“If you don’t like reading, you haven’t found the right book.” Golden words by JK Rowling. Starting off a piece on the greatest literary quotes by quoting a great literary quote seems like we’re overdoing it. But what better way to introduce some of the most powerful words in literature from fictional heroines and heroes on the backs of whom we’ve discovered and enjoyed genius.
How many of the books quoted in this have you read? Have we missed out any? Let us know!
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.” – Jack London, The Call of the Wild
“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, A Tale of Two Cities
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” – Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”
“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” – Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” – George Orwell, Animal Farm
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – George Orwell, 1984
“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” – Andre Gide, Autumn Leaves
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” – Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” – To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
“If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.” ― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” ― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
“You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.” – The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
“Be worthy love, and love will come.” – Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” – A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” – To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
“Anger is better. There is a sense of being in anger. A reality and presence. An awareness of worth. It is a lovely surging.” – The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
“Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.” – Animal Farm by George Orwell
“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 by George Orwell
“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.” – The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” – The Help, Kathryn Stockett
“It was against my principles and all, but I was feeling so depressed I didn’t even think. That’s the whole trouble. When you’re feeling very depressed, you can’t even think.” ― The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
“It is dreadful that one cannot tear out the past by the roots. We cannot tear it out but we can hide the memory of it.”― Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” — Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
“Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.” — Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote
