The Book Vipers discussion

I just ran into this one from Vonnegut's A Man Without a Country:

“And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”

A couple I like from the reams on this site:

“'Classic' - a book which people praise and don't read.”
― Mark Twain

“There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.”
― Bertrand Russell

And not about books but one from a book that made a strong impression on me...

“Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?”
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Paulfozz- it's so long since I remember that book. Thank you! I have just requested that Penguin put it on Kindle.

Yes, Carson's Silent Spring is often credited with starting the environmental movement.

“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road — the one less traveled by — offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.”
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

The book came out in 1962--sadly, it's pretty obvious which road the world has chosen.

I think it's a mixed picture, with aspects where we have not changed much at all but others where there has been a huge improvement, at least in Europe and the UK. I can't comment too much though as I know only too well how limited my knowledge is in this area.

Another favourite, chilling, quote from Silent Spring

“As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life - a fabric on the one hand delicate and destructible, on the other miraculously tough and resilient, and capable of striking back in unexpected ways. These extraordinary capacities of life have been ignored by the practitioners of chemical control who have brought to their task no "high-minded orientation," no humility before the vast forces with which they tamper.”
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

To lift the mood, I love this quote from Neil Gaiman...

“When I was a child, adults would tell me not to make things up, warning me of what would happen if I did. As far as I can tell so far, it seems to involve lots of foreign travel and not having to get up too early in the morning.”
― Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors

ROFL for real, Paul--Gaiman is the BEST :-) And here's one from SANDMAN that shows how great the man is:

“Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world, I mean everybody — no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds... Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 5: A Game of You

“I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.”
― James Joyce, Dubliners


“If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you, fill her above the brim with love of herself ~ all that runs over will be yours.”
― Charles Caleb Colton