Explore Book Quotes

“So on Monday Jack started work. He plowed the fields in straight lines. The farmer paid him for his day’s work. Jack was so happy he hurried home. But on the way he lost his money.”

“Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”

“What the Chronics are—or most of us—are machines with flaws inside that can’t be repaired, flaws born in, or flaws beat in over so many years of the guy running head-on into solid things that by the time the hospital found him he was bleeding rust in some vacant lot.”

“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.”

“The thoughtless, the ignorant, and indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of law, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, “How lucky he is!” Observing another become intellectual they exclaim, “How highly favored he is!” And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, “How chance aids him at every turn!” They don’t see the trials and failures and the struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness and the heart aches; they only see the light and the Joy, and they call it “luck”; do not see the longing arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it “good fortune”; do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it “chance”.”

“I hope the girl is good, Harry. I don’t want to see Dorian tied to some vile creature, who might degrade his nature and ruin his intellect.”

“A great big enormous trout came up-kerpflop-p-p-p! with a splash-and it seized Mr. Jeremy with a snap, ‘Ow! Ow! Ow!’ - and then it turned and dived down to the bottom of the pond! But the trout was so displeased with the taste of macintosh, that in less than half a minute it spat him out again; and the only thing it swallowed was Mr. Jeremy’s goloshes.”

“Street Show Puff, puff, puff. How the trumpets blow All you little boys and girls come and see the show. One-two-three, the Cat runs up the tree; But the little Bird he flies away- ‘She hasn’t got me!’ ”

“So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.”

“My dear count,” cried Morcerf, “you are at fault—you, one of the most formidable logicians I know—and you must see it clearly proved that instead of being an egotist, you are a philanthropist. Ah, you call yourself Oriental, a Levantine, Maltese, Indian, Chinese; your family name is Monte Cristo; Sinbad the Sailor is your baptismal appellation, and yet the first day you set foot in Paris you instinctively display the greatest virtue, or rather the chief defect, of us eccentric Parisians,—that is, you assume the vices you have not, and conceal the virtues you possess.”