The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Is there cowardice in being glad you lived?

Not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children.

There only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy who loves you. 

What someone says and what happened are usually two different things. 

Just remember, the enemy here is not in front of you...its all around. 

There were people everywhere on the city street, but the stranger could not have been more alone if it were empty. 

Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die. 

The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing. 

...the human race...I wanted to ask he rhow the samething could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words do damning and brilliant. 

Alexander (Books 1 - 3) By Valerio Massimo Mandredi

For him the monarchy is simply a form of government typical of certain communities rather than others...I think my son is interested in knowing the world for what it is rather than establishing a series of principles that the world should conform to. 

He was still too young to be able to understand just how big the world is. 

Macedonian excesses in drinking, eating, and lovemaking during their feasts, which reguarly deteriorated into orgies were similarily scorned. 

I wanted you to know that there is a price to be paid for everything. 

The throne belongs to whoever is able to defend it. 

i am not afraid of death, Mother. The power and the glory of a King can only be justified if he is ready to give his life, whenever the moment comes. 

His natural body temperture was higher than normal, which meant that his face was never marked with the sorts of skin problems typical of adolescence.

Now, when mankind freed itself from the darkness, attempts were made to organize life into communities and in essence three way of doing this developed: with one person only in command...with more than one but only a few in command...and then the system by which all citizens exercise power, known as democracy. And this is the greatest manifestation of what it means to be Greek.

In Eqypt, Persia, and Macedon too. There is only one free man - the King - the rest are slaves. 

Today's man is a political animal. 

In a society like this the shame lies not in being humble and poor, but rather in doing nothing to improve one's condition. 

No, just as their will never be a loom that weaves cloth on its own. When this is possible, then a world without slaves will be possible, but I don't believe that will ever happen. 

I am not afraid of fighting. But I prefer to do it when the chances of winning are higher. 

Regarding Cynics: nothing that is natural can be judged obscene. 

If he was afraid of anything, he was afraid of such hatred. 

Today, however, the Macedonians are the strongest of all the Greek peoples and it is only right that they should be leaders and enjoy hedgemony. 

To know ourselves is the most difficult of enterprises because it involves not reason alone, but our fears and our passions too. If we are capable of truly knowing ourselves then we will be able to understand others and the reality that surrounds us. 

If Aristotle were here he would say that prophecies can actually make the future come true rather than predict it. 

His actions originated in some murky affair of male love - the most dangerous of all loves. 

He felt as if he were lying with a goddess, and no mortal can ever ask anything of a goddess, he canonly ever be grateful for what he recieves from her. 

Regarding religion: The thing that matters is what the people want to believe. And the people need to believe and need to be able to dream. 

Moments like this are reserved for the gods alone, but we are gods, for as long as this night lasts. 

He always wondered why Greek art, so sublime, depicted so many scenes of violence against women. And he decided that it must simply have been fear, the same fear that made them keep their women segregated in the harems and meant that for social occasions they had to turn to the participation off companions. 

There will never be peace for as long as there are borders and barriers, different languages and customs, different gods and beliefs. You should join me. 

There is either a solution to the problem and therefore it is pointless to worry about it, or there is no solution and it is pointless to worry about it. 

The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, its time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from lack of imagination. - Oscar Wilde

People don't want to be millionaires - they want to experience what tehy believe only millions can buy. 

Finding a market before designing a product is smarter than the reverse. 

Personally, I now aim for one month of overseas relocation or high intensity learning for every two months of work projects. 

It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor. 

Hans didn't know exactly what he wants, but he had tasted it. 

Its lonely at the op. 99.9% of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre.

"What do you want" is to imprecise to produce a meaningful and actionable answer.

Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure all.

Fun things happen when you earn dollars, lives on pesos, and compensate in rupees, but thats just the beginning. 

Just as the model T brought transportation to the masses, virtual assistants bring eccentric billionaire behavior within the reach of every man, woman, and child. 

