Quotes by Novelists

Storytellers whose sentences escaped their novels and took on lives of their own. This page lists all 96 of them with their quote counts, followed by a selection of their most-shared lines.

Benjamin Disraeli (19) British Prime Minister & Novelist · 1804–1881

Charles Dickens (9) Novelist · 1812–1870

Jane Austen (6) Novelist · 1775–1817

Virginia Woolf (5) Novelist and essayist · 1882–1941

Ernest Hemingway (4) Novelist, Nobel laureate · 1899–1961

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (4) Novelist · born 1977

Charlotte Brontë (4) Novelist · 1816–1855

Anatole France (4) Novelist · 1844–1924

Jules Verne (4) Novelist and pioneer of science fiction · 1828–1905

H. G. Wells (4) Novelist and historian · 1866–1946

F. Scott Fitzgerald (4) Novelist of the Jazz Age · 1896–1940

Rudyard Kipling (4) Poet, novelist and Nobel laureate · 1865–1936

Sylvia Plath (4) Poet and novelist · 1932–1963

Toni Morrison (3) Novelist, Nobel laureate · 1931–2019

Naguib Mahfouz (3) Novelist · 1911–2006

Chinua Achebe (3) Novelist · 1930–2013

Robert Louis Stevenson (3) Novelist and essayist · 1850–1894

Haruki Murakami (3) Novelist · born 1949

André Gide (3) Novelist · 1869–1951

Paulo Coelho (3) Novelist · born 1947

Hermann Hesse (3) Novelist and poet · 1877–1962

Munshi Premchand (3) Novelist and short-story writer · 1880–1936

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (3) Bengali novelist · 1838–1894

Pramoedya Ananta Toer (2) Novelist · 1925–2006

Gustave Flaubert (2) Novelist · 1821–1886

Gabriel García Márquez (2) Novelist and journalist · 1927–2014

Ben Okri (2) Nigerian poet and novelist · born 1959

Khaled Hosseini (2) Novelist · born 1965

Honore de Balzac (2) Novelist · 1799–1850

Aldous Huxley (2) Novelist & Essayist · 1894–1963

Henry Miller (2) Novelist · 1891–1980

John Steinbeck (2) Novelist · 1902–1968

Cervantes (2) Novelist · 1547–1616

George Orwell (2) Novelist and essayist · 1903–1950

Doris Mortman (2) American novelist

Thornton Wilder (2) American playwright and novelist · 1897–1975

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (2) Bengali novelist · 1876–1938

Nadine Gordimer (1) Novelist, Nobel laureate · 1923–2014

Mario Benedetti (1) Poet and novelist · 1920–2009

Margaret Atwood (1) Novelist and poet · born 1939

Zora Neale Hurston (1) Novelist and anthropologist · 1891–1960

Clarice Lispector (1) Novelist · 1920–1977

Charles Reade (1) Novelist · 1814–1884

George Sand (1) Novelist · 1804–1876

Thomas Mann (1) Novelist · 1875–1955

Jean Rhys (1) Dominican-born novelist · 1890–1979

N. Scott Momaday (1) Kiowa novelist and poet · 1934–2024

Émile Zola (1) Novelist · 1840–1902

Alexandre Dumas (1) Novelist · 1802–1870

Louise Erdrich (1) Turtle Mountain Chippewa novelist · born 1954

Elif Shafak (1) Novelist · born 1971

Julio Cortázar (1) Novelist and short-story writer · 1914–1984

Isabel Allende (1) Novelist · born 1942

Ralph Ellison (1) Novelist · 1913–1994

Orhan Pamuk (1) Novelist and Nobel laureate · born 1952

Stendhal (1) Novelist · 1783–1842

Jin Yong (1) Novelist · 1924–2018

Emily Brontë (1) Novelist and poet · 1818–1848

V. S. Naipaul (1) Trinidadian novelist · 1932–2018

Iris Murdoch (1) Novelist and philosopher · 1919–1999

V. Naipaul (1) Novelist and Nobel laureate · 1932–2018

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1) Novelist and abolitionist · 1811–1896

Ellen Gilchrist (1) American novelist · 1935–2024

Manuel Puig (1) Novelist · 1932–1990

Willa Cather (1) American novelist · 1873–1947

Eden Phillpotts (1) English novelist · 1862–1960

Louisa Alcott (1) Novelist · 1832–1888

Charlotte Bronte (1) English novelist · 1816–1855

Morris West (1) Novelist · 1916–1999

Thomas Hardy (1) English novelist and poet · 1840–1928

Marcel Proust (1) Novelist · 1871–1922

William Saroyan (1) American novelist and playwright · 1908–1981

Anne Bronte (1) Novelist & Poet · 1820–1849

Lloyd Jones (1) Novelist · born 1955

James Barrie (1) Novelist and playwright · 1860–1937

E. M. Forster (1) English novelist · 1879–1970

Robert Graves (1) Poet and novelist · 1895–1985

Cynthia Ozick (1) American novelist and essayist · born 1928

Margaret Laurence (1) Novelist · 1926–1987

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1) Novelist and short story writer · 1804–1864

Amy Tan (1) Novelist · born 1952

James Oppenheim (1) Poet and novelist · 1882–1932

William Burroughs (1) American novelist · 1914–1997

Alice Walker (1) Novelist & Poet · born 1944

Winifred Holtby (1) English novelist and journalist · 1898–1935

George Eliot (1) Novelist · 1819–1880

Lisa Alther (1) Novelist · born 1944

Victoria Holt (1) British novelist · 1906–1993

Henry James (1) Novelist · 1843–1916

Colette (1) French novelist · 1873–1954

Edith Wharton (1) American novelist · 1862–1937

Nora Roberts (1) Novelist · born 1950

Linda Hogan (1) Poet and novelist · born 1947

May Sarton (1) Poet, novelist and memoirist · 1912–1995

John Updike (1) Novelist and critic · 1932–2009

Agatha Christie (1) Novelist · 1890–1976

Quotes by Novelists

The secret of success is constancy to purpose.

Benjamin Disraeli

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

Benjamin Disraeli

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.

Benjamin Disraeli

Never apologize for showing feelings. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.

Benjamin Disraeli

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

Benjamin Disraeli

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.

Benjamin Disraeli

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own.

Benjamin Disraeli

Ignorance never settle a question.

Benjamin Disraeli

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth.

Benjamin Disraeli

We make our own fortunes and we call them fate.

Benjamin Disraeli

Change is inevitable. Change is constant.

Benjamin Disraeli

Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle, Old Age a regret.

Benjamin Disraeli

Success is the child of audacity.

Benjamin Disraeli

Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.

Benjamin Disraeli

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli

The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy.

Benjamin Disraeli

The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

Benjamin Disraeli

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.

Benjamin Disraeli

The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity.

Benjamin Disraeli

Don't leave a stone unturned. It's always something, to know you have done the most you could.

Charles Dickens

We need never be ashamed of our tears.

Charles Dickens

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.

Charles Dickens

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Charles Dickens

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

Charles Dickens

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