Famous quotes by Novelists

Novelists

Explore the wit, imagination, and clarity of novelists, whose lines distill lifetimes of observation into memorable turns of phrase. From timeless classics to bold contemporary voices, their reflections illuminate love, loss, ambition, and the quiet moments between. Whether you seek inspiration, thought-provoking commentary, or simply the pleasure of finely crafted language, these selections highlight how storytellers make sense of the world and our place in it.

"Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!"

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Novelist

Small: Fyodor Dostoevsky

"The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time"

Jack London, Novelist

Small: Jack London

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self"

Ernest Hemingway, Novelist

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known"

Charles Dickens, Novelist

Small: Charles Dickens

"Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards"

Aldous Huxley, Novelist

Small: Aldous Huxley

"It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?"

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Novelist

Small: Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children"

William Makepeace Thackeray, Novelist

Small: William Makepeace Thackeray

"First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people"

Leo Rosten, Novelist

Small: Leo Rosten

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime"

Honore de Balzac, Novelist

Small: Honore de Balzac

"Don't just count your years, make your years count"

George Meredith, Novelist

Small: George Meredith

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing"

Arundhati Roy, Novelist

Small: Arundhati Roy

"Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught"

Honore de Balzac, Novelist

Small: Honore de Balzac

"Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it"

Madeleine L'Engle, Novelist

Small: Madeleine L'Engle

"We forge the chains we wear in life"

Charles Dickens, Novelist

Small: Charles Dickens

"Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded"

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Novelist

Small: Fyodor Dostoevsky

"The only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions"

Ellen Glasgow, Novelist

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly"

Richard Bach, Novelist

Small: Richard Bach

"Here is a test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't"

Richard Bach, Novelist

Small: Richard Bach

"Facts and truth really don't have much to do with each other"

William Faulkner, Novelist

"A fool can throw a stone in a pond that 100 wise men can not get out"

Saul Bellow, Novelist

"Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened"

Anatole France, Novelist

"Evil is whatever distracts"

Franz Kafka, Novelist

Small: Franz Kafka

"Valor lies just halfway between rashness and cowardice"

Miguel de Cervantes, Novelist

Small: Miguel de Cervantes

"To love someone means to see him as God intended him"

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Novelist

Small: Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Music is the shorthand of emotion"

Leo Tolstoy, Novelist

Small: Leo Tolstoy

"War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus"

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Novelist

"Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college"

Lillian Smith, Novelist

"Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity"

Gustave Flaubert, Novelist

Small: Gustave Flaubert

"We sit in the mud... and reach for the stars"

Ivan Turgenev, Novelist

"To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi"

William Faulkner, Novelist

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