“Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”
― Paradise Lost
― Paradise Lost
“...that the Musgroves had had the ill fortune of a very troublesome, hopeless son; and the good fortune to lose him before he reached his twentieth year; that he had been sent to sea, because he was stupid and unmanageable on shore; that he had been very little cared for at any time by his family, though quite as much as he deserved; seldom heard of, and scarcely at all regretted... He had, in fact, though his sisters were now doing all they could for him, by calling him 'poor Richard,' been nothing better than a thick-headed, unfeeling, unprofitable Dick Musgrove, who had never done anything to entitle himself to more than the abbreviation of his name, living or dead.”
― Persuasion
― Persuasion
“And he cries and cries, cries for everything he has been, for everything he might have been, for every old hurt, for every old happiness, cries for the shame and joy of finally getting to be a child, with all of a child's whims and wants and insecurities, for the privilege of behaving badly and being forgiven, for the luxury of tenderness, of fondness, of being served a meal and being made to eat it, for the ability, at last, at last, of believing a parent's reassurances, of believing that to someone he is special despite all his mistakes and hatefulness, because of all his mistakes and hatefulness.”
― A Little Life
― A Little Life
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?”
― Paradise Lost
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?”
― Paradise Lost
“Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I shall endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”
― The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradiso
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I shall endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”
― The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradiso
Classics and the Western Canon
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— last activity 10 hours, 24 min ago
This is a group to read and discuss those books generally referred to as “the classics” or “the Western canon.” Books which have shaped Western though ...more
EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club
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— last activity 4 hours, 59 min ago
Click HERE for the latest group announcements. "It reminded me of ____ but in space." "I read ____ in high school, and actually liked it." "It's ...more
Political Philosophy and Ethics
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— last activity 17 hours, 36 min ago
Study and discussion of the important questions of ethical and political philosophy from Confucius and Socrates to the present. Rules (see also the ...more
Jenny’s 2025 Year in Books
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