocean
“The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides.” ~ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
No mercy, no power but its own controls it. Panting and snorting like a mad battle steed that has lost its rider, the masterless ocean overruns the globe. ~ Moby Dick by Herman Melville
And then, the unspeakable purity – and freshness of the air! There was just enough heat to enhance the value of the breeze, and just enough wind to keep the whole sea in motion, to make the waves come bounding to the shore, foaming and sparkling, as if wild with glee. ~ Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
The sigh of all the seas breaking in measure round the isles soothed them; the night wrapped them; nothing broke their sleep, until, the birds beginning and the dawn weaving their thin voices in to its whiteness. ~ To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
“Look at that sea, girls–all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn’t enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.” ~ Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
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When Angry Quote Photo
When angry, count four; when very angry, swear. ~ The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
I’ve posted this at the LitQuotes Facebook page and the LitQuotes Twitter page in case you’d like to share the photo. AND it’s on our new Pinterest page.
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5 Quotes about Variety from Literature
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety. ~ Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
“I never keep to anything long. Variety is the mother of Enjoyment.” ~ Vivian Grey by Benjamin Disraeli
The complex affair we call the world requires a great variety of people to keep it going. ~ The Golden House by Charles Dudley Warner
“I trust that age doth not wither nor custom stale my infinite variety.” ~ The Adventure of the Empty House by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections. ~ Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley in 1816.
The summer of 1816 was dreary one because of the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. It adversely affected the weather and some people called 1816 “the year without a summer.” That year Mary Shelley, then Mary Godwin, and her future husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Because of the bad weather the group ended up spending a lot of time indoors. One of the things they did to pass the time was to read ghost stories. That gave Byron an idea. He proposed that they “each write a ghost story.” That challenge lead to Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein.
The first edition of the book was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley’s name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823.
The moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places. ~ Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
