Top Ten Inspiring Quotes From Books

14:27 Cilla 1 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme by The Broke and The Bookish. Click here for information and to join. :)

I have been collecting quotes since I was in fifth grade. My parents have even taken to texting me quotes that they think I would love. So this is the perfect week to join this meme. Let's see if I can pick just ten though...

1. 'It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew - and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that there was all the difference in the world.' - J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I had to pause my reading when I came upon these sentences, because - oh wow. This is the quote I think about when I'm about ready to give up on anything.

2. 'The bird that would soar above the plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.' - Douglas Adams, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I'm surrounded by traditionalists in the sense that people ask 'do you have a boyfriend yet?' right after they ask if I've graduated university. It's annoying, because I have other priorities and it's like my accomplishments are measured by the fact that I have a potential husband on my arm. This quote reminds me to rise above. 

3. 'If you stumble about believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?' - Yann Martel, Life of Pi

For a while, I had a lot of questions about my faith, religion vs science, and so on. Life of Pi gave me a lot of things to reflect on, but mostly it was this question. So much about life is hard to believe - I remember sitting in Biology marvelling about how the eye and the brain and everything else works (sometimes I still do) - yet here we are.

4. 'It's just that I don't want to be somebody's crush. If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am. And I don't want them to carry it around inside. I want them to show me, so I can feel it too.' - Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Reading this, I had an 'Aha moment'. This is what I want: sincerity and clarity, not the guessing and waiting games. If you like me, get to know me. 

5. 'While it is always possible to wake a person who's sleeping, no amount of noise will wake a person who is pretending to be asleep... We can't plead ignorance, only indifference. Those alive today are the generations that came to know better. We have the burden and the opportunity of living in the moment when the critique of factory farming broke into the popular consciousness. We are the ones of whom it will be fairly asked, What did you do when you learned the truth about eating animals?' - Jonathan Saffran Foer, Eating Animals

Eating Animals is the book that almost turned me into a vegetarian. It was eye-opening in so many ways, but the above quote summed up its message perfectly. I have my reasons for still eating my meat (chief among them is because my father cooks the best stuffed chicken every holiday season), but I like to think that I'm no longer pretending to be asleep when it comes to this issue.

6. 'Maybe girls need an island to find themselves. Maybe they need a place where no one's is watching them so they can be who they really are.' - Libba Bray, Beauty Queens

This was such an odd and wonderful book. I loved this idea that, taken away from society's expectations and rules, girls can be whoever they want to be, and no matter what that looks like, she is beautiful.

7. 'The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some, it's a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk. Use your natural powers -- of persistence, concentration, and insight -- to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems. make art, think deeply.' - Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

As an introvert, I find this SO encouraging. 

8. 'We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.' - J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Enough said.

9. 'Vanity is a factor, but it is more a question of control. It is easier to trick others into perceiving you as beautiful if you can convince yourself you are beautiful.' - Marissa Meyer, Cinder

So this is about vanity, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but I feel it's basically the same when it comes to confidence. If you believe it, others will have an easier time believing it too.

10. 'Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)... There are just some kind of men who - who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.' - Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

This, so much. I've known some religious people who are no better than your typical crook, and I can't help but think it's more important to be a good person than being able to quote the Bible.