284 Mesmerizing Quotes from The Goldfinch - A Novel Worth Experiencing

Looking for some inspiration or just need a dose of thought-provoking words? Then get ready to dive into this post where we bring you some of the most memorable and impactful quotes from the Goldfinch. This literary masterpiece by Donna Tartt has captured the hearts of millions with its compelling narrative and vivid imagery. Through this blog, we'll be exploring some of the most profound quotes that have left a lasting impression on readers. So settle in and let's get started!

Good Quotes From The Goldfinch (2024)

The essence of a great book lies in the way it speaks to us, leaving behind meaningful lessons and deep thoughts that transcend the pages. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is one such masterful creation that blends rich storytelling with profound messages, capturing the hearts and minds of readers worldwide.

• "We can’t choose what we want and don’t want."
• "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 I add my own love to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them from the fire, and sought them when they were lost and tried to preserve them and save them while passing them along literally to the next generation."
• "What if one happens to be possessed of a heart that can’t be trusted—?"
• "If disaster and oblivion have followed this painting down through time—so that it is something beyond fortune or good luck to have it still with us—it’s because it’s a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch."
• "Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right."
• "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?"
• "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end."
• "And I add my own love to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them from the fire, and sought them when they were lost and tried to preserve them and save them while passing them along literally to the next generation."
• "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."
• "The world is much stranger than we know or can say. Or so I believe. The world is infinitely more mysterious."
• "I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe."
• "When you feel homesick,’ he said, ‘just look up. Because the moon is the same wherever you go."
• "Whatever teaches us to talk to ourselves is important: whatever teaches us to sing ourselves out of despair."
• "Whatever teaches us to talk to ourselves is important: whatever teaches us to sing ourselves out of despair."
• "And as much as I wanted to stay with her and as much as I knew she wanted to stay with me, it was never going to work."
• "We can’t choose what we want and don’t want."
• "I was so lonely that even though I’d grown used to it, it was like a hard shell I carried around me."
• "Isn't the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?"
• "But what if, still thinking I was special, I might have to deal with the fact that, not only was I not special, I might be just as damaged as the rest of them?"
• "That life - whatever else it is - is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random."
• "If we are to live our lives in the shadow of loss, maybe we can’t ask ourselves if it was worth it."
• "The world is much stranger than we know or can say. Or so I believe. The world is infinitely more mysterious."
• "We are so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves."
• "Because I don't care what anyone says or how often or how loudly they say it; no one will ever be able to convince me that life is some kind of wondrous or magical experience."
• "I don’t care what anyone says or how often or how loudly they say it; no one will ever be able to convince me that life is some kind of wondrous or magical experience."
• "But the problem with wanting too much to be left alone was that it gave other people permission to leave you alone."
• "But the problem with wanting too much to be left alone was that it gave other people permission to leave you alone."
• "We can’t choose what we want and don’t want."
• "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?"
• "I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe."
• "When you feel homesick,’ he said, ‘just look up. Because the moon is the same wherever you go."
• "Whatever teaches us to talk to ourselves is important: whatever teaches us to sing ourselves out of despair."
• "Whatever teaches us to talk to ourselves is important: whatever teaches us to sing ourselves out of despair."
• "And as much as I wanted to stay with her and as much as I knew she wanted to stay with me, it was never going to work."
• "Isn't the whole point of things, beautiful things, that they connect you to some larger beauty?"
• "We are so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves."
• "That life - whatever else it is - is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random."
• "If we are to live our lives in the shadow of loss, maybe we can’t ask ourselves if it was worth it."
• "The world is much stranger than we know or can say. Or so I believe. The world is infinitely more mysterious."
• "I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and the light was laughter and that this was the secret of the universe." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "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." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "Sometimes we want what we want even if we know it's going to kill us." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "We look up at the same stars, and see such different things." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "It's a funny thing about the modern world. You hear girls in the toilets of clubs saying, 'Yeah, he fucked off and left me. He didn't love me. He just couldn't deal with love. He was too fucked up to know how to love me.' Now, how did that happen? What was it about this unlovable century that convinced us we were, despite everything, eminently lovable as a people, as a species? What made us think that anyone who fails to love us is damaged, lacking, malfunctioning in some way?" - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "And as much as I'd like to believe there's a truth beyond illusion, I've come to believe that there's no truth beyond illusion. Because, between 'reality' on the one hand, and the point where the mind strikes reality, there's a middle zone, a rainbow edge where beauty comes into being, where two very different surfaces mingle and blur to provide what life does not: and this is the space where all art exists, and all magic." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "I had the feeling I had lived in this image forever, that it was now, and forevermore, the image of my life." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "The absurd does not liberate; it binds." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "Only occasionally did I understand the irreducible mystery of the object in my hand, the wonder of its existence as a thing in the world, bafflingly separate from everything else in the world." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "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." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "We can't choose what we want and don't want and that's the hard lonely truth. ...Sometimes we want what we want even if we know it's going to kill us." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "There's something profoundly sad about being surrounded by books and unable to find anything to read." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "It was one of those moments when you are fundamentally forced to give up your childish faith in the logicality of the universe." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "For a moment, caught in the act of not being someone else, I felt myself beginning to exist, in spite of everything." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
• "I felt that I was wearing him... like a pair of gloves, like a coat, and that I was made of everything he had been made of." - Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

Funny Quotes From The Goldfinch (2024)

If you're looking for some profound, thought-provoking words of wisdom to live by, you're in the wrong place. But, if you're in the mood for some hilarious and completely out-of-context quotes from "The Goldfinch," then buckle up, because we've got some gems for you!

