220 The Goldfinch Quotes: Insights into Life and Art

As we all know, good books have a tendency to inspire and motivate us with their powerful messages. And it’s no surprise that the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Goldfinch, is considered a masterpiece within the literary world. One of the many reasons why this book is so beloved by readers is because of the goldfinch quotes that can be found throughout the novel. These profound and thought-provoking quotes not only add to the depth and complexity of the story but also leave a lasting impression on our minds. In this blog post, we will explore some of the most famous goldfinch quotes and delve into their meanings.

Good The Goldfinch Quotes (2024)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a captivating novel that explores love, loss, and redemption. The book is filled with memorable characters and beautiful prose, but perhaps its greatest strength lies in the poignant and thought-provoking quotes scattered throughout the story. In this post, we'll take a closer look at some of the most memorable Goldfinch quotes and explore their significance.

• "The world is much stranger than we think."
• "Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only—if you care for a thing enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn’t it?"
• "And isn’t the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?"
• "Sometimes, just when you think everything’s gone, you find a way."
• "What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good?"
• "We can’t choose what we want and don’t want. Our desires choose us."
• "People die, sure. But it’s so heartbreaking and unnecessary how we lose things, things that are so hard to find."
• "If disaster was inevitable, if it came at you direct, nothing mattered except the quick, urgent need to hide your loved ones."
• "Isn’t the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?"
• "Life is catastrophe. The basic fact of existence—of walking around trying to feed ourselves and find friends and whatever else we do—is catastrophe."
• "The painting had made me feel less mortal, less ordinary."
• "But sometimes, like it or not, people just grow apart."
• "The painting, his painting, was the only thing that made sense."
• "It was as if I’d been buried alive, suddenly thrust back into the world."
• "To understand the world at all, sometimes you could only focus on a tiny bit of it."
• "What if it was the acts of love and kindness that kept our souls from shrinking?"
• "Because what if some of the bad things that happened to us somehow brought us around to the good things?"
• "Life is cruel. The deeper you go, the more you see how it operates."
• "The world is full of things we can’t explain."
• "To understand the world at all, sometimes you could only focus on a tiny bit of it."
• "But love doesn’t care about fairness, does it?"
• "What is it about a place that summons you back? It has a magic of its own."
• "You can’t ever forget what you’ve done."
• "Life had taught me to be a fighter. It had taught me to bounce back."
• "People want to believe in something, and it’s all about love or death."
• "What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good?"
• "Well, I have to say that I'm glad Mr. Barbour found something to distract him from his fear of dying." – Theo Decker
• "People die, sure, but it's so damn hard to get used to." – Boris Pavlikovsky
• "I had the sense that her tripping, stumbling run along the cobbled street was only the visible edge of a great terror and sorrow." – Theo Decker
• "All we get is the grace to face it." – Hobie
• "In all of these years, in all of these decisions, I have never once chosen you, my dear painting. I have chosen everything else." – Theo Decker
• "Beauty alters the grain of reality." – Donna Tartt
• "The fact is, that profound love is of the pain of great suffering, and the other people who emerge from such relationships are forever changed." – Theodore Decker
• "I always found it funny when manic-depressives claim they're 'living on the edge,' because they're already over it." – Boris Pavlikovsky
• "You can't fake the important things." – Theodore Decker
• "Is it morally wrong to enjoy the destruction of something beautiful." – Theo Decker
• "Even in the darkest of places, there is always a glimmer of light." – Donna Tartt
• "I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell." – Theo Decker
• "The painting was a world, like a map, and I had lived in it." – Theo Decker
• "The terrible part is that alone I would never have done this. Alone I would have been too cowardly. But he was there and every time he grinned, a little more of his courage became mine." – Boris Pavlikovsky
• "I grew up with a vague disdain for charity, perhaps because my mother was always telling me I should give more of my allowance to crippled kids, and because my father was always urging people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps." – Theo Decker
• "Sometimes I feel like I'm not only seeing the world but trying to invent it." – Theodore Decker

funny the goldfinch quotes (2024)

If you're a lover of literature, you must have read The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. And if you haven't, well, then you're not a true bookworm- please excuse yourself. Today, we'll be diving into some of the hilarious quotes that have emerged from this masterpiece. So, buckle up, buttercup, and let's get our giggles on!

• "We've thrown down the gauntlet. We've made our stance clear. We are the goldfinch and we are here to party."
• "I tried to tell myself that I shouldn't care, but the truth was, I cared like hell."
• "Why do we always assume that people who like art have deep emotional lives?"
• "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."
• "I don't think anyone can make any argument against the beauty of those birds"
• "You can't just skip ahead to the end. Life doesn't work that way."
• "People, if you're not having fun, you're not doing it right."
• "It's like we're in our own little world. We're the only ones who understand the beauty of this painting."
• "The truth was, I hadn't expected anything from it, except perhaps the chance to lose myself a little."
• "While the world speeds ahead, I have to find a pace that lets me bring my best to every day."
• "I hope you all appreciate this art as much as I do. Because otherwise, what's the point?"
• "Life is never perfect. It’s full of surprises—some good, some not so good."
• "Do you know what it’s like to be lost? To feel like you have no place in the world?"
• "Some beautiful things are also the most fragile"
• "I think that the world has a beautiful way of rebalancing itself."
• "Don't be like the rest of them, darling."

wise the goldfinch quotes (sayings)

The Goldfinch, a novel by Donna Tartt, is a captivating tale of loss, love and redemption. The novel has attracted readers with its vivid descriptions, compelling characters and profound insights into the human condition. Among its many merits are its inspiring quotes that offer a glimpse into the beauty and complexity of life. In this blog post, we will explore some of the most thought-provoking and memorable quotes from The Goldfinch.

• "The absurd does not liberate; it binds." - Donna Tartt
• "We don't get to choose our own hearts. We can't make ourselves want what's good for us or what's good for other people." - Donna Tartt
• "When we are young, the words are scattered all around us. As they are assembled by experience, so also are we, sentence by sentence, until the story takes shape." - Donna Tartt
• "Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only—if you care for a thing enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn’t it? And isn’t the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?" - Donna Tartt
• "The appreciation of a work of art, it seems to me, doesn’t have anything to do with correctness, but with sincerity." - Donna Tartt
• "I looked at the painting, and the painting looked at me." - Donna Tartt
• "All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it." - Donna Tartt
• "Desperate times call for desperate measures." - Donna Tartt
• "The things you used to own, now they own you." - Donna Tartt
• "I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race—that rarely do I ever simply estimate it." - Donna Tartt
• "Whatever teaches us to talk to ourselves is important: whatever teaches us to sing ourselves out of despair." - Donna Tartt
• "We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves." - Donna Tartt
• "Others may ask you what you have done with your life, but if you don't have a calling, they're just being polite." - Donna Tartt
• "Bad artists always admire each other’s work. They call it being big-hearted." - Donna Tartt
• "Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming." - Donna Tartt

famous the goldfinch quotes (2024)

Are you a fan of timeless literature with unforgettable characters and beautifully articulated themes? If so, chances are you've heard of Donna Tartt's masterpiece novel, The Goldfinch. This novel is a must-read for any book enthusiast, complete with plenty of insightful quotes that are both thought-provoking and inspirational. In this post, we'll be exploring some of the most memorable lines from The Goldfinch that will leave you feeling inspired, enlightened, and ready to conquer the world!

• "Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only—if you care for a thing enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn’t it? And isn’t the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?"
• "We don't get to choose our own hearts. We can't make ourselves want what's good for us or what's good for other people. We don't get to choose the people we are."
• "The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not authorize all actions. 'Everything is permitted' does not mean that nothing is forbidden."
• "Theo hits the ball and it flies straight out, high and deep and pretty, into the hidden sky-stands where only a lucky few still sitting can track its path, white ascending dot against the blue, and for one brief moment every one of us is standing up too and yelling and reaching—reaching as though we could somehow catch that ball forever, as though that perfect, looping trajectory might represent something larger than itself, might in fact be a finger pointing upward, toward grace."
• "Beauty alters the grain of reality."
• "There's only one way out of the labyrinth of suffering and that is to forgive."
• "The place was a mausoleum of lost futures, sealed off from the changing city without by the blank stretch of Central Park and by the mounting outrages of time within."
• "The arrogance of fate is in thinking that it could have made the slightest difference in who we are."
• "I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe."
• "The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through."
• "I have a friend who talks about a “cathedral moment.” And by that she means when you stand in front of something and you’re so overwhelmed by its beauty or its grandeur or immensity that you need to step back to just be able to take it in."
• "Last night I dreamt that I was going down the tunnel in the ruins of the Concord catacombs, the tunnel that still had the scaffolding up from when they were restoring it. The walls were plastered with leaves and bird dropping, and I could hear birds up above me. I was feeling my way down the stairs because the light wasn’t working–the place was filled with birdsong but it was also really dark. Suddenly, as I put my foot down, I felt something hard roll under my foot. I stooped down and picked it up. It was a ring, with a little bird made of gold."
• "I pictured my mother's face, her hands. I could hear her voice. It was the most beautiful thing imaginable. There was a very long moment before I realized that our train had pulled into the station, that we were in St. Petersburg. There were people all around us. Empty eyes, the end of the line."
• "It always feels better to confess. To not confess...to not even have the opportunity to confess...it just gnaws away at you, until all of your secrets eat you alive."
• "That life – whatever else it is – is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random. That Nature (meaning Death) always wins but that doesn't mean we have to bow and grovel to it. That maybe even if we're not always so glad to be here, it's our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn't touch."
• "I had the sensation that I was getting to know this friend better only insofar as I was gradually coming to know myself better, uncovering more and more of my own fears and insecurities, my own overlooked or underexplored traits; and indeed this process kicked into an even higher gear once I was living on my own, navigating the blank spaces of the months and years ahead."

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are some memorable quotes from "The Goldfinch?"

Some memorable quotes include "Caring too much for objects can destroy you" and "We don't get to choose our own hearts. We can't help who we love."

2. Who are the main characters in "The Goldfinch" and what are some quotes associated with them?

The main characters include Theo Decker, Boris Pavlikovsky, and Pippa. Some quotes associated with them include "Things would have turned out better if she had lived" (Theo about his mother), "You're my best friend, my dearest friend" (Boris to Theo), and "I never gave up on you" (Pippa to Theo).

3. How do the quotes in "The Goldfinch" contribute to the themes of the book?

The quotes in "The Goldfinch" contribute to the overarching themes of love, loss, and the power of art. For example, the quote "We don't get to choose our own hearts" speaks to the idea that we can't control who we love, while "Caring too much for objects can destroy you" highlights the danger of becoming too attached to material possessions.

4. What do readers have to say about the quotes in "The Goldfinch?"

Readers often comment on the beauty and profundity of the quotes in "The Goldfinch." Many quotes have resonated with readers and sparked discussions about the meaning behind them. For example, the quote "The painting is a dream of reality, and the reality of a dream" has inspired many interpretations and reactions from readers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, "The Goldfinch Quotes" are sure to captivate and inspire readers with their profound insights into life and human emotions. Whether you are looking for a source of motivation, inspiration, or simply a way to connect with this award-winning novel, the quotes from "The Goldfinch" offer a wealth of wisdom and beauty to behold. So, dive into these quotes and discover the treasure trove of storytelling that Donna Tartt has to offer – in all its dazzling glory.