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When I think about classic books, I’m instantly transported to the unforgettable quotes that have shaped literature.
Personally, I’ve always found that the right quote can perfectly capture an emotion, a moment, or even an entire era.
In this post, I’ve rounded up the best and most iconic quotes from classic books—those unforgettable lines that have stood the test of time.
If you love words that make you think, laugh, or even cry, these quotes are sure to resonate with you just like they did with me.
1. “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” – Paradise Lost by John Milton
2. “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” – The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway
3. “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.” – A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
4. “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.” – Dune by Frank Herbert
5. “Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise.” – Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
6. “The only way to deal with this life is to find someone to share it with.” – Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
7. “A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.” – Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
8. “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” – 1984 by George Orwell
9. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
10. “What is past is prologue.” – The Tempest by William Shakespeare
11. “But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” – Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W.B. Yeats
12. “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” – The Shining by Stephen King
13. “After all, tomorrow is another day.” – Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
14. “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.” – The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
15. “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” – East of Eden by John Steinbeck
16. “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly.” – The Twits by Roald Dahl
17. “You can’t ever have my books.” – Matilda by Roald Dahl
18. “The sun shines not on us but in us.” – Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
19. “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
20. “Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another.” – Emma by Jane Austen
21. “Time, which sees all things, has found you out.” – Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
22. “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” – A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
23. “You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.” – The Road by Cormac McCarthy
24. “For you, a thousand times over.” – The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
25. “The past is not dead. It’s not even past.” – Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner
26. “You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.” – Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
28. “All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.” – Autobiography by Frederick Douglass
29. “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
30. “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” – The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
31. “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously.” – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
32. “It is not down in any map; true places never are.” – Moby Dick by Herman Melville
33. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
34. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
35. “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” – Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
36. “Fear doesn’t shut you down; it wakes you up.” – Divergent by Veronica Roth
37. “To be, or not to be: that is the question.” – Hamlet by William Shakespeare
38. “You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away—a man is not a piece of fruit!” – Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
39. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” – Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde
40. “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all those who live without love.” – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
41. “You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.” – Persuasion by Jane Austen
42. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” – As You Like It by William Shakespeare
43. “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” – Cicero (referenced in various classical contexts)
44. “Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
45. “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” – Return to Tipasa by Albert Camus
46. “It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at the bottom.” – The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
47. “Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.” – The Rebel by Albert Camus
48. “To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further.” – Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
49. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Often attributed to Edmund Burke (frequently discussed in historical texts)
50. “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” – Often attributed to Ernest Hemingway
51. “I am, I am, I am.” – The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
52. “We are all fools in love.” – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
53. “I ask you to pass through life at my side—to be my second self, and best earthly companion.” – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
54. “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.” – The Bible, Gospel of John
55. “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
56. “When I look at you, I can feel it. I look at you, and I’m home.” – Finding Nemo (Pixar, widely referenced in literary discussions for emotional resonance)
57. “We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep.” – The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
58. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
59. “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” – 1984 by George Orwell
60. “We live as we dream—alone.” – Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
61. “The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.” – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
62. “He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” – Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
63. “We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep.” – The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
64. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.” – The Witches by Roald Dahl
65. “Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go on even though you’re scared.” – The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
66. “We were the people who were not in the papers.” – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
67. “I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul.” – A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
68. “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
69. “I can’t stand it to think my life is going so fast and I’m not really living it.” – The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
70. “Ask no questions, and you’ll be told no lies.” – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
71. “The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” – Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
72. “I gave my whole heart up, for him to hold.” – The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
73. “Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches.” – The Princess Bride by William Goldman
74. “The world wavered and quivered and threatened to burst into flames.” – Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
75. “Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.” – Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
76. “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
77. “A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” – A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
78. “Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs.” – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
79. “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” – Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
80. “We accept the love we think we deserve.” – The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
81. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – 1984 by George Orwell
82. “A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.” – When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
83. “Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.” – The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
84. “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
85. “Procrastination is the thief of time.” – David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
86. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
87. “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
88. “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
89. “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
90. “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.” – The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
91. “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” – The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
92. “A friend to all is a friend to none.” – Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
93. “Love is holy because it is like grace – the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.” – Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
94. “What fresh hell is this?” – Commonly attributed to The Tempest by William Shakespeare
95. “To die will be an awfully big adventure.” – Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
96. “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. “In the end, we’ll all become stories.” – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
98. “So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.” – The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster .
99. “Call me Ishmael.” – Moby Dick by Herman Melville
100. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
101. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” – Animal Farm by George Orwell
102. “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.” – The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
103. “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
104. “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
105. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
106. “History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” – Ulysses by James Joyce
107. “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
108. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” – A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
109. “Time, which sees all things, has found you out.” – Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
110. “Not all those who wander are lost.” – The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
111. “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” – Animal Farm by George Orwell
112. “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” – Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
113. “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” – Letters to Atticus by Cicero (often quoted, referenced in classical contexts)
114. “He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” – Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
115. “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
116. “Man is the only real enemy we have.” – Animal Farm by George Orwell
117. “The only people for me are the mad ones.” – On the Road by Jack Kerouac
118. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Which of these timeless quotes resonates most with you?
Share your thoughts in the comments below.
I’d love to know which quote from classic literature has left a lasting impact on you!
For more inspiring quotes from classic books, check out the related posts, and don’t forget to share your favorite quotes in the comments section!
