Quotes Compiled

"Maura is the kind of friend I enjoy swapping doomsday scenarios with. She’s not, however,..."

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 16:47:00 -0700

““Maura is the kind of friend I enjoy swapping doomsday scenarios with. She’s not, however, someone who makes me want to prevent doomsday from happening (56).’”

- John Green, Will Greyson, Will Greyson

"Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the unfortunate that it comes early..."

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 15:54:02 -0700

““Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the unfortunate that it comes early in life.””

- Anthony Trollope via Oxymoronica

"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal"

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 15:53:24 -0700

““I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal””

- Jane Austen, via Oxymoronica

"Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the unfortunate that it comes early..."

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:00:52 -0700

““Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the unfortunate that it comes early in life.””

- Anthony Trollope via Oxymoronica

"It is only by knowing how little life has in store for us that we are able to look on the bright..."

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:50:54 -0700

““It is only by knowing how little life has in store for us that we are able to look on the bright side and avoid disappointment. “”

- Glasgow, via Oxymoronica

"If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s the other..."

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:54:46 -0700

““If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s the other nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standards of nonconformity. “”

- Vaughn via Oxymoronica

"But just as someone who wears a sign saying “Kick Me!” will, in the normal course of events,..."

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 15:57:25 -0700

““But just as someone who wears a sign saying “Kick Me!” will, in the normal course of events, eventually be kicked, so too there was enough mischief being done in that basement to attract something unusually bad, something with more mischief on its mind. It had been waiting for a long time. Now that wait was about to come to an end.” (13)”

- John Conolly, The Gates

"I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is improbably biased toward..."

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 15:58:01 -0700

““I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence, in part because the universe enjoys its elegance in being observed. And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it – or my observation of it-is temporary?” (223)”

- John Green, The Fault In Our Stars

"But to be perfectly frank, this childish idea that the author has some special insight into the..."

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:55:20 -0700

““But to be perfectly frank, this childish idea that the author has some special insight into the characters in the novel… it’s ridiculous. That novel was composed of scratches on a page, dear. The characters inhabiting it have no life outside of those scratches. What happened to them? They all ceased to exist the moment the novel ended.” (192)”

- John Green, The Fault In Our Stars

"I take quite a lot of pride in not knowing what’s cool,” I answered. (40)"

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:55:29 -0700

““I take quite a lot of pride in not knowing what’s cool,” I answered. (40)”

- John Green, The Fault In Our Stars

"Why are you looking at me like that?” Augustus half smiled. “Because you’re beautiful. I..."

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:00:01 -0700

““”Why are you looking at me like that?”
Augustus half smiled. “Because you’re beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence. (16)”””

- John Green, the Fault In Our Stars

"My favorite book, by a wide margin, was An Imperial Affliction, but I didn’t like to tell people..."

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:18:07 -0700

““My favorite book, by a wide margin, was An Imperial Affliction, but I didn’t like to tell people about it. Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can’t tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like betrayal.
It wasn’t even that the book was so good or anything; it was that the author, Peter Van Houten, seemed to understand me in weird and impossible ways. An Imperial Affliction was my book in the way my body was my body and my thoughts were my thoughts. (33-34)””

- John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

"Lesson number 1b in Bibwit’s carefully planned curriculum: For most of the univere’s..."

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 12:52:28 -0700

““Lesson number 1b in Bibwit’s carefully planned curriculum: For most of the univere’s inhabitants, life is not all gummy wads and tarty tartsl it is a struggle against hardship, unfairness, corruption, abuse and adversity in all its guises, where even to survive - let alone survive with dignity - is heroic. To soldier through the days in the wake of failure is the courageous act of many. T rule benevolently, a queen should be able to enter into the feelings of those less fortunate than herself. ( 83)””

- Frank Beddor, The Looking Glass Wars

"Ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to..."

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:59:42 -0700

““Ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.””

- Dan Marquis via The Oxymoronica

"You can’t make anything idiot because idiots are so ingenious."

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:02:00 -0700

““You can’t make anything idiot because idiots are so ingenious.””

- R. Burns via The Oxymoronica

"There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them"

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 18:49:22 -0700

““There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them””

- George Orwell via the Oxymoronica

"No figure of speech of literary device can be considered fully worth its salt until it proves useful..."

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:59:04 -0700

““No figure of speech of literary device can be considered fully worth its salt until it proves useful in one of the most popular of human activities — putting people down, or at least putting them in their place. (13).””

- Dr. Grothe via The Oxymoronica

"Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction"

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:08:04 -0700

““Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction””

- Pablo Picasso via The Oxymoronica

"We sat in silence for a few moments, looking at our tea but neither of us drinking it. We just let..."

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 18:58:48 -0700

““We sat in silence for a few moments, looking at our tea but neither of us drinking it. We just let it steep, darker and darker, like our thoughts (243).””

- Maureen Johnson, The Name of the Star

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s own ignorance (8)"

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 16:01:02 -0700

““Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s own ignorance (8)””

- Confucius via The Oxymoronica