Quotes about smell
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“Seducing him in the tub smelling of vinegar was out of the question. There had to be some boundaries.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“That was when we smelled the rain. It was so strong it seemed like more than just a smell. When we stretched out our hands we could practically feel it rising up from the ground. I don’t know how a person could ever describe that scent.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Bean Trees

Source: The Bean Trees

Feeling, Strong, Personality

“You know, when someone has been crying, something gets left in the air. It's not something you can see or smell, or feel. Or draw. But it's there.”

Gary D. Schmidt book Okay for Now

Source: Okay for Now

Feeling, Drawing, Cry

“A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Flowers

“You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Motivational, Wise, Deep, Success

“Okay," Annabeth said. "What exactly do you smell?"
"Something bad," Tyson answered.
"Great," Annabeth grumbled. "That clears it up.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

“Wild honey smells of freedom
The dust - of sunlight
The mouth of a young girl, like a violet
But gold - smells of nothing.”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

Girl, Freedom

“He smelled the garden, the yellow shield of light smote his eyes, and he whispered, "Life is so beautiful."
…
Yes, he thought, if I can die saying, "Life is so beautiful," then nothing else is important.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

Life, Beauty, Light

“I don't care what your nose says! The last time you smelled half-blood, it turned out to be a meatloaf sandwich!"
"Meatloaf sandwiches are good! But this is a half-blood scent, I swear. They are on board!"
"Bah, your brain isn't on board!”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Time

“The smell of opium is the least stupid smell in the world.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

1930s

Stupidity, World

“You are the sum total of everything you've seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot- it's all right there.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“Sidda can't help herself. She just loves books. Loves the way they feel, the way they smell, loves the black letters marching across the white pages…”

Rebecca Wells book Little Altars Everywhere

Source: Little Altars Everywhere

Love, Books, Way, Feeling

“The feel of them (books) and the smell of them. A bookshop was like an Aladdin's cave for me. Entire worlds and lives can be found just behind that glossy cover. All you had to do was look." Claire (Watermelon)”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Source: Watermelon

Books, World, Feeling

“For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it's a pity we use it so little.”

Rachel Carson (1907–1964) American marine biologist and conservationist

Sense, Memory

“The air was heavy with the smell of leather and dust, of old parchment and binding glue. It smelled of secrets.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Secret

“The alcohol smell is on my fingers, cold and remote, piercing like a steel pin going in. It smells like white enamel basins. When I look up at the stars in the nighttime, cold and white and sharp, I think they must smell like that.”

Margaret Atwood book Cat's Eye

Source: Cat's Eye

Alcohol, Star, Thinking

“When a kid says "smell my hand," it almost never smells like cinnamon.”

Brian P. Cleary (1959) American writer

Source: You Oughta Know By Now

“The man who is honest and good ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

XI, 15
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book XI
Source: The Apology, Phaedo & Crito of Plato/Golden Sayings of Epictetus/Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Strong

“But what is worse, smelling the roast and not feasting, or not smelling the roast at all?”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

“And quit baring your fangs at me. It's making me nervous."

"Good," Simon said. "if you want to know why, it's because you smell like blood."
"It's my cologne. Eau de Recent Injury." Jace raised his left hand.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“She closed the book and put her cheek against it. There was still an odor of a library on it, of dust, leather, binding glue, and old paper, one book carrying the smell of hundreds.”

Shannon Hale The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

Books

“It's important to read a book, but also to hold the book, to smell the book… it's perfume, it's incense, it's the dust of Egypt…”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Books, Reading

“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”

Maud Hart Lovelace book Betsy-Tacy and Tib

Source: Betsy-Tacy and Tib (1941), p. 4

World

“A computer does not smell… if a book is new, it smells great. If a book is old, it smells even better… And it stays with you forever. But the computer doesn’t do that for you. I’m sorry.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Books

“Oliver: You turned me down. So why, I wonder, did you decide Amelie would be a better choice?
Claire: She smells better. And she made me cookies.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Midnight Alley

“When she bleeds the smells I know change colour. There is iron in her soul on those days. She smells like a gun.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Written on the Body

Soul, Change

“She breathed deeply of the scent of decaying fiction, disintegrating history, and forgotten verse, and she observed for the first time that a room full of books smelled like dessert: a sweet snack made of figs, vanilla, glue, and cleverness.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: NOS4A2

Books, History, Time

“Sasuke: Snakes can sense things through temperature, and they can also do it with their sense of smell by passing the smell in the mouth."

Itachi: You've learnt a lot… Dr. Snakes”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

Sense

“She loved the smell of books, the feel of books, the look of them on the shelf.”

Elizabeth Peters (1927–2013) American author and egyptologist

Source: Houses of Stone

Love, Books, Feeling

“The air tasted just the same, smelled just the same. The wind making my hair feel sticky, the salty sea breeze, all of it felt just right. Like it had been waiting for me to get there.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: The Summer I Turned Pretty

Feeling, Waiting, Sea

“Violence up close has a smell. Like copper blood and charcoal burning.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

“Please, Percy… change your clothes. You smell like you've been run over by an electric horse.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Change, Horse, Clothes

“Can you smell his sweat? That peculiar goatish odor is trans-3-methyl-2 hexenoic acid. Remember it, it's the smell of schizophrenia.”

Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs

Source: The Silence of the Lambs

“You know what it is you smell on him, Haven? Testosterone. It's leaking out of his pores.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Blue-Eyed Devil

“Camille brushed by Jem, hardly looking at him, and Will followed, pausing only long enough to mutter "She doesn't smell like anything" to Jem under his breath.
Jem looked alarmed. "You've beenher?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“The yard was full of tomato plants about to ripen, and mint, mint, everything smelling of mint, and one fine old tree that I loved to sit under on those cool perfect starry California October nights unmatched anywhere in the world.”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Source: The Dharma Bums

Love, World, Tree, Perfection

“Turn off the light," she says as she walks away, creating a smallthat smells sweet and chemical. It makes me sad because it's the smell she makes when she's leaving.”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

Sadness, Light

“The coffee shop smell was strong enough to build a garage on.”

Raymond Chandler book Farewell, My Lovely

Source: Farewell, My Lovely

Coffee, Strong

“Living Memory
I carry you with me into the world,
into the smell of rain
& the words that dance between people
& for me, it will always be this way,
walking in the light,
remembering being alive together”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

People, World, Way, Light

“She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight.”

Raymond Chandler book The Little Sister

Source: The Little Sister

Way

“Do you know that books smell like nutmeg or some spice from a foreign land? I loved to smell them when I was a boy. Lord, there were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Love, Books, Boy

“An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it is also more nourishing.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

"A Few Pages of Notes," http://books.google.com/books?id=hXVHAAAAYAAJ&q=%22An+idealist+is+one+who+on+noticing+that+a+rose+smells+better+than+a+cabbage+concludes+that+it+is+also+more+nourishing%22&pg=PA435#v=onepage The Smart Set (January 1915); later published in A Little Book in C Major http://books.google.com/books?id=EAJbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22An+idealist+is+one+who+on+noticing+that+a+rose+smells+better+than+a+cabbage+concludes+that+it+is+also+more+nourishing%22&pg=PA19#v=onepage (1916) <br class="br">1910s <br class="br">Source: A Book of Burlesques

Funny

“The gentlemen like it when a lady smells sweet.”

Bertrice Small (1937–2015) American writer

Source: Lost Love Found

“I cannot remember a time when I was not in love with them--with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms, captured and carried off to myself.”

Eudora Welty book One Writer's Beginnings

One Writer's Beginnings(1984)
Context: It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming up of themselves like grass. Yet regardless of where they came from, I cannot remember a time when I was not in love with them -- with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms, captured and carried off to myself.

Love, Books, Time