The Most Popular Book Quotes of All Time

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Books have always been more than just stories. With words that have resonance well beyond the printed page, they serve as portals to other worlds. Literature has been a source of inspiration for generations, imparting knowledge, optimism, and occasionally the urgent reminder of our common humanity. These pages contain quotes that can cheer someone up, motivate change, or simply offer comfort.

A few of these quotations have endured over time, proving to be ageless in their capacity to inspire and affect readers across multiple generations. These words have sentiments that cut beyond boundaries and offer each reader something incredibly personal, so it’s no coincidence they’ve become so famous.

How We Determined the Most Popular Quotes

In order to choose the greatest literary quotations of all time, we took into account a number of elements that demonstrate their enduring influence and resonance:

1. Frequency of Citation: We examined the frequency with which these quotations were used in books, papers, speeches, and even posts on social media. A quote gains greater impact and importance the more times it is cited.
2. Cultural Impact: Some quotes that were once part of pop culture, TV shows, or movies are now often used in conversation. These phrases have a life of their own and are used in popular media as well as literature.
3. Reader Engagement: Readers now use websites like Goodreads and Pinterest as places to highlight and discuss their favorite quotations. We took into account the frequency with which readers worldwide bookmarked, shared, or liked specific lines.
4. Longevity: Some quotations are popular for a brief period of time, but others have been relevant for decades or even centuries. We gave special attention to sayings that have inspired people across generations and historical periods.
5. Universal Appeal: Finally, we chose quotations that speak to a variety of audiences. No matter where or when these statements are read, they all touch on common themes like love, sorrow, hope, and self-discovery.

100 Most Popular Quotes of All Time

1. “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
2. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
3. “Not all those who wander are lost.” —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
4. “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
5. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
6. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
7. “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.” —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
8. “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” —Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
9. “The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.” —John Green, Looking for Alaska
10. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” —Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
11. “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” —Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
12. “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.” —S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders
13. “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” —Marcus Tullius Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes
14. “For you, a thousand times over.” —Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
15. “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” — Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
16. “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” —Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
17. “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.” —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
18. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” —William Shakespeare, As You Like It
19. “The marks humans leave are too often scars.” —John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
20. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
21. “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” —John Milton, Paradise Lost
22. “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” —Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
23. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” —Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
24. “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” —Stephen King, The Shining
25. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
26. “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” —Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
27. “Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.” —Toni Morrison, Beloved
28. “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” —C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
29. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” —George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons
30. “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” —Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
31. “We accept the love we think we deserve.” —Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
32. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” —Martin Luther King Jr., Stride Toward Freedom
33. “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” —Marthe Troly-Curtin, Phrynette Married
34. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
35. “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” —André Gide, Autumn Leaves
36. “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” —Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
37. “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” —Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
38. “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
39. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” —Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
40. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” —Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan
41. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” —Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
42. “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals
43. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
44. “To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further.” —Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
45. “Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.” —Neil Gaiman, The Sandman
46. “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” —Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
47. “There is no greater good than justice.” —Socrates, The Republic
48. “I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul.” —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
49. “All the secrets of the world are contained in books. Read at your own risk.” —Lemony Snicket, The End
50. “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.” —George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
51. “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
52. “It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
53. “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” —Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
54. “Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go on even though you’re scared.” —Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give
55. “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.” —George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
56. “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” —Jorge Luis Borges, Poemas de los Dones
57. “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” —Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
58. “Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, ‘It might have been.'” —Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
59. “Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” —Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
60. “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.” —John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
61. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays
62. “One must always be careful of books and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.” —Cassandra Clare, The Infernal Devices
63. “I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.” —Franz Kafka, Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors
64. “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” —John Lennon, In His Own Write
65. “We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already.” —J.K. Rowling, Very Good Lives
66. “There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.” —Jane Austen, Emma
67. “I would always rather be happy than dignified.” —Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
68. “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” —Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
69. “Sometimes weak and fragile, we fall over. But we always stand up and try again.” —Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
70. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” —Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
71. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” —George Orwell, 1984
72. “When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example.” —Roxane Gay, Hunger
73. “Not all heroes wear capes.” —Anonymous, Various Works
74. “You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live.” —Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting
75. “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” —Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
76. “There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” —Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark
77. “There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
78. “Who, being loved, is poor?” —Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance
79. “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” —J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
80. “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
81. “The past beats inside me like a second heart.” —John Banville, The Sea
82. “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” —Joseph Brodsky, A Room and a Half
83. “I am, and always will be, the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.” —Russell T. Davies, Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale
84. “Fear cuts deeper than swords.” —George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
85. “What are men to rocks and mountains?” —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
86. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt
87. “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.” —Frank Herbert, Dune
88. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” —William Shakespeare, Hamlet
89. “There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.” —Bram Stoker, Dracula
90. “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” —Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
91. “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” —Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
92. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” —Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
93. “So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.” —Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
94. “It’s the possibility of darkness that makes the day seem so bright.” —Stephen King, Wizard and Glass
95. “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” —Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

These classic sayings serve as a reminder that words have power that knows no bounds to space, time, or situation. They continue to resonate with readers because they speak to the universal human experience—offering comfort, wisdom, or sometimes a spark of inspiration when we need it most. These quotations have an indisputable power to inspire, regardless of whether you came across them in a well-loved book or happened upon them at the ideal time.

So, the next time you pick up a book, take a moment to savor the words. You never know—one of those lines just might stay with you for a lifetime!

Do you have a favorite book quote? Did it make our list? How many of the quotes on the list do you recognize? Share with us in the comments below!

Happy reading!