10 Inspiring Quotes from Books

 

I was delighted when I saw this week's topic put forward by the Broke and the Bookish. I love jotting down quotes which jump out and resonate with something in my heart when reading books. It's part of what being a reader is all about. This was a matter of limiting myself to just ten, and here they are.

1) 'If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.' Saint Francis of Assisi, from Chasing Francis, by Ian Morgan Cron

2) 'This place was made to be beautiful. It is pretty now, but just not how it was meant to be.'
Josia from A Thing of Beauty by Lisa Samson

3) 'I derive delicious pleasure from the two Georges' carelessness about the judgment delivered by smaller hearts and minds than their own.' Rebecca Mead, talking about George Eliot and George Henry Lewes, from her book, My Life in Middlemarch

4) 'The world can be a tough, gritty place. We need to seize beauty wherever we find it.' Luke to Anna, in Beyond all Dreams, by Elizabeth Camden

5) 'Gravy is like happiness. You can't store it up and put a label on it. You've got to learn to take it as it comes, moment by moment.' Aunt Ruby from The Good Day Baking Company, by Adele Wyn Eddy.

6) 'Being content is not a lack of ambition. It's being able to rest and relax and know your worth doesn't come from what others think of you, or even what you think of you.' Chaplain Calhoun from Every Waking Moment by Chris Fabry

7) 'When Laura walked away from our marriage into an affair, her sin was condemned publicly, but for years, my sin has been congratulated and affirmed.' Nathan, from Sensible Shoes by Sharon Garlough Brown.

8) 'If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter and bread with only the scent of jam spread over it.' Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

9) 'How could one turn the other cheek to this evil when the cheek being turned was not one's own but that of innocents?' Title character from March by Geraldine Brooks

10) Eliza knew scrutiny was akin to stealing. 'She liked to store images in her mind to be replayed, re-voiced, re-coloured as she pleased. To weave them into wicked stories, flights of fancy that would horrify the people who'd provided unwitting inspiration.'

'The more she wrote, the louder the stories seemed to grow, swirling in her mind, pressing against her head, anxious for release. She understood the power of stories, their magical ability to refill the wounded part of people.' From The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton