Quotes about voice
page 5

“She was very near hating him now; yet the sound of his voice, the way the light fell on his thin, dark hair, the way he sat and moved and wore his clothes—she was conscious that even these trivial things were inwoven with her deepest life.”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

Life, Hate, Way, Light

“It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

“a cheerful voice said in his mind.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

“I suppose you should her it from me that I met your mother" he smiled a litte sadly. "well… When I say met I mean one time I tried to kill her."
"Do me a favor" Zach's voice was low and dark and dangerous. "Next time don't just try”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

Smile, Time

“How many times… have you encountered the saying, 'When the student is ready, the Master speaks?' Do you know why that is true? The door opens. The Master is everywhere, but the student has to open his mind to hear the Masters Voice.”

Robert Anton Wilson book Masks of the Illuminati

Source: Masks of the Illuminati

Time

“Jem?" he said. 'It is you, James?'
'Who else?' Jem's voice.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“There is a timbre of voice
that comes from not being heard
and knowing / you are not being
heard / noticed only
by others / not heard
for the same reason.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Source: The Collected Poems

“Rose. Roza. Open your eyes." I've never heard heard his voice so strained, so frantic. "Don't go to sleep on me. Not yet.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Sleep

“But you have to learn to bend a little,” said Clary with a yawn. Despite the story’s content, the rhythm of Jace’s voice had made her sleepy. “Or you’ll break.” “Not if you're strong enough,” said Jace firmly.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Strong, Learning

“Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star…”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

"being to timelessness as it's to time" (1958)

Love, Truth, Fear, Hope

“You told us to leave you in the desert, because you planned to start a new life as cactus," Catarina said, her voice flat. "Then you conjured up tiny needles and threw them at us. With pinpoint accuracy.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: What Really Happened in Peru

Life

“Okay, now you're starting to scare me," Wes says.
"No, scary is the way people can alter their voices on cue. Like your imitation of that creepy guy who lives at your house."
"You mean my dad?" he laughs.”

Laurie Faria Stolarz (1972) American writer

Source: Deadly Little Lies

People, Way, Guy, Housing

“No, it’s not a very good story - its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.”

Stephen King book Different Seasons

Variant: No, it's not a very good story - its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.
Source: Different Seasons

Business

“My Aunt Dahlia has a carrying voice… If all other sources of income failed, she could make a good living calling the cattle home across the Sands of Dee.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Very Good, Jeeves

Very Good, Jeeves (1930)

Home

“The people do not complain because they have no voice; do not move because they are lethargic, and you say that they do not suffer because you have not seen their hearts bleed.”

José Rizal book Noli Me Tángere

Source: Noli Me Tángere

People, Suffering, Heart

“A mother's voice is like no other. We recognize every lilt and whisper, every warble or shriek.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The First Phone Call from Heaven

“The ghost of a smile flickered across his lips. ‘You’re always the voice of reason. Just try listening to yourself once in a while.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Smile

“I loved this woman the way you love… well, nothing," he said, a note of suprise in his voice. "You can’t compare that kind of love to anything, can you? It’s its own unique gift.”

Dennis Lehane book Shutter Island

Source: Shutter Island

Love, Way

“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

Source: The Letters of John and Abigail Adams

Law

“You don't understand,' she said, and there was a puzzling trace of resentment in her voice. 'Children never do. The love a parent has for a child, there's nothing else like it. No other love so consuming.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Love, Children, Understanding, Parent

“What does it feel like to get shot?"
"I don't recommend it," said Nellie in a controlled voice. "Chocolate is definitely better.”

Gordon Korman book The Medusa Plot

Source: The Medusa Plot

Feeling

“So all you want is a kiss?" I asked. A little voice in my head said I was heading for one of those slippery slopes. I told the little voice to shut up.
"Well, maybe more than one. But basically, yeah.”

Jenna Black (1965) American writer

Source: Glimmerglass

Kiss

“A hymn is the praise of God with song; a song is the exultation of the mind dwelling on eternal things, bursting forth in the voice.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Commentary on the Psalms http://dhspriory.org/thomas/english/PsalmsAquinas/ThoPs0.htm , Introduction

God

“[Will]'d barely been asleep a few minutes when Halt's voice woke him.
'Will? Are you asleep?'…
'I was,' he said, a little indignantly. 'I'm not now.'
'Good,' Halt replied, a trifle smugly. 'Serves you right.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

“All I could do is lie there and think about how much her voice changed when she asked me if she was pretty, and how much she changed when I answered.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Lie, Thinking, Change

“We can speak without voice to the trees and the clouds and the waves of the sea. Without words they respond through the rustling of leaves and the moving of clouds and the murmuring of the sea.”

Paul Tillich (1886–1965) German-American theologian and philosopher

Tree, Sea

“Okayyyyy,” Isabelle said in a low voice, “When did Brother Zachariah get hot?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Variant: Is that,” Isabelle said in a low, amazed voice, “Brother Zachariah? When did he get hot?
Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“O, with what freshness, what solemnity and beauty, is each new day born; as if to say to insensate man, "Behold! thou hast one more chance! Strive for immortal glory!" There is no speech nor language where this voice is not heard; but the bold, bad man heard it not. He woke with an oath and a curse. What to him was the gold and purple, the daily miracle of morning!”

Harriet Beecher Stowe book Uncle Tom's Cabin

Ch 36 Emmeline and Cassy
Source: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

Beauty, Chance

“But Grover’s voice was already growing fainter. ‘Sweet dreams. Don’t let me die!”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Dreams

“When I leaned a little too close to the doorway, my inner voice piped up, telling me not to be stupid. The guy with the bionic senses was better equipped for this.”

Kelley Armstrong The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Stupidity, Guy, Sense

“Walls have ears.
Doors have eyes.
Trees have voices.
Beasts tell lies.
Beware the rain.
Beware the snow.
Beware the man
You think you know.
-Songs of Sapphique”

Catherine Fisher book Incarceron

Source: Incarceron

Thinking, Tree

“If he had to have strange powers, Aden wished they could have been more like hers. That voodoo voice would have made his life a lot easier; he could have sent certain people (cough Ozzie cough) away with no memory of him.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Intertwined

Life, People, Memory

“Then he raised her enough to whisper in her ear, and while his voice was tender, his words were savage. "You're my woman, and no man or God or ghost will ever take you from me.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Where Dreams Begin

God

“Voices and faces aren't manifestations
of good or bad.”

Gail Carson Levine Fairest

Source: Fairest

“what you hear in my voice is fury, not suffering. Anger, not moral authority”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Suffering, Anger

“But I'm not ready to stop listening to the screwed-up inner voice that's been ordering me around for a lifetime. My head thinks it can kill me… and go on living without me.”

Mary Karr (1955) American writer

Source: Lit

Thinking

“Those are the voices of my brothers, darling; I love the company of wolves.”

Angela Carter (1940–1992) English novelist

Source: Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories

Love

“Seth hustled over. “What’s the password?”
“Passwords are for sissies,” Warren’s muffled voice responded.
“Works for me,” Seth said, unlocking the door and opening it.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary

“What could you give me," I ask, my voice shaking, "to make me forget… that you forgot about me?”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

Forgetting

“And of course, when you see your brother in the toilet bowl… there's a little voice that say, 'I wonder where he would go…'… if it hadn't been for his head…”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

“Sometimes stories cry out to be told in such loud voices that you write them just to shut them up.”

Stephen King book Just After Sunset

Source: Just After Sunset

Cry

“The past does not have to be your prison. You have a voice in your destiny. You have a say in your life. You have a choice in the path you take.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: When God Whispers Your Name

Life, Past

“Once, maybe I would have thought you a fool, but… well, that's kind of what trust is, isn't it? A willful self-delusion? You have to shut out that voice that whispers about betrayal, and just hope that your friends aren't going to hurt you.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Hope, Fools, Betrayal, Hurt

“I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

“NOW, MY BRETHREN!" Poseidon's voice was so loud I wasn't sure if I was hearing it from the smoke image or from all the way across town. "STRIKE FOR OLYMPUS!”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Way

“I learnt another valuable lesson that night: listen to the quiet voice inside. Intuition is the noise of the mind.”

