Hello everyone,
With barely three weeks to go until the end of the year, this is the first in a series of posts where I am going to look back on all of the books I have read in 2021.
Several of those books have been on my Kindle, and one helpful feature of reading electronically is the ability to highlight passages and have them saved either to my library or to Goodreads, so I can look at them again whenever I please.
So today, I am sharing some of those highlights. They are essentially the best quotes I have come across while reading on my Kindle this year – the most powerful, inspiring, meaningful, or sometimes the most fun!
Without further ado, here they are!
Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
I could not help it if I felt like a guest in Manderley, my home, walking where she had trodden, resting where she had lain. I was like a guest, biding my time, waiting for the return of the hostess. Little sentences, little reproofs reminding me every hour, every day.
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered, and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth. This was what I had done. I had built up false pictures in my mind and sat before them. I had never had the courage to demand the truth. Had I made one step forward out of my own shyness, Maxim would have told me these things four months, five months ago.
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The peace of Manderley. The quietude and the grace. Whoever lived within its walls, whatever trouble there was and strife, however much uneasiness and pain, no matter what tears were shed, what sorrows borne, the peace of Manderley could not be broken or the loveliness destroyed. The flowers that died would bloom again another year, the same birds build their nests, the same trees blossom. The old quiet moss smell would linger in the air, and bees would come, and crickets, and herons build their nests in the deep dark woods. The butterflies would dance their merry jig across the lawns, and spiders spin foggy webs, and small startled rabbits who had no business to come trespassing poke their faces through the crowded shrubs. There would be lilac and honeysuckle still, and the white magnolia buds unfolding slow and tight beneath the dining-room window. No one would ever hurt Manderley. It would lie always in a hollow like an enchanted thing, guarded by the woods, safe, secure, while the sea broke and ran and came again in the little shingle bays below.
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
“Music’s a funny thing, man. You start of as an angry kid, writing lyrics in the back of your school books, practicing guitar in your bedroom on your own, jamming with other kids in a church hall. Then suddenly you’re allowed to choose your rider, you stay in the presidential suites in hotels all over the world. You have legions of people who will wait up all night just to see your face. Whatever you want, you can pretty much have. You just have to pick up that instrument you spent so long practicing in that bedroom. You have to scream out those words that mean nothing to you now but so much to those fans. All you have to do is what you love, and people, they turn you into something you’re not. They turn you into an idol. It’s hard to stay humble; it’s hard to remember where you came from.”
Deity by Matt Wesolowski
When someone’s desires are untamed, unlimited and never questioned, they lose all sense of humility and reason.
Deity by Matt Wesolowski
He’d accepted long ago that some people, no matter how good their heart was or how much love they had to give, would always be alone.
The House In The Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
“The things we fear the most are often the things we should fear the least. It’s irrational, but it’s what makes us human. And if we’re able to conquer those fears, then there is nothing we’re not capable of.”
The House In The Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
“A home isn’t always the house we live in. It’s also the people we choose to surround ourselves with. You may not live on the island, but you can’t tell me it’s not your home.
The House In The Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
“All humans are filing cabinets,” she said finally. “Some are just better organized than others.”
Tuesday Mooney Talks To Ghosts by Kate Racculia
Many boys will bring you flowers. But some day you’ll meet a boy who will learn your favourite flower, your favourite song, your favourite sweet. And even if he is too poor to give you any of them, it won’t matter because he will have taken the time to know you as no one else does. Only that boy earns your heart.
Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
She wouldn’t wish love on anyone. It was the guest you welcomed and then couldn’t be rid of.
Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
“Some people see a magic trick and say, ‘Impossible!’ They clap their hands, turn over their money, and forget about it ten minutes later. Other people ask how it worked. They go home, get into bed, toss and turn, wondering how it was done. It takes them a good night’s sleep to forget all about it. And then there are the ones who stay awake, running through the trick again and again, looking for that skip in perception, the crack in the illusion that will explain how their eyes got duped; they’re the kind who won’t rest until they’ve mastered that little bit of mystery for themselves. I’m that kind.”
Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
I would love to know your thoughts on some of these quotes! Did any of them stand out for you? Did you come across any memorable ones in 2021? Let me know in the comments!
Happy reading 🙂
Stephen Reads Books 