List of Examples of Epigraphs in Nonfiction Books
I recently created a go-to guide for authors that’s all about epigraphs.
they’re the short quotations from literature, history, religious texts, and other sources that go before the main text of a book and/or at the beginnings of chapters or sections in a book, and they’re meant to establish the theme or mood of a book, foreshadow what’s to come, or offer a sense of the setting or character(s), among other purposes.
As a nonfiction book coach and editor, I wanted to provide some examples solely from nonfiction books. So, with that in mind . . .
Below are some of the best examples of nonfiction book epigraphs:
A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
In A Natural History of the Senses (1990) by Diane Ackerman
For we are strangers before thee,
and sojourners, as were all our fathers.
—I Chronicles 29:15
In Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995) by Barack Obama
Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it.
—Jules Renard
In Running with Scissors (2002) by Augusten Burroughs
And what is good, Phaedrus,
And what is not good—
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?
—Plato’s Phaedrus
In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) by Robert M. Pirsig
Men play at tragedy because they do not believe in the reality of the tragedy which is actually being staged in the civilised world.
—José Ortega Y Gasset
In Into Thin Air (1997) by Jon Krakauer
Fairy Godmother, where were you when I needed you?
—Cinderella
In What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers (1981 edition) by Richard Nelson Bolles
Some of it wasn’t very nice, but most of it was beautiful.
—Dorothy Gale, The Wizard of Oz
In Beautiful People (2008) by Simon Doonan
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.
—Alice Walker
In Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (2013) by Sheryl Sandberg
The unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates
In The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (2006) by Jonathan Haidt
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
—Carl Sagan
In A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003) by Bill Bryson
Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
—Mahatma Gandhi
In The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (2012) by Charles Duhigg
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
—Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
In Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking (2005) by Malcolm Gladwell
Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
—Mahatma Gandhi
In Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (2009) by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically and dictatorially.
—E. B. White
In Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson
To learn more about epigraphs in a book, click here for access the authors’ resource.
FAQs include: What is an epigraph in a book? Where does an epigraph go? Where do epigraphs come from? What is the purpose of an epigraph? Does a book need an epigraph? How to write an epigraph? Where does an epigraph go in a book? How to format an epigraph in a book (Chicago Manual of Style)? Epigraph vs. epitaph, and epigraph vs. epigram.