Bear Grylls (1974) Chief Scout, adventurer, author

Source: Mud, Sweat and Tears

Night

“And the great spirit of darkness spread a shroud over me… everything was silent-everything. But upon the heights soughed the everlasting song, the voice of the air, the distant, toneless humming which is never silent.”

Knut Hamsun book Hunger

Source: Hunger

Distant

“… the girl with the tip-tilted nose, the forget-me-not eyes, the rose red cheeks
and the lily-white neck and shoulders who gave the explanation in a
trembling voice: “It’s the ghost!”

Gaston Leroux book The Phantom of the Opera

Source: The Phantom of the Opera

Girl, Forgetting

“Without the gods, how would I sing?' I asked.
With your own voice,' he said.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Source: Sappho's Leap

God, Singing

“that voice was a deathless song.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

“The moment Eve bit into the apple, her eyes opened and she became free. She exposed the truth of what every woman knows: to find our sovereign voice often requires a betrayal.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Truth, Betrayal

“I need voices of reason and of hysteria and of empathy. I need to have an Alanis moment. I need advice from Elizabeth Bennett. I need Tim Tams and comfort food.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

Food

“Lucian was beginning to get used to hearing her small observations at night. More than anything, he realized he liked her voice in the dark. It made him feel less lonely.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

Feeling, Night

“His own voice was older than he was. Ancient, unearthed from some mystical subterranean place… The voice seemed to make his whole body ache. Maybe it made him bleed inside. I wondered if it hurt, if it burned in his throat.”

Francesca Lia Block (1962) American children's writer

Hurt

“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul.”

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) American author

Soul, Reading

“I had read a Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the first page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life… her voice slid in and curved down trough and over the words. She was nearly singing.”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Life, Singing, Time, Reading

“His voice, even now, follows me everywhere on this longest of rides, this thing called life.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Ira Levinson speaking about his father, Chapter 1 Ira, p. 2
Variant: we shared the longest ride together, this thing called life
Source: 2009, The Longest Ride (2013)

Life

“I think you’re beautiful, the only beautiful person I’ve ever seen. I love your voice and everything to do with you, down to your clothes or the room you are sitting in. I adore you.”

E.M. Forster book Maurice

Source: Maurice

Love, Beauty, Thinking, Personality

“Chick Lit uses humor to reflect life back to us. It's a very comforting genre, and it's the first time our generation has had a voice. It's a very important genre for all of those reasons.”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Life, Time

“… sometimes when we are beating ourselves up, we need to stop and say to that harassing voice inside, "Man, I'm doing the very best I can right now."”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Rising Strong

“Just because I’m Native American doesn’t mean I can track furniture through the wilderness.” She deepened her voice: “‘Yes, kemosabe. A three-legged table passed this way an hour ago.’ Heck, I don’t know.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Diaries

Source: The Demigod Diaries

Way

“In the economy of Heaven, God does not send thunder if a still, small voice is enough, or a prophet if a priest can do the job.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

God

“If I try to summon back his face, the sound of his voice, and the sensation in my stomach like a key turning in a lock when he touched me, I lose everything.”

Joyce Carol Oates book First Love: A Gothic Tale

Source: First Love: A Gothic Tale

“If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.”

Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer

Source: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Fear

“There are two ways to stay safe, Reen's voice whispered to her. Either be so quiet and harmless that people ignore you, or be so dangerous that they're terrified of you.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Well of Ascension

People, Way

“The voice of Love seemed to call to me, but it was a wrong number.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Source: Very Good, Jeeves!

Love

“I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed, without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (1967)
Context: As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent action; for they ask and write me, "So what about Vietnam?" They ask if our nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence I cannot be silent.

World

“THE VOICE: (to BEAUTY) Your life on earth will be, as always, the interval between two significant glances in a mundane mirror.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

Life, Beauty