6 Powerful Lines from Literature That Deeply Resonate with Us

"It doesn't take long to persuade each other to stop seeing a person as a person. And when enough people are quiet for long enough, a handful of voices can give the impression that everyone is screaming."

Allie says: It was in a recent Off the Shelf list that I was talking about how excited I am to watch the BEARTOWN adaptation on HBO Max. And it's for a good reason. It is a book that has stayed with me for years. Picking a favorite quote from BEARTOWN is nearly impossible for me, because, as Backman reminds us in the book, "words are not small things." The whole book strings words together in a way that makes your heart physically clench. It's a beautiful look at flawed people who are all just trying to do their best.

“Her death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.”

Molly says: Grief is an emotion I’m intimately familiar with but still struggle to understand. Before I experienced it, my perception was that it was a phase: eventually you move past it. So when my own grief didn’t evolve the way I expected it to, when I simply didn’t “get over it,” it was confusing and hurtful. I was bowled over in 2016 when a line in Brit Bennett’s debut novel, THE MOTHERS, articulated my emotions very succinctly: “Grief was not a line, carrying you infinitely further from loss. You never knew when you would be sling-shot backward into its grip.” I’ve returned to this line many times over the years, finding comfort in the knowledge that my journey with grief has not been wholly unique, that others have felt the same way I have. I didn’t expect to read another line about grief that hit so close to home, let alone by the same author, but Brit Bennett delivered in her remarkable second novel, THE VANISHING HALF, as the quotation above shows. Fiction can be a window, a way to help you understand others and perspectives different from your own, and fiction can be a mirror. I’m grateful for the way these words have helped me better understand (and accept) myself.

“As a quick aside, let me observe that in moments of high emotion—whether they’re triggered by anger or envy, humiliation or resentment—if the next thing you’re going to say makes you feel better, then it’s probably the wrong thing to say. This is one of the finer maxims that I’ve discovered in life. And you can have it, since it’s been of no use to me.”

Emily says: In Amor Towles’s books, the beauty of the words isn’t just the content of the sentence, but how well it expresses the character. He writes them in such a particular voice that it makes the words ring for days because you can practically hear the characters speaking it to you. RULES OF CIVILITY was especially fun to read because the witty banter and rebel adventures of Katey, Tinker, Eve, and their glamorous, self-obsessed friends in 1930s New York feel that much more alive—and soul-crushing when life take its inevitable wrong turns.

“To admit uncertainty is to admit to weakness, to powerlessness, and to believe in yourself despite both. It is a frailty, but in this frailty, there is strength: the conviction to live in your own mind, and not in someone else’s.”

Sharon says: EDUCATED was the first book I completed in 2021, and I have been turning it over in my mind continuously since finishing the final page. Tara Westover’s story is so much more than her educational journey: it is about family, place, trauma, mental illness, and abuse. Her prose is absolutely brilliant, and I found myself copying down whole paragraphs, but when I came across these sentences, I had to pause and read them over and over again. These sentences exemplify the vulnerability with which Westover writes, as she reflects upon her fear of appearing weak and admitting that she needs help. These sentences struck such a personal chord in me that I am now considering getting a tattoo with this theme in mind.

“The most we can do is to write—intelligently, creatively, critically, evocatively—about what it is like living in the world at the time.”

Emily says: Those words were spoken on 4-22-15 by the late Oliver Sacks, or “O” as his life partner Bill Hayes calls him. Bill’s memoir INSOMNIAC CITY is filled with so many more little notes, endearing dialogues, and memories that encapsulate the brilliant, lovely mind of O—as well as Bill’s own observations while falling deeply in love with Oliver and NYC. There were so many lines that resonated with me, but I’ll refrain from listing them all here so you can experience that rush of a good line for the first time with the book in your hands.

“You don’t need a cure, you need a witness.”

Emily says: It probably goes without saying that a memoir about group therapy is filled with deeply insightful lines. After all, the whole narrative follows strangers becoming lifelong best friends by sharing their deepest secrets and fears with one another. There were many moments that resonated with me, but perhaps the line that stuck with me the most was: “You don’t need a cure, you need a witness,” which the eccentric Dr. Rosen advises Christie at the beginning of her journey. While it’s definitely not a comprehensive prescription for most people, it certainly works for Christie and is a phrase that often encourages me to call a friend and talk it out whenever I find myself stuck in an emotional rut or cycle—a common occurrence during this past year . . .