75 Iconic Quotes From Classic Books You Read In High School

“Impossible; for how many people did you know that refracted your own light to you?”

— Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag, amazon.com

“You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.”

— Margaret Mitchell, amazon.com

“It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.”

— John Steinbeck, amazon.com

“Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore.”

— Ray Bradbury, amazon.com

“I'll hold on to the world tight some day. I've got one finger on it now; that's a beginning.”

— Ray Bradbury, amazon.com

“How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past?”

— John Steinbeck, amazon.com

“If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.”

— John Steinbeck, amazon.com

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.”

— Anne Frank, amazon.com

“He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find ou…”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, amazon.com

“In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”

— Anne Frank, amazon.com

“The broken heart. You think you will die, but you just keep living, day after day after terrible day.”

— Charles Dickens, amazon.com

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

— Charlotte Brontë, amazon.com

“There's an old saying that applies to me: you can't lose a game if you don't play the game.”

— William Shakespeare, amazon.com

“I would always rather be happy than dignified.”

— Charlotte Brontë, amazon.com

“Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset.”

— S.E. Hinton, amazon.com

“There's a long road of suffering ahead of you. But don't lose courage. You've already escaped the gravest danger: selection. So now, muster your strength, and don't lose heart. We shall all see the day of liberation. Have faith in life. Above all else, have faith. Drive out despair, and you will kee…”

— Elie Wiesel, amazon.com

“There is nothing so good and lovely as when man and wife in their house dwell together in unity and disposition.”

— Homer, amazon.com

“I would always rather be happy than dignified.”

— Charlotte Brontë, amazon.com

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

— Mary Shelley, amazon.com

“I wish I'd done everything on earth with you.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, amazon.com

“It may...be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion; but when I see a fellow-creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, that I may say what I know of her character.”

— Mary Shelley, amazon.com

“Our scars make us know that our past was for real.”

— Jane Austen, amazon.com

“Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”

— John Steinbeck, amazon.com

“Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her.”

— Jane Austen, amazon.com

“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”

— Ernest Hemingway, amazon.com

“He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.”

— Ernest Hemingway, amazon.com

“When you love something it loves you back in whatever way it has to love.”

— John Knowles, amazon.com

“Remember now and then that there is a man who would die to keep someone you love beside you”

— Charles Dickens, amazon.com

“But I tried, didn’t I? Goddamnit, at least I did that.”

— Ken Kesey, amazon.com

“All I know is this: nobody's very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.”

— Ken Kesey, goodreads.com