What is your favourite quote / para from a book you have read?

 James Clear - Atomic habits

Lord of the Rings

Not sure if it is already said but I like this quote from the bookOathbringer

"The most important words a man can say are, “I will do better.” These are not the most important words any man can say. I am a man, and they are what I needed to say. The ancient code of the Knights Radiant says “journey before destination.” Some may call it a simple platitude, but it is far more. A journey will have pain and failure. It is not only the steps forward that we must accept. It is the stumbles. The trials. The knowledge that we will fail. That we will hurt those around us. But if we stop, if we accept the person we are when we fall, the journey ends. That failure becomes our destination.To love the journey is to accept no such end. I have found, through painful experience, that the most important step a person can take is always the next one. "

I read this in ESPNCricinfo's biography of Rahul Dravid: Timeless Steel. It is something that has stayed with me.

"Dravid's second century of the tour had begun with a bruising hour of play on Friday evening. He was hit on his wrist, jammed in the fingers, worked over. He kept batting through two more sessions, sometimes hobbling, sometimes cramping but always pushing forward. He was hit on the wrist again this morning, and after the initial spasm, his hand lost sensation for a few overs. What Dravid never lost was the purpose of what he had to do: bat one ball at a time."

Nice to know a fellow aficionado!

I liked it, but sadly only in parts. It was still a very beautiful read, but my expectations were very high coming off from One Hundred Years of Solitude.

An unrelated/unwanted suggestion - I'd want to ask you (and everyone reading), to read the works of Jhumpa Lahiri, especially "The Lowland". It just struck my memory as I was typing this reply. 

I could not lay my hands on Gabriel Garcia somehow. They are also very voluminous. And now I have very less time for fiction. 

I loved Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri a lot, I read it when I was in 6th or 7th grade, and did not have the maturity to fully grasp it. I have a knack for remembering lines, stories etc from what I have read. As I grew up I began to make more sense of what I read.

:)

There are some of us who have boring, ordinary lives, and we have books / quotes / anecdotes as our companions. Some of us read them  even if we dont get something out of it. Through these quotes , books , lines we get a glimpse of the minds of other people.

For some of us, this is a reality show - expect that we get to see inside of the minds of the people :)

*knowledge poverty high-five 👋🏽*

I've found this to be a very useful habit, it happens with me too!

I think I might have oversold Gabriel García Màrquez a bit, but I have no guilt :D

I still remember my emotions when I read the last page of The namesake. When he finally embraced Gogol sitting alone in his room. 

One of my best read till now, without any doubt. 

This is not from a book but from a Hindi newspaper; back in 2011. 

A daily piece of wisdom printed on the top right corner. Often repeated and equally ignored by the readers and the editors. To me, as a kid, this was gold.

I apologize for paraphrasing it, it goes like this - To lead a good and successful life, one must be as gentle with others as one want others to be with oneself, but one must be as strict with self as one want others to be with themselves. 

To me this meant - to be no-nonsense and ever-disciplined with myself in my pursuit (as I somewhere hope everyone to be like this) and be compassionate, kind and easy with others.

This has stayed with me for a long time now.

Suggestion of books is never unwanted. A BIG thank you for this.

This is such a wonderful thought. One would think that most people who are very demanding of themselves would demand too much from others too. But counter-intuitively I feel like being tough and brutally honest with ourselves actually helps in being more compassionate and understanding of others' struggles. I have had this idea in some form for a while but never saw it put down so succinctly. Thank you for sharing :)

Arriving late to the scene!

I'm going to quote from  Stephen Chbosky's book- 'The perks of being a Wallflower'. I loved this book because I am a wallflower myself. Are you ready to get amazed by the richness of originality in the book? Here we go.

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Dear friend,

I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn’t try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. Please don’t try to figure out who she is because then you might figure out who I am, and I really don’t want you to do that. I will call people by different names or generic names because I don’t want you to find me. I didn’t enclose a return address for the same reason. I mean nothing bad by this. Honest. I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesn’t try to sleep with people even if they could have. I need to know that these people exist. I think you of all people would understand that because I think you of all people are alive and appreciate what that means. At least I hope you do because other people look to you for strength and friendship and it’s that simple. At least that’s what I’ve heard. So, this is my life. AndI want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be. 

