The book dialog game

[Daithi]

Issybird and Hamlet53 both knew it, so one of them should take the next go.

Here's the whole article--

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Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

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Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897

[issybird]

I think Hamlet would agree; let's make this open to any comer who wants to put up a quote.

Lovely choice, Daithi.

Originally Posted by issybird

I think Hamlet would agree; let's make this open to any comer who wants to put up a quote.

Lovely choice, Daithi.

Agree. Let's hear from someone new, or that has not offered a book lately.

[HomeInMyShoes]

This thread has been flatlined for too line.

Clear!

Originally Posted by guesstheBook

Hazel hated that, it meant casting about in his mind for an answer and casting about in Hazel's mind was like wandering alone in a deserted museum. Hazel's mind was choked with uncatalogued exhibits. He never forgot anything, but he never bothered to arrange his memories. Everything was thrown together like fishing tackle in the bottom of a rowboat, hooks and sinkers and line and lures and gaffs all snarled up.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Perhaps this thread was better left for dead.

Another quote perhaps?

Originally Posted by guessTheBook

It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

This thread has been flatlined for too line.

Clear!

Oh! I know that one!

Spoiler:

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Lol, but try again.

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Oh! I know that one!

Spoiler:

Silly minds think alike.

Spoiler:

I think a better guess at what HomeInMyShoes had in mind might be Cannery Row by Steinbeck?

[HomeInMyShoes]

We have a winner. I can't believe I've only read one Steinbeck book (from high school no less).

Right. This may go quick. I will check back in 1-2 hours.

"For," said he, "all that is is for the best. If there is a volcano at Lisbon it cannot be elsewhere. It is impossible that things should be other than they are; for everything is right."

[HomeInMyShoes]

Dang that is familiar. At least the tone of voice is.

Another passage:

"My friend," said the orator to him, "do you believe the Pope to be Anti-Christ?"

"I have not heard it," answered __________; "but whether he be, or whether he be not, I want bread."

"Thou dost not deserve to eat," said the other. "Begone, rogue; begone, wretch; do not come near me again."

The orator's wife, putting her head out of the window, and spying a man that doubted whether the Pope was Anti-Christ, poured over him a full… Oh, heavens! to what excess does religious zeal carry the ladies.

[pdurrant]

Surely that first quote must be Professor Pangloss from Candide?

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Surely that first quote must be Professor Pangloss from Candide?

Yes indeed Professor Pangloss once more proclaiming that whatever happens it is still the best of all possible worlds. The book of course is Candide by Voltaire.

Please provide us the next riddle.

[pdurrant]

OK, here a passage of dialog to guess:

"And prithee, why not? Who helpeth them undress at night? Who attireth them when they rise?"
"None, sir. Would'st have them take off their garment, and sleep without--like the beasts?"
"Their garment! Have they but one?"
"Ah, good your worship, what would they do with more? Truly they have not two bodies each."
"It is a quaint and marvellous thought! Thy pardon, I had not meant to laugh. But thy good Nan and thy Bet shall have raiment and lackeys enow, and that soon, too: my cofferer shall look to it. No, thank me not; 'tis nothing. Thou speakest well; thou hast an easy grace in it. Art learned?"
"I know not if I am or not, sir. The good priest that is called Father Andrew taught me, of his kindness, from his books."
"Know'st thou the Latin?"
"But scantly, sir, I doubt."