• "All we want is to be touched, my dear. That's all we really want."
• "I had to go back to my life after that, which I was pretty sure was over."
• "It wasn't a particularly dignified way to die, but maybe dignity wasn't the point."
• "I knew there was nothing particularly special about me. But at fourteen, it's hard to accept that."
• "The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working."
• "You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life."
• "I don't think I ever seriously considered not doing it. I just had to decide what kind of person I wanted to be."
• "You can love completely without a complete understanding of someone."
• "A great sorrow, and one that I'm only beginning to understand: 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 all go forward with the baggage of the past on our backs."
• "I was different, and you were the same, aren't you tired of being who you are?"
• "I felt acutely aware of the distance between who I'd been only a few months before - a normal, happy adolescent - and the wretched, lost thing I was now."
• "I felt like I was carrying a little bit of the world inside myself, and that it was my job to keep it safe."
• "You are so unapologetically yourself, it's pretty awesome."
• "This was the problem with growing up. You couldn't get the stuff anymore that made you high. Not unless you did it yourself. Alone."
• "It wasn't a moral theory or something he'd planned, just something that had happened to him naturally: he felt better in the right clothes."

wise quotes from the goldfinch (sayings)

The Goldfinch, written by Donna Tartt, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that has captured the hearts of readers worldwide. With its complex characters and intricate plot, the book has given birth to numerous quotes that hold valuable insights into life, love, and everything in between. In this post, we will explore some of the most thought-provoking quotes from the Goldfinch and the wisdom they impart on us.

• "Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only—as I had learned once from living in Amsterdam— the trained observer can see everything without being destroyed."
• "Sometimes, I think we imagine memories before we have them. We try to anticipate what we'll remember. And what we'll want to remember. "
• "All we get is the grace of one another--the exchange of ideas, The exchange of sorrows."
• "No one will be held accountable. It's always been that way."
• "But what if the great secret insider-trading truth is that you don't ever get over the biggest losses in your life?"
• "The ridiculous thing is, it could have happened to anyone. It wasnt that I was special. It was just that I was there."
• "We are so customed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
• "Maybe sometimes we can lose sight of things so completely that we believe they are one thing and one thing only."
• "We are antiques, my friend. Everything is covered in dust no matter how pretty it once was."
• "It's hard to look for something you don't know the shape of."
• "I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe."
• "The Dutch were pioneers of capitalism."
• "I wished I had missed that board meeting."
• "We can't choose what we want and don't want and that's the hard part of life."
• "There's nothing wrong with beauty. But there was something wrong with making beauty the purpose of your life."
• "We are each other's opposites."

famous quotes from the goldfinch (2024)

The Goldfinch' by Donna Tartt has been a sensation since its publication in 2013, with readers flocking to its pages for its epic tale of loss, love, and art. What makes this novel truly stand out, however, are the powerful quotes that have resonated with readers long after they put the book down.

• "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 we want things we can't have. What's more, sometimes we want things we shouldn't have."
• "The absurd does not liberate; it binds"
• "The ridiculous putdown, the dismissal: You think you're lost? I'm the one who's lost. You strut around pretending everything's okay, and I'm the one who winds up with the knife in his back."
• "We can't choose what we want, and neither can we choose what wants us."
• "Beauty alters the grain of reality."
• "Whatever teaches us to talk to ourselves is important: whatever teaches us to sing ourselves out of despair"
• "It was one of those secret agreements between two people who have gotten to know each other unspokenly, and which can only be broken by loud repercussions."
• "But sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping; and when the waves washed back, I found myself looking out over a brackish wreck which was illumined in a light so lucid, so heartsick and empty, that I could hardly remember that the world had ever been anything but dead."
• "We think: Here I am, right now, sitting at my desk, reading this book. But part of me is always thinking: What next, what next?"
• "People died, and not always in a reasonable order..."
• "It makes me so happy. To be at the beginning again, knowing almost nothing...."
• "I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe."
• "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."
• "The certainty that everything could be taken from you at any second."
• "That life - whatever else it is - is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random."

Frequently Asked Questions

1.

1. What are some of the most famous quotes from "The Goldfinch"?

One famous quote from the book is "Things would have turned out better if she had lived" which refers to the protagonist's mother's death. Another popular quote is "Caring too much for objects can destroy you" which showcases the themes of the novel.

2.

2. Who would be interested in reading quotes from "The Goldfinch"?

Anyone who has read and enjoyed the book, "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt, would be interested in reading quotes from it. Individuals who enjoy thought-provoking literature and deep philosophical themes would also be interested.

3.

3. Can these quotes be used as inspiration or for personal reflection?

Yes, these quotes can be used as inspiration or for personal reflection. The book deals with themes such as love, loss, and grief, making these quotes perfect for those who are going through a similar experience or looking for motivation in life.

4.

4. Are there any lessons that can be learned from the quotes from "The Goldfinch"?

Yes, there are many lessons that can be learned from the quotes from "The Goldfinch." The quotes touch on themes such as the importance of human connection, the dangers of obsession, and the fragility of life, making them valuable and insightful for readers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, "quotes from the Goldfinch" serve as a perfect embodiment of the novel's literary brilliance, depth and emotional impact. From Theo's introspective musings to Boris's witty one-liners, the book offers a plethora of memorable quotes that stay with you long after you've finished reading. Whether you are a literature enthusiast or a casual reader, the Goldfinch quotes offer a timeless wisdom that speaks to the human condition in profound ways. So, next time you read the book, make sure to savor its golden words and appreciate the power of storytelling at its finest.