The Midnight Library Book Quotes
(Please note the following trigger warnings: depression, suicide. This post also contains affiliate links, which means that I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you)
One of my all time favourite books, Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library was released in 2020 and quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. Not only did it spend 40 weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list, but it was also voted Best Fiction Book 2020 in the Goodreads Choice Awards.
Can’t remember what it’s about? Here’s the synopsis:
“When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.
The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.
Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?”
Here are 20 of The Midnight Library’s best quotes separated into three categories: life, mental health, and books.
Quotes About Life:
“The only way to learn is to live.”
“If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail.”
“Doing one thing differently is often the same as doing everything differently.”
“Never underestimate the big importance of small things.”
“It’s never too late to pursue a dream.”
“You don’t have to understand life. You just have to live it.”
“The thing that looks the most ordinary might end up being the thing that leads you to victory.”
“It is quite a revelation to discover that the place you wanted to escape to is the exact same place you escaped from.”
“To be part of nature was to be part of the will to live.”
Quotes About Mental Health
“You’re overthinking it.’ ‘I have anxiety. I have no other type of thinking available.”
“Sadness is intrinsically part of the fabric of happiness. You can’t have one without the other.”
“She realised that she hadn’t tried to end her life because she was miserable, but because she had managed to convince herself that there was no way out of her misery.”
“I’m having a pretty shit time too, if we’re doing the Misery Olympics.”
“Love and laughter and fear and pain are universal currencies.”
“Will my life be miraculously free from pain, despair, grief, heartbreak, hardship, loneliness, depression? No. But, do I want to live? Yes. Yes. A thousand times, yes.”
Quotes About Books
“Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived.”
“Librarians have knowledge. They guide you to the right books. The right worlds. They find the best places. Like soul-enhanced search engines.”
“So long as there are still books on the shelves, you are never trapped. Every book is a potential escape.”
“It turned out to be near impossible to stand in a library and not want to pull things from the shelves.”
Do you have a favourite quote from the Midnight Library? Leave a comment and let me know.
Alternatively, you can buy a copy on Amazon here.
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