James Surprenant
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“Excerpted from A PLEA FOR A LEAGUE OF SLEEP
... My life with joy is sometimes fraught,
But mostly when I'm doing naught.
Yea, I could spend my whole career
A pillow underneath my ear.
How wise was he who wittily said
That there is nothing like a bed.
A mattress is what I like to creep on;
The right side is the one I sleep on.
...Stalin and Hitler while they sleep
Are harmless as a baby sheep;
Tyrants who cause the earth to quake
Are only dangerous when awake.
This world would be a happier place,
And happier the human race,
And all our pilots be less Pontius,
If people spent more time unconscious.”
― Collected Verse from 1929 On
... My life with joy is sometimes fraught,
But mostly when I'm doing naught.
Yea, I could spend my whole career
A pillow underneath my ear.
How wise was he who wittily said
That there is nothing like a bed.
A mattress is what I like to creep on;
The right side is the one I sleep on.
...Stalin and Hitler while they sleep
Are harmless as a baby sheep;
Tyrants who cause the earth to quake
Are only dangerous when awake.
This world would be a happier place,
And happier the human race,
And all our pilots be less Pontius,
If people spent more time unconscious.”
― Collected Verse from 1929 On
“The Library is desolation, it has a smell of its own of stagnation and death.”
― Paterson, Book 3
― Paterson, Book 3
“He was an obstetrician; he delivered babies into the world. His colleagues called this 'the Lord's work.' And he was an abortionist; he delivered mothers, too. His colleagues called this 'the Devil's work,' but it was all the Lord's work to Wilbur Larch. As Mrs. Maxwell had observed: 'The true physician's soul cannot be too broad and gentle.”
― The Cider House Rules
― The Cider House Rules
“Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans, we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”
― Thomas Jefferson: Author of America
― Thomas Jefferson: Author of America
“When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things.”
― Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
― Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
James’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at James’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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Biography, Christian, Classics, Comics, Crime, Ebooks, Fiction, Historical fiction, History, Memoir, Music, Mystery, Non-fiction, Philosophy, Poetry, Religion, Suspense, Spirituality, Thriller, and Nonfiction
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