“Yet how strange a thing is the beauty of music! The brief beauty that the player brings into being transforms a given period of time into pure continuance; it is certain never to be repeated; like the existence of dayflies and other such short-lived creatures, beauty is a perfect abstraction and creation of life itself. Nothing is so similar to life as music.”
― The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
― The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
“With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the articulate travail of existence. It was an old song, old as the breed itself—one of the first songs of the younger world in a day when songs were sad.”
― The Call of the Wild / White Fang
― The Call of the Wild / White Fang
“When people concentrate on the idea of beauty, they are, without realizing it, confronted with the darkest thoughts that exist in this world. That, I suppose, is how human beings are made.”
― The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
― The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
“Insensitive people are only upset when they actually see the blood, but actually by the time that the blood has been shed the tragedy has already completed.”
― The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
― The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
“Anything can become excusable when seen from the standpoint of the result”
― The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
― The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
Our Shared Shelf
— 222838 members
— last activity May 07, 2026 03:50AM
OUR SHARED SHELF IS CURRENTLY DORMANT AND NOT MANAGED BY EMMA AND HER TEAM. Dear Readers, As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading ...more
Gio’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Gio’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Gio
Lists liked by Gio























