Book Nook Cafe discussion

Favorite quotes -Thread #2

The quote thread was getting quite large so I've opened up a new thread.

You can post here your favorite quotes or favorite first lines from books .

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

~~~ Ray Bradbury

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

~~~ Haruki Murakami

We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.

~~ Oscar Wilde

Knowledge is the antidote to fear.

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"...[I]t occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
No...eight days a week."


From The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, one of my few April books.

deb

I like that one, Deb. Just yesterday I found out that my small local branch library, which is one of the very few open 7 days a week, is now closing on Sundays starting in a few weeks. :( Basically only the main branch will be open 7 days a week.

I think you were lucky to have your branch open 7 days a week for so long. When we lived in Oregon they had "rolling" closures, as i called them. Only the main library was open daily but the branches closed on different days, so that the one closest to us was closed on Mondays, the one next closest was closed Tuesday and on. So that we never had to go far to find an open library. This worked well, although i wonder if they still do that.

Nope, i just checked. Oddly, all their libraries appear to be open at least some portion of everyday, with Sundays being the shorted, around 5 hours. Frankly, this confirms what i thought at the time. The head librarian was a smart woman & used her right to open/close libraries to fit her political needs. When she wanted voters to fund the earthquake-proofing money (over a million), she closed the room in the main branch which she stated was a danger. As you might imagine, this alarmed everyone, who felt in peril. Sure enough, the ballot reflected that fear.

The rolling closures began when voters didn't vote for a different request for money. Hmmm.

deborah

Our libraries have different schedules but most have some hours open on Sunday during the school year. At least some help for families with children.

Bobbie, your comment helped me remember that in Oregon there were no hours on Sundays after the school year. I'd forgotten. This meant that during the summer our branch was closed two days in a row. Imagine the horror! The pre-planning! The shock at finding the building locked!

deb, remembering the disappointment each June

While straightening my computer area this quote fluttered to the floor, a scrap torn from a newspaper. It's from a character, it seems Mr. Lefkowitz, in No New Jokes: A Novel by Steven Bloom. I have not read the book but love the quote.

"Not being born is the best, but who is so lucky? Not one in a million."

deborah, LOLing

You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.

~~ Winston Churchill

From the wedding we attended May 14, part of a Celtic Handfasting Ceremony. ( http://www.squidoo.com/planning-a-cel... )

Official to Groom: Will you cause her pain?
Groom: I May
Official to Groom: Is that your intent?
Groom: No

Official to Bride: Will you cause him pain?
Bride: I may
Official to Bride: Is that your intent?
Bride: No

Official to Both: Will you share each other's pain and seek to ease it?
Both: Yes

AND i must add that the very evening of the ceremony the bride accidentally gave her new groom a black eye when they both rose from retrieving her hair flower from the floor. LOL!

deborah

That sounds like a lovely ceremony.

I've never heard of a Celtic Handfasting ceremony.

It was a first for me, too. The official is the same woman who performed the ceremony when the groom's mother (my aunt) married her husband. The handfasting wasn't part of that one, though.

These first sentences from The Homecoming of Samuel Lake make me want to read more. I don't know if the book will be good, but I like the beginning:

John Moses couldn't have planned a worse day, or a worse way to die, if he'd planned it for a lifetime. Which was possible. He was contrary as a mule.

Susan wrote: "These first sentences from The Homecoming of Samuel Lake make me want to read more. I don't know if the book will be good, but I like the beginning:

John Moses couldn't have plan..."
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That is a very good opening line, Susan.

On the opening page of Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad, which i began last night, i found the following:

"Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality."

deb

:)

Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.

--Robert Frost

This has long been one of my favorite quotes. :)

Thanks for sharing, Stacy.

Good one, Stacy. I've been surrounded my entire life by people who can't stop talking but have nothing to say. My favorite on that topic is from James Russell Lowell

“Blessed are they that have nothing to say, and who cannot be persuaded to say it”



deborah

Here are a few quotes I've enjoyed.

"Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes." -Alexander Dumas

"The pen is the language of the soul; as the concepts that in it are generated, such will be its writings."-Miguel de Cervantes

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." -Leo Tolstoy

Good ones all, Miss Jimenez! Thank you.

deb

Thanks for sharing, Miss J. I especially like the Tolstoy one.

Love this one -

"He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it." - Clarence Budington Kelland

Good one, Jorge.

I am currently reading, The House By The Sea and I want to finish it before I start another book. However, yesterday I picked up from the library Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World and couldn't resist taking a peak. This book is right up my alley. She has a whole section on why reading is important !

I found a few quotes that I really liked, so I thought I would share them with you.

If you want others to be happy,
practice compassion.
If you want to be happy,
practice compassion.
~~ Dalia Lama

Be kind whenever possible,
It's always possible.
~~ Dalia Lama

Not choice, but habit rules the unreflective herd.
~~ William Wordsworth

I have sometimes dreamt, at least, that when the Day of Judgment draws and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards - their crown, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble - the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when he sees us coming with our books under our harms, "Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading."
~~ Virginia Woolf

I love those, especially

If you want others to be happy,
practice compassion.
If you want to be happy,
practice compassion.
~~ Dalia Lama

Another quote from Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not fail to do the something that I can do.
~~~ Edward Everett Hale

Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 – June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian and Unitarian clergyman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_E...

I love that Woolf quote. Thanks, Alias, for sneaking a peek. ;-)

Deb, I stated the book in earnest last night. I'll admit it is preaching to the choir. I know this book will be a top rated one for me. I would definitely recommend it.

Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World~Lisa Bloom

I reckon we'll see many more quotes from the book, Alias. Enjoy!

You know me too well, Deb. :)

Here are a few more from Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
~~ MLK

Great minds think alike ?
No, great minds think for themselves.
~~ Sarah Bloom (author's daughter)

Women have two choices:
Either she's a feminist or a masochist.
~~ Gloria Steinem

Reading is the cure for what ails us: Ignorance.

Happiness is when what you think,
What you say, and what you do, are in harmony.
~~ Gandhi

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in time of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
~~ Dante

:-)

Goodies all!

It looks like that book is filled with great quotes. I'm hoping, if it is as good as it seems to be from these, that lots of young women will read it. There has always been something of a stigma attached to being smart and female, and the huge media negative portrayal of women doesn't help.

OT a little, but I hate that AT&T ad in which a woman goes hysterical when she sees an image of a spider on an Infuse display, and some man wallops the thing. Puts both men and women in a pretty poor light. And it's loud, all that screaming.

I'm pleased to say i haven't seen that one, Susan. It's just the sort of thing which makes my blood boil.

deb

Susan wrote: OT a little, but I hate that AT&T ad in which a woman goes hysterical when she sees an image of a spider on an Infuse display, and some man wallops the thing. Puts both men and women in a pretty poor light. And it's loud, all that screaming.
-----------------

Yes !!! That commercial goes immediately to mute. As does the dog running around yelling BACON !

Good grief.

Since I am going to be reading The Scarlet Letter~Nathaniel Hawthorne

I thought I would throw a few Hawthorne quotes out there. :)

"Easy reading is damn hard writing."
— Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them."
— Nathaniel Hawthorne

"She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom."
— Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)

"To do nothing is the way to be nothing."
— Nathaniel Hawthorne

[u]About this author[/u]
Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history.

Shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College, Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales and became engaged to Sophia Peabody the next year. He worked at a Custom House and joined a Transcendentalist Utopian community, before marrying Peabody in 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 18...moreNathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history.

Shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College, Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales and became engaged to Sophia Peabody the next year. He worked at a Custom House and joined a Transcendentalist Utopian community, before marrying Peabody in 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family to Europe before returning to The Wayside in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, leaving behind his wife and their three children.

Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England and many feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His work is considered part of the Romantic movement and includes novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend, the United States President Franklin Pierce.

I love the first quote, Alias. Authors across the world must agree with that. When i finish a mystery, as an example, in one day, it is almost painful to think that it took the author months to write it. Do you think they are complimented when we tell them we read their book in a day?

deborah

"All of us are time travelers, lugging into the future our baggage from the past."

~~~My Father at 100~~Ron Reagan

Madrano wrote: "I love the first quote, Alias. Authors across the world must agree with that. When i finish a mystery, as an example, in one day, it is almost painful to think that it took the author months to wri..."
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So many writers go unpublished. I would think they are happy to be published and that someone purchased and read their book !

I'm sure you are right. The conjecture is all mine. Although, given what we've learned about May Sarton's frustration in a lack of readership, maybe not. It's probably a matter of degrees. Overall, they are tickled to be published but when folk's ask, "When are you writing another?", it must become a source of frustration.

deb

One thing I like about using the library is that I am more willing to try authors that are unknown to me. Sarton is one such author I found at the library.

The high price of books and readers liking the familiar are I think partially the reason why you see the same 20 authors over and over again on the bestseller lists. And one reason why it's so very hard for a new author to break into these ranks and make a living as an author.

I agree. The only time i buy contemporary authors (well, i probably have sprung for one or two over the years) is at Friends of Library sales or such. I only buy if i want to share with others or know i'll reread (such as Anne Tyler).

For nonfiction, i prefer libraries to determine whether or not i want to purchase the book. Many's the time i've begun reading a NF book & halted so i could buy (& make notes in) my own copy. Without libraries, i'm not sure if i'd stop reading NF or if i'd just be in debt with said purchases!

deb

"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books"

~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Most people will go to their graves
with their music still in them.”

Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield


deborah

That's a sad thought, Deb. And I guess quite true.

This observation is quite similar to the Thoreau oft-used quote, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." I wonder which one of them came up with it first? It's the "quiet desperation" which sets Thoreau's more quotable. One can identify quicker, as it covers both sides of the grave, if you will.

Henry David Thoreau

It's the mark of an educated mind to consider the thought without embracing it.

~~ Aristotle said: