Ever read a line so good you had to stop and savor it? Or maybe you’ve heard a quote somewhere and thought, “Wait… what’s that from?” Well, you’re in the right place!
Welcome to Whatsthatbook.net — where the best lines from the best books live. Whether you’re hunting down that one unforgettable quote or just looking for some literary inspiration, we’ve got you covered. Scroll down, discover some gems, and maybe find your next favorite read along the way.
“It’s much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.” – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
“We live in the flicker — may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday.” –Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
– I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
“For you, a thousand times over.” – The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”
– To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
“UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” – The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
“A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams, and you will always look lovely.” – The Twits by Roald Dahl
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” –Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
“Find your own way, you don’t have to follow the crowd. There’s only one you in this great big world.” – Only One You by Linda Kranz
“It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness.” – The Annotated Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
“And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.” – Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” – The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
“Today was a difficult day. Tomorrow will be better.” – Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
“Not trying is much worse than failing.” – A World Without Failures by Esther Pia Cordova
“Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for.” – Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” – Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
“Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!” – Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
“I don’t understand it any more than you do, but one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to understand things for them to be.” – A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
“How we spend our days is of course, how we spend our lives” – The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
“He soon felt that the fulfillment of his desires gave him only one grain of the mountain of happiness he had expected. This fulfillment showed him the eternal error men make in imagining that their happiness depends on the realization of their desires.” – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
“You haven’t really been anywhere until you’ve been back home. I think that’s what I mean.” – The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
“Face your fears, or they will climb over your back.” – Chapter House Dune by Herbert Frank
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” – Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes when you fall, you fly.” – The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” – Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” – Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence
“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” – The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
“When one person suffers from delusion, it’s called insanity, when many suffer, it’s called religion” – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” – The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” – The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” – The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“Now that I knew fear, I also knew it was not permanent. As powerful as it was, its grip on me would loosen. It would pass.” – The Round House by Louise Erdrich
“They say nothing lasts forever but they’re just scared it will last longer than they can love it.” – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
“They say nothing lasts forever but they’re just scared it will last longer than they can love it.”
“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin by A.A. Milne
“I would always rather be happy than dignified.” – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
People are their most beautiful when they are laughing, crying, dancing, playing, telling the truth, and being chased in a fun way. – Yes Please by Amy Poehler
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” – Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” – The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
“To define is to limit.” – The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” – Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” – Diary by Chuck Palahniuk
“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” – Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
“So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.” – The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
“In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart.” – The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” – The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
“There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.” – The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! by Dr. Seuss
“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
“Rock bottom becomes a turning point because it is only at that point that most people think: I never want to feel this way again.” – The Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest
“We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
“My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.” – David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” – Disputationes Tusculanae by Marcus Tullius Cicero
“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.” – An Autobiography by Agatha Christie
“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” – Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
“Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.” – Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
“A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.” – Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” – Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
“It takes a great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory and still love it.” – An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
“Everything is possible. The impossible just takes longer.” – Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
“When you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worthwhile.” – Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
“You’ve always had the power, my dear. You just had to learn it for yourself.” – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
“Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.” – Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
“Being alone has nothing to do with how many people are around.” – Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” – East of Eden by John Steinbeck
“If it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.” – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
“More often than not, the love someone gives you will be a reflection of the love you give yourself. If you can’t treat yourself with kindness, care, and patience, chances are someone else won’t either.” – Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
“You can get lost in any library, no matter the size. But the more lost you are, the more things you’ll find.” – Lydia Green Of Mulberry Glen by Millie Florence
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” – Coraline by Neil Gaiman
“A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth.” – Meditations from a Movable Chair by Andre Dubus
“Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.” – An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
“No. I can survive well enough on my own— if given the proper reading material.” – Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” – Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid by Lemony Snicket
“Books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life.” – Eragon by Christopher Paolini
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” – Conversations with William Styron by William Styron
“I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.” – The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” – Calvin & Hobbes Books, Tenth Anniversary Book by Bill Watterson
“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” – The Help by Kathryn Stockett
“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.” – The Addams Family by Charles Addams
“When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example.” – Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
“Sometimes I can feel my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.” – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
“You can’t live your life for other people.” – The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
“There’s some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.” – The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.” – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
“What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?” – The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss.
“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath.
“Get busy living, or get busy dying.” – Different Seasons by Stephen King
“Nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy.” – Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks.
“But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.” – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” –Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling.
“Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.” – Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.
“If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all.” – Paper Towns by John Green.
“All human wisdom is summed up in these two words – ‘Wait and hope.’” — The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
“Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.” – The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.” – A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
“Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.” – Normal People by Sally Rooney
“I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.” – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
“But man is not made for defeat,’ he said. ‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” – The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” – Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
“And may the odds be ever in your favor.” – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
“A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well — or ill?” – East of Eden by John Steinbeck
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston