#boo

When the Viennese government compiled a Catalogue of Forbidden Books in 1765, so many Austrians used it as a reading guide that the Hapsburg censors were forced to include the Catalogue itself as a forbidden book. ↗

— Craig Nelson

#catalog #censorship #censorship

As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you in a book. ↗

— George MacDonald

#fate #reading #mac

Worst of all, the inner vault is guarded by a live dragon, attended by fifty naked women armed with poisoned spears, each of them sworn to die in Requin's service. All redheads. -You're just making that up, Jean. ↗

— Scott Lynch

#service

Those who try to juggle wisdom, power and greed, drop one of the balls, every time.” —Zarost ↗

— Greg Hamerton

#fantasy-fiction #greed #power #wisdom #greed

His habit of reading isolated him: it became such a need that after being in company for some time he grew tired and restless; he was vain of the wider knowledge he had acquired from the perusal of so many books, his mind was alert, and he had not the skill to hide his contempt for his companions' stupidity. They complained that he was conceited; and, since he excelled only in matters which to them were unimportant, they asked satirically what he had to be conceited about. He was developing a sense of humour, and found that he had a knack of saying bitter things, which caught people on the raw; he said them because they amused him, hardly realising how much they hurt, and was much offended when he found that his victims regarded him with active dislike. The humiliations he suffered when he first went to school had caused in him a shrinking from his fellows which he could never entirely overcome; he remained shy and silent. But though he did everything to alienate the sympathy of other boys he longed with all his heart for the popularity which to some was so easily accorded. These from his distance he admired extravagantly; and though he was inclined to be more sarcastic with them than with others, though he made little jokes at their expense, he would have given anything to change places with them. ↗

— W. Somerset Maugham

#isolation #popularity #reading #change

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. ↗

— Franz Kafka

#kindness

I’m trying to translate what my cat says and put it in a book, but how many homonyms are there for meow?
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#books #cats #homonyms #meow #translate

Now,young lady,I suppose you're here for a work assignment." Work?" Tally said. They both looked down at her puzzled expression, and Shay burst into laughter. ↗

— Scott Westerfeld

#assignment #avatar #book #burst #expression

We like to admit to only that which already glows, although it is nobler to support brightness before it glows, not afterwards. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#books #brightness #dejan-stojanovic #glow #literature

Ah, Sir, a novel is a mirror carried along a high road. At one moment it reflects to your vision the azure skies, at another the mire of the puddles at your feet. And the man who carries this mirror in his pack will be accused by you of being immoral! His mirror shews the mire, and you blame the mirror! Rather blame that high road upon which the puddle lies, still more the inspector of roads who allows the water to gather and the puddle to form. ↗

— Stendhal

#novels #satire #social-criticism #satire