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“He's a wallflower. You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.”

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After the dance, we left in Sam’s pickup. Patrick was driving this time. As we were approaching the Fort Pitt Tunnel, Sam asked Patrick to pull to the side of the road. I didn’t know what was going on. Sam then climbed in the back of the pickup, wearing nothing but her dance dress. She told Patrick to drive, and he got this smile on his face. I guess they had done this before. Anyway, Patrick started driving really fast, and just before we got to the tunnel, Sam stood up, and the wind turned her dress into ocean waves. When we hit the tunnel, all the sound got scooped up into a vacuum, and it was replaced by a song on the tape player. A beautiful song called “Landslide.” When we got out of the tunnel, Sam screamed this really fun scream, and there it was. Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing.And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.

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There is this one photograph of Sam that is just beautiful. It would be impossible to describe how beautiful it is, but I’ll try. If you listen to the song “Asleep,” and you think about those pretty weather days that make you remember things, and you think about the prettiest eyes you’ve known, and you cry, and the person holds you back, then I think you will see the photograph. 

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I think it was the first time in my life I ever felt like I looked “good.” Do you know what I mean? That nice feeling when you look in the mirror, and your hair’s right for the first time in your life? I don’t think we should base so much on weight, muscles, and a good hair day, but when it happens, it’s nice. It really is.

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I guess what I’m saying is that this all feels very familiar. But it’s not mine to be familiar about. I just know that another kid has felt this. This one time when it’s peaceful outside, and you’re seeing things move, and you don’t want to, and everyone is asleep. And all the books you’ve read have been read by other people. And all the songs you’ve loved have been heard by other people. And that girl that’s pretty to you is pretty to other people. And you know that if you looked at these facts when you were happy, you would feel great because you are describing “unity.” 

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Dear friend,

I feel great! I really mean it. I have to remember this for the next time I’m having a terrible week. Have you ever done that? You feel really bad, and then it goes away, and you don’t know why. I try to remind myself when I feel great like this that there will be another terrible week coming someday, so I should store up as many great details as I can, so during the next terrible week, I can remember those details and believe that I’ll feel great again. It doesn’t work a lot, but I think it’s very important to try.

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I like girls. I really do. Because they can think you look good in a bathing suit even when you don’t.

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But it’s like when my doctor told me the story of these two brothers whose dad was a bad alcoholic. One brother grew up to be a successful carpenter who never drank. The other brother ended up being a drinker as bad as his dad was. When they asked the first brother why he didn’t drink, he said that after he saw what it did to his father, he could never bring himself to even try it. When they asked the other brother, he said that he guessed he learned how to drink on his father’s knee. So,I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we’ll never know most of them.But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.

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"We accept the love we think we deserve."

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“This moment will just be another story someday. Enjoy it. Because it's happening.”

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“And I guess I realized at that moment that I really did love her. Because there was nothing to gain, and that didn't matter.”

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I guess I gave away one half of the book. Sorry about that. I just couldn't resist myself.

"When I am with you, we stay up all night 

When you're not here, I can't go to sleep

Praise God for these two insomnias!

And the difference between them "

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“In your light I learn how to love.

In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,

where no-one sees you,

but sometimes I do,

and that sight becomes this art.”

                                                                                    ~ The Essential Rumi, translations by Coleman Barks

I wish I could read Rumi in Persian because I feel some essence is lost in translation. But what beauty! 

I started audio book of 100 years a solitude after checking out the awesome reviews. Been an avid reader since 7-8 years old, so, I don't have much difficulty in understanding. 

But this particular book seemed all over the place even after 3 hours of listening to it, eventually gave up. Too many characters, so many tricky names. 

Now I feel I should have rather finished it. 

Absolutely, thats why i deleted this comment, though i think its visible to you  . 

I second you completely, even though everything is in us, but quotation, books, characters, quotes, dialogues - they do have a massive impact on us psychologically. Without them life will be directionless, bland, mechanical, idea-less and a big zero.

My quote -  “It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”