If you’re an avid reader (chances are if you’re reading this post: you are), then you know reading books is more than just being entertained. Yes, you immerse yourself in a new world and get intimately acquainted with new characters. But you also learn new life-lessons. Reading can change the way you see the world.
And that is powerful.
To remind ourselves of that, I’ve compiled this list with quotes that are true life-lessons from some of my favorite books.
24 Book Quotes: Life-lessons
Prince of Thorns – Mark Lawrence
“Memories are dangerous things. You turn them over and over, until you know every touch and corner, but still you’ll find an edge to cut you.”
King of Thorns – Mark Lawrence
“Sometimes you can only win if you’re prepared to sacrifice everything.”
“I wonder if we don’t all go stamping and crashing, crashing and stamping in our own little circles going nowhere. And I wonder who it is that laughs at us.”
Emperor of Thorns – Mark Lawrence
“Time heals all wounds, but often it’s only by the application of the grave, and while we live some hurts live with us, burning, making us twist and turn to escape them. And as we twist, we turn into other men.”
Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo
“Peace was like any high. It couldn’t last. It was an illusion, something that could be interrupted in a moment and lost forever.”
“But the worst damage didn’t leave a mark.”
The Threshing – Tim Grahl
“Your greatest gift to the world is the thing you do so naturally that you don’t even know it’s special.”
Assassin’s Apprentice – Robin Hobb
“Don’t do what you can’t undo, until you’ve considered what you can’t do once you’ve done it.”
“When you cut pieces out of the truth to avoid looking like a fool you end up looking like a moron instead.”
Royal Assassin – Robin Hobb
“Thinking is not always…comforting. It is always good, but not always comforting.”
“The man who must brag for himself knows that no one else will.”
“Stop thinking of what you intend to do. Stop thinking of what you have just done. Then, stop thinking that you have stopped thinking of those things. Then you will find the Now, the time that stretches eternal, and is really the only time there is.”
Assassin’s Quest – Robin Hobb
“Not being able to think of a reply is not the same thing as accepting another’s words.”
“But a living is not a life.”
The Black Prism – Brent Weeks
“It’s better that the innocent should live than that the guilty die.”
Song of Shadows – Kara S Weaver
“No matter what you choose, either can work or fail – there’s never a sure-fire way to go about it, never a guarantee you will win. It’s all a game of chance as much as it’s a game of strategy.”
Planet Adyn – M. L. Kang
“Fear is an enemy dressed up as a friend. Humor it as far as it keeps you safe, but don’t you ever let it get in the way of what you want to be.”
Red Sister – Mark Lawrence
“A book is as dangerous as any journey you might take. The person who closes the back cover may not be the same one that opened the front one. Treat them with respect.”
“There are some things that must be done quickly or not at all. If someone asks you if you love them you cannot hesitate. There are some paths that must be taken at speed.”
Grey Sister – Mark Lawrence
“Spend too long watching the long game and the short game will kill you.”
“Never be so focused on picking a lock that you forget kicking down the door is also an option.”
Holy Sister – Mark Lawrence
“There might not be a meaning to the world, or in it, but that does not mean that what we do has no meaning.”
“A million words won’t push the ice back, not even the breadth of a finger. But one word will break a heart, two will mend it, and three will lay the highest low.”
“All leaves must fall in time, she had said. The lives we lived fall away from us, but something remains, something that is part of the tree.”
So what about you?
Do you have any favorite quotes from books that have some important life-lessons in them? Any that you read that changed some of your thoughts and viewpoints, no matter how small?
