Separate Peace Quotes

• I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.

  John Knowles

  War, School, Hatred

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.172, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.

  John Knowles

  Desire, Purpose, Firsts

  "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles, (p. 14), 1959.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing endures. Not a tree. Not love. Not even death by violence.

  John Knowles

  Tree, Violence, Endure

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• But something held me back. Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth.

  John Knowles

  Feelings, Levels, Deeper

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.40, Simon and Schuster

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• So the more things remain the same, the more they change after all.

  John Knowles

  Peace

  "A Separate Peace".

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

  Malcolm X

  Peace, Freedom, Inspiration

  Speech in New York City, January 7, 1965.

  358 Copy quote

  Show source

• I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.

  John Knowles

  Meaningful, World, Would Be

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.158, Simon and Schuster

  37 Copy quote

  Show source

• This was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but they are absolutely smaller, shrunken by age. In this double demotion the old giants have become pygmies while you were looking the other way.

  John Knowles

  Peace, Men, Years

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart

  John Knowles

  War, Heart, Stupidity

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.170, Simon and Schuster

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him.

  John Knowles

  Moments

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.33, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Stranded in this mill town railroad yard while the whole world was converging elsewhere, we seemed to be nothing but children playing among heroic men.

  John Knowles

  Peace, Children, Men

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.82, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• All of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way-if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy.

  John Knowles

  Enemy, Cost, Lines

  A Separate Peace ch. 13 (1959)

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Looking back now across fifteen years I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it.

  John Knowles

  Mean, Years, Important

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.174, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• As I said, this was my sarcastic summer. It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.

  John Knowles

  Summer, Sarcastic, Sarcasm

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.24, Simon and Schuster

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved.

  John Knowles

  Used, Wanted, Findings

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.85, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Always say some prayers at night because it might turn out that there is a God.

  John Knowles

  Prayer, Night, Might

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.28, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace.

  Richard Louv

  Children, Adults, World

  Richard Louv (2013). “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder”, p.14, Atlantic Books Ltd

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• in the last month or so, i have read the great gatsby and a separate peace. i am starting to see a real trend in the kind of books bill gives me to read. and just like the tape of songs, it is amazing to hold each of them in the palm of my hand. they are all my favorites. all of them.

  Stephen Chbosky

  Song, Real, Book

  Stephen Chbosky (2013). “The Perks of Being a Wallflower YA edition”, p.64, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• the scornful force of his tone turned the word into a curse

  John Knowles

  Tone, Force, Curse

  John Knowles (2014). “A Separate Peace”, p.84, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Is America becoming decadent? Do we no longer regard our promises and pledges as sacred? ... We promised to make peace with Germany only in conjunction with the Allies; but we brought forward a separate peace, demanding for ourselves all the advantages of the Treaty of Versailles but rejecting all the responsibilities embodied in the Treaty. It was America's President who induced Europe to form a League of Nations; and then America was the first country that refused to joint it.... If these are not the symptoms of national decadency, what are they?

  B. C. Forbes

  Country, Responsibility, America

  4 Copy quote