How do you feel good about yourself? ...to love, to be loved, and never stop learning. 

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. - Viktor Frankl

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people we personally dislike. - Oscar Wilde

Take time to find something that calls to you, not just the first acceptable form of surrogate work. 

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

A tall rangy man in his late twenties. He had a powerful intellect and a scornful manner and he lived in a permanent state of righteous indignation.

They are simple people, you have to do something to keep their attention.

When you are about to be turned down, go for a postponement.

Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing that you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.

I never taught him to keep regular hours.

Building Kingsbridge was the most profoundly satisfying work he had ever done.

Perhaps greed will always outweigh wisdom in the councils of the mighty. Perhaps fear will always overcome compassion in the mind of a man with a sword in his hand.

With my body, I worship you.

Could the King do as he pleased or was he constrained? The power of the King was no absolute after all; he could be constrained by the will of the people.

The small boys came early to the hanging.

Philip stepped forward to whip the King. He was glad he had lived to see this. After today, he thought, the world will never be quite the same.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

Sammy found that, for the first time in years, he was able to avail himself of the help of a confederate.

Forget about what you are escaping from. Reserve your anxiety for what you are escaping to.

New York never seems more beautiful than to a young man who has just pulled off something he knows is gonna knock 'em dead.

He felt contented and hopeful and, in spite of having slept no more than four hours at a stretch in the last week, not in the least tired.

And since Cimmeria [maternal rule] fell into eternal darkness, men have been making a hash of things. War, famine, slavery.

There is only one sure means in life of ensuring that you are not ground into paste by disappointment, futility, and disillusion. And that is always to ensure to the utmost of your ability, that you are doing it solely for the money.

But lately she had been starting to experience strong, inarticulate feelings of longing, of a desire to be with Joe all the time, to inhabit his life and allow him to inhabit hers. To engage with him in some kind of joint enterprise, in a collaboration that would be their lives.

He was able to get anywhere from 18 to 36 news broadcasts every day, from all over the world, through naturally, like most of the world, he favored the BBC.

Tried to lull himself to sleep...by imagining he lay floating on a black raft, on a warm black lagoon, in the blackness of a moonless tropical night.

It seemed her destiny to live among men whose solutions were invariably more complicated or extreme than the problems they were intended to solve.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

It presupposes that magicians have some sort of duty to do magic, which is clearly nonsense.

I assure you, the British are a peculiarly unmilitary race.

Mr. Lascelles was one of that uncomfortable breed of men who despise steady employment of any sort.

Feats of magic will make your name known everywhere, sir, but they will never make your opinions understood. For that you must publish.

So may the love of money make an intelligent man small minded and ridiculous.

Everybody knows no one with red hair can ever truly be said to be handsome.

He drank very little now. Scarcely more than a bottle a day.

The Scottish captain...entertaining the [Native] Americans and teaching them to drink tea (presumably with the idea that once a man had learnt to drink tea, the other habits and qualities that make up a Briton would follow).

"Plans for Future Usefulness and Happiness"

He understood for the first time the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands.

It is the right of a traveler to vent their frustration at every minor inconvenience by writing of it to their friends.

His attention was given to the argument he was conducting with his neighbor as to whether the English magician had gone mad because he was a magician or because he was English.

Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwartz

It all comes down to the shame associated with being unmarried and pregnant. Amanda comes home to hide her pregnancy, the night of the birth she tires to leave to escape a plan to give the baby to her sister. This results in a tragic accident when her toddler niece chases after her on the ice and her sister chases after her daughter. Sister, Mathilda, drowns. Amanda spins more lies all to hide the fact that the baby is hers. Things become more complicated as the children grow. The two girls meet at school and of course they become best friends. The baby's father moves to the neighborhood as a summer residence and his son eventually becomes friends with both girls. In order to prevent a potential marriage between half-siblings, Amanda finally tells all to her niece Ruth, that she raised as a daughter. Everything works out, although the family never escapes their oddness.