These are some of my favorite quotes from books that I finished reading in the last year. It is incredibly difficult to summarize these comprehensively amazing literary works to a few quotes but hopefully it will encourage exploration of some of these amazing books!

Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe

“Those people cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them because they see and covet what He has not given them. All of our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.” 

“I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth … that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men.”

The Business of Heaven

C.S. Lewis

“Women sometimes have the problem of trying to judge by artificial light how a dress will look by daylight. That is very like the problem of all of us: to dress our souls not for the electric lights of the present world but for the daylight of the next. The good dress is the one that will face that light. For that light will last longer.” 

“No doubt Pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.”

Disrupt Yourself

Whitney Johnson

“The more closed your network, the more you hear the same ideas over and again, reaffirming what you already believe, while the more open your network, the more exposed you are to new ideas.” 

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Shel Silverstein

“My beard grows down to my toes / I never wears no clothes / I wraps my hair / Around my bare / And down the road I goes.” 

“Tell me I’m clever / Tell me I’m kind / Tell me I’m talented / Tell me I’m cute / Tell me I’m sensitive, Graceful and wise / Tell me I’m perfect – But tell me the truth. “

The Pioneers

David McCullough

“Count the day lost at which the setting sun sees at its close no worthy action done.” 

“They accomplished what they had set out to do not for money, not for possessions or fame, but to advance the quality and opportunities of life—to propel as best they could the American ideals.”

A Light in the Attic

Shel Silverstein

“I’ll take the dream I had last night / And put it in my freezer /So someday long and far away / When I’m an old grey geezer / I’ll take it out and thaw it out /This lovely dream I’ve frozen / And boil it up and sit me down / A dip my old cold toes in.” 

For All Eternity

Dr. John L. Lund

“55 Percent of the weight we derive in understanding others comes from our reading their facial expressions and body language. Thirty-seven percent comes from listening to the tone of their voice. {…} we give only 8 percent credibility to the actual words being spoken”

“The difference between a negotiation and an argument is the willingness to respect a different point of view and allow for fairness in coming to a mutually acceptable agreement.”

The Holy Invitation

Anthony Sweat

“The Temple ordinances may take a lifetime of dedicated worship to fully decode, but you will receive revelatory dots, bit by bit, that will eventually come together into a grand heavenly image.”

Kidnapped

Robert Louis Stevenson

“To be feared of a thing and yet to do it, is what makes the prettiest kind of a man.”

“There are two things that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people.”

“I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.” 

In Our Time

Ernest Hemingway

“In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.” 

Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson

“Sir, with no intention to take offense, I deny your right to put words into my mouth.”

“It was Silver’s voice, and before I had heard a dozen words, I would not have shown myself for all the world. I lay there, trembling and listening, in the extreme of fear and curiosity, for, in those dozen words, I understood that the lives of all the honest men aboard depended on me alone.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

J. R. R. Tolkien

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

“But it does not seem that I can trust anyone,’ said Frodo. Sam looked at him unhappily. ‘It all depends on what you want,’ put in Merry. ‘You can trust us to stick with you through thick and thin–to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours–closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

J. R. R. Tolkien

“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”

“Where now are the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing? Where is the harp on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing? Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow; The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. Who shall gather the smoke of the deadwood burning, Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?”

“Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, of course, but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: “Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring!” And they will say: “Yes, that’s one of my favourite stories. Frodo was very brave, wasn’t he, dad?” “Yes, my boy, the famousest of the hobbits, and that’s saying a lot.” ‘It’s saying a lot too much,’ said Frodo, and he laughed, a long clear laugh from his heart. Such a sound had not been heard in those places since Sauron came to Middle-earth. To Sam suddenly it seemed as if all the stones were listening and the tall rocks leaning over them. But Frodo did not heed them; he laughed again. ‘Why, Sam,’ he said, ‘to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you’ve left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. “I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn’t they put in more of his talk, dad? That’s what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad?”‘ ‘Now, Mr. Frodo,’ said Sam, ‘you shouldn’t make fun. I was serious.’ ‘So was I,’ said Frodo, ‘and so I am.” 

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King

J. R. R. Tolkien

“But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.” 

“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”

“Come, Mr. Frodo!’ he cried. ‘I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.”

Nudge

Richard Thaler

“So to put it simply, forcing people to choose is not always wise, and remaining neutral is not always possible.”

“Loss aversion helps produce inertia, meaning a strong desire to stick with your current holdings.”

War and Peace

 Leo Tolstoy

“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.” 

“A man on a thousand mile walk has to forget his goal and say to himself every morning, ‘Today I’m going to cover twenty-five miles and then rest up and sleep.” 

The Chronicles of Narnia

 C.S. Lewis

“But very quickly they all became grave again: for, as you know, there is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.”

“When things go wrong, you’ll find they usually go on getting worse for some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better and better.”

“They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”

Predictably Irrational

 Dan Ariely

“Ownership is not limited to material things. It can also apply to points of view. Once we take ownership of an idea — whether it’s about politics or sports — what do we do? We love it perhaps more than we should. We prize it more than it is worth. And most frequently, we have trouble letting go of it because we can’t stand the idea of its loss. What are we left with then? An ideology — rigid and unyielding.”

“Giving up on our long-term goals for immediate gratification, my friends, is procrastination.”