Maaike

“But don't you know, Mr. Stoner?" Sloane asked. "Don't you understand about yourself yet? You're going to be a teacher."
Suddenly Sloane seemed very distant, and the walls of the office receded. Stoner felt himself suspended in the wide air, and he heard his voice ask, "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure," Sloane said softly.
"How can you tell? How can you be sure?"
"It's love, Mr. Stoner," Sloane said cheerfully. "You are in love. It's as simple as that.”
― John Williams, Stoner

“Génoi’ hoîos essì mathôn, zegt Pindarus. ‘Werde der du bist’ maakt Nietzsche daarvan. Maar hij vergeet mathôn. Pindarus maakt het nog een klein stukje ingewikkelder en interessanter. Met mathôn benadrukt hij dat het niet vanzelf gaat en dat het een leerproces is. Worden wie je bent, is een opgave, een studie, een levenslang curriculum. Leer en word wie je bent. Ontdek wie je bent en leer hem te zijn. Bestudeer wie je bent en tracht hem te worden.”
― Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Brieven uit Genua

“The love of literature, of language, of the mystery of the mind and heart showing themselves in the minute, strange, and unexpected combinations of letters and words, in the blackest and coldest print—the love which he had hidden as if it were illicit and dangerous, he began to display, tentatively at first, and then boldly, and then proudly.”
― John Williams, Stoner

“For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?”
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America