Top Ten Inspiring Quotes from Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & the Bookish

When a book is written well, or touches you in some way, there are always going to be quotes that stay with you. Some of them dig in deeper under your skin than others, but they are all important, and they all show how the books we read change us and help us to grow.

It was tough picking them out, but here are ten quotes from books that have inspired, touched or stayed with me in some way.

"No more words. We know them all, all the words that should not be said. But you have made my world more perfect."

Nation by Terry Pratchett

“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.” 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

"I fell in love the way you fall asleep. Slowly, and then all at once." 

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

“You did not have to understand miracles to believe in them, and in fact Mabel had come to suspect the opposite. To believe, perhaps you had to cease looking for explanations and instead hold the little thing in your hands as long as you were able before it slipped like water between your fingers.” 

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

“In my old age, I see that life itself is often more fantastic and terrible than the stories we believed as children, and that perhaps there is no harm in finding magic among the trees.”  

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

"I would give up everything for you, Giulia"
I smiled at him gently. "But you must understand. I should never want a man to give up anything for me. I should want him to feel in winning me he has won the whole world..." 

Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn

"Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly."  

Sandman Vol. 6 'Fables & Reflections' by Neil Gaiman

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." 

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone by J. K. Rowling

"The world inside myself is vaster and richer than this paltry plane, peopled with mere galaxies and gods."  

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

"I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. 
I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. 
I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. 
I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it." 

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

So there you have it, my top ten inspiring quotes that have stayed with me. There have been so many others in so many wonderful books, but these have really stuck in my head. What quotes have stayed with you?