Top Ten Tuesday: Quotations

Posted February 24, 2026 by Nicky in General / 28 Comments

I don’t actually save quotations from books very often, so for this we’re reaching for some snippets I remember (or at least half remember, enough to look them up) to see what’s made an impression on me… let’s see what I can rustle up. Some of these I’ve surely posted before (and am posting again because they remain as vital to me as ever), but some are definitely newer.

Cover of Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green Cover of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 6 by MXTX Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 8 by MXTX Cover of volume one of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

  1. From John Green’s Everything is Tuberculosis, because TB remains a terrible and destructive disease that we must all take responsibility for:  
    We cannot address TB only with vaccines and medications. We cannot address it only with comprehensive STP programs. We must also address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat, and access healthcare, and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause.
    We must also be the cure.
  2. From Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, because Maia’s efforts to be better than what was done to him (without it being easy) make him a wonderful character:
    “In our inmost and secret heart, which you ask us to bare to you, we wish to banish them as we were banished, to a cold and lonely house, in the charge of a man who hated us. And we wish them trapped there as we were trapped.”
    “You consider that unjust, Serenity?”
    “We consider it cruel,” Maia said. “And we do not think that cruelty is ever just.”
  3. From Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Heaven Official’s Blessing, because Xie Lian’s strong determination to save whoever he can is something I aspire to:
    “If a day isn’t enough, let it take a month. If a month won’t do, then two months, three months! If I can’t save ten thousand, then I’ll save a thousand. If I can’t save a thousand, then I’ll save a hundred, or ten, or even just one!”
  4. From Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Heaven Official’s Blessing, because it struck a chord for me in emphasising choice:
    “I might not be able to decide whether the road is easy or not, but whether I walk it is entirely up to me.”
  5. From Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, because this scene is actually really important, and we really do have to know when to say sorry:
    Wei Wuxian strode over with his hands clasped behind his back. “Young man, sometimes in life, there are a few sappy things one must say.”
    “What?” Jin Ling asked.
    “‘Thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’,” Wei Wuxian replied.
    Jin Ling clicked his tongue. “Well, I refuse. What’re you gonna do about it?”
    “There’ll come a day when you’ll say them through tears,” Wei Wuxian said.
    Jin Ling scoffed, and Wei Wuxian suddenly said it himself.
    “I’m sorry.”
  6. From Susan Cooper’s Silver on the Tree, because it’s easy to wait for someone else to save us:
    “For Drake is no longer in his hammock, children, nor is Arthur somewhere sleeping, and you may not lie idly expecting the second coming of anybody now, because the world is yours and it is up to you. Now especially since man has the strength to destroy the world, it is the responsibility of man to keep it alive, in all its beauty and marvelous joy.
    And the world will still be imperfect, because men are imperfect. Good men will still be killed by bad, or sometimes by other good men, and there will still be pain and disease and famine, anger and hate. But if you work and care and are watchful, as we have tried to be for you, then in the long run the worse will never, ever, triumph over the better.”
  7. From Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, because this is the turning-point of the story, and in a way taught me to be less anxious by facing my fears:
    “You must hunt the hunter.”
  8. From Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, because it’s true but hard to learn:
    “Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk’s flight on the empty sky.”
  9. From Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, so that not all of these are serious (and because this, too, is true!):
    “Books are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with ’em, then we grow out of ’em and leave ’em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.”
  10. From Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle, because it’s a good one to end on, and a line I will never forget:
    Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you.

Cover of Silver on the Tree, by Susan Cooper Cover of A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin Cover of The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers Cover of I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

With apologies to those who could’ve predicted the inclusion of those quotes from Cooper, Le Guin, Addison, Smith and Sayers…

Tags: ,

«
»
Divider

28 responses to “Top Ten Tuesday: Quotations”

    • Nicky

      The sad thing is that we could, if we only had the will. It’s not like the diseases where we don’t yet have good treatments — for most cases of TB, the vast majority, we could cure it in six months, a year at most. Just horrifying, really.

      Reply
  2. Rebecca Trotter

    “… address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat, and access healthcare, and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause.
    We must also be the cure.”

    Thank you for posting this.

    Reply
    • Nicky

      I wasn’t really thinking about rereading there, though I reread a lot too — though I often treat a reread as a whole new book, because I won’t be the same as I was before, and a whole different experience awaits.

      Reply
    • Nicky

      I haven’t reread it in a long time. I read it as a teen and related to it in a whole different way to how I later related to it as an adult, for sure — there was a lot of amused fondness for that experience of being a teenager and thinking you’re so mature, when I read it as an adult!

      Reply
  12. Olivia

    This: “We cannot address TB only with vaccines and medications. We cannot address it only with comprehensive STP programs. We must also address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat, and access healthcare, and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause.We must also be the cure.”
    Olivia recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book QuotesMy Profile

    Reply
    • Nicky

      I reread it every year for a bit, but it’s been “resting” for a couple years ready to feel fresh when I read it again…

      Reply

Leave a Reply to Nicky Cancel reply

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.