Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Quotes from Books

(Inspired by The Broke and the Bookish. Check them out here.)

Top ten lists are never as easy as they sound since the problem rarely lies in not enough choices, but rather the overwhelming abundance of great choices. Each week I struggle with whether I should stick to a theme to help narrow my thoughts (YA literature, travel literature, non-fiction, etc.) and yet each week I seem to end up with a seemingly random assortment. With this week’s theme being favorite quotes from literature, I’ve put together a list that really is all over the place. Some are quotes that are memorable because they are great “sound bites” from the narrative (The Hunger Games and The Outsiders), while some are powerful and stand firmly on their own, without needing any further knowledge of the work itself (East of Eden and The Infernal Devices).

So, presented without further commentary, here are ten literary quotes that speak to me:

“And may the odds be ever in your favor.” –Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”
—John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly.”
—Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“Do I dare / Disturb the universe?”
—T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together…there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart…I’ll always be with you.”                                                                                                                                                                            -A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

“In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart.”
—Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank

“One must be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”
—Cassandra Clare, The Infernal Devices

“Stay gold, Ponyboy.”                                                                                                                                                                     – S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders

“Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.”
—L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“What are men to rocks and mountains?”
—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

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