I have so many ‘favorite’ quotes. How can I choose just ten? I tried to pick a few different types for a representative selection. The first, by far the longest, is also the darkest but its double-meaning is so delicious. Edmund Dantes, now the Count of Monte Cristo, is hosting a dinner for his enemies. They haven’t recognized them and don’t know he is relishing his vengeful plot.


You are certainly an extraordinary man,” said Danglars; “and philosophers may well say it is a fine thing to be rich.”

“And to have ideas,” added Madame Danglars.

“Oh, do not give me credit for this, madame; it was done by the Romans, who much esteemed them, and Pliny relates that they sent slaves from Ostia to Rome, who carried on their heads fish which he calls the mulus, and which, from the description, must probably be the goldfish. It was also considered a luxury to have them alive, it being an amusing sight to see them die, for, when dying, they change color three or four times, and like the rainbow when it disappears, pass through all the prismatic shades, after which they were sent to the kitchen. Their agony formed part of their merit—if they were not seen alive, they were despised when dead.”

— Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo


“It is a very funny thing that the sleepier you are, the longer you take about getting to bed.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair


“I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”

― P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters


“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”

― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Boscombe Valley Mystery


“There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you’re writing, and aren’t writing particularly well.”

― Agatha Christie, An Autobiography


“Governments and fashions come and go but Jane Eyre is for all time.”

― Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair


“I have great faith in fools – self-confidence my friends will call it.”

― Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia


“Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o’clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.”

― Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater


“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus


“If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.”

― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca


 What are you favorite book quotes?


6 thoughts on “TOP TEN TUESDAY: Favorite Book Quotes”

  1. I love The Count of Monte Cristo, it’s so much fun to read and highly quotable. Even the chapter titles are amazing…

  2. Oh, these are all so good. I feel personally attacked by that Agatha Christie quote, but in a good way. That Poe quote is perfection, and I love the one from Frankenstein.

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