Books
Hang the twinkle lights, pop the champagne, and throw on something sparkly, because the worst year in recent history is finally almost over and it's time to celebrate. While there are a lot of ways to ring in 2017, the very best way for book nerds is to dress like the Fitzgeralds, drink like Hemingway, party like Anaïs Nin, and toast at midnight with one of these New Year quotes from famous authors. Trust me, by midnight, you're better off sharing someone else's words than slurring your own.
Its no secret that 2016 was a rough year for just about everyone. Filled with violence and terror, dirty politics and disappointing election results, hatred and bigotry, the last 366 days are something we'd all rather put behind us, literally and metaphorically. But with a new year on the horizon, now isn't the time for negativity and doubt — it's the time for hope, change, and (of course) plenty of clinking champagne glasses.
The countdown is officially on, and 2017 is almost here. Instead of spending the night reliving the worst parts of 2016, do what any good writer would do and put on something fancy, pour yourself a glass of something strong, and share some of these 17 New Year quotes from authors to help ring in the new year the right way: with beautiful words of wisdom.
1
“There was a smell of Time in the air tonight. He smiled and turned the fancy in his mind. There was a thought. What did time smell like? Like dust and clocks and people. And if you wondered what Time sounded like it sounded like water running in a dark cave and voices crying and dirt dropping down upon hollow box lids, and rain. And, going further, what did Time look like? Time look like snow dropping silently into a black room or it looked like a silent film in an ancient theater, 100 billion faces falling like those New Year balloons, down and down into nothing. That was how Time smelled and looked and sounded. And tonight-Tomas shoved a hand into the wind outside the truck-tonight you could almost taste time.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
2
A new year ... a fresh, clean start! It's like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on! A day full of possibilities! It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy ... let's go exploring!”
— Bill Watterson, It's a Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection
3
“Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering 'it will be happier'...”
― Alfred Tennyson
4
“For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice.”
― T.S. Eliot, 'Four Quartets'
5
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something. So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”
― Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman's Journal
6
“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
8
“I would say happy new year but it's not happy; it's exactly the same as last year except colder. ”
― Robert Clark
9
“New Year’s Eve always terrifies me. Life knows nothing of years. Now the horns have stopped and the firecrackers and the thunder… it’s all over in five minutes… all I hear is the rain on the palm leaves, and I think, I will never understand men, but I have lived it through.”
― Charles Bukowski, Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame
10
“I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. ”
― Anaïs Nin
11
“The drums are slamming, rhythmic, exciting. As the minutes pass, it feels to me like we are collectively pulling the year 2004 toward us. Like we have roped it with our music, and now we are hauling it across the night sky like it's a massive fishing net, brimming with all our unknown destinies. And what a heavy net it is, indeed, carrying as it does all the births, deaths, tragedies, wars, love stories, inventions, transformations and calamities that are destined for all of us this coming year.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
12
“New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
— Mark Twain
13
“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.”
— G.K Chesterton
14
“A new heart for a New Year, always!”
― Charles Dickens
15
"The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears."
— W.H. Auden
16
"I do think New Year's resolutions can't technically be expected to begin on New Year's Day, don't you? Since, because it's an extension of New Year's Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system. Also dieting on New Year's Day isn't a good idea as you can't eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second."
— Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary
17
"Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account."
— Oscar Wilde
