Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[MartinParish]

Originally Posted by beppe

There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
- Thornton Wilder. The bridge of San Luis Rey. Last sentence

Now that's an awesome book I read long ago...thanks for reminding me, I might have to go back and re-read it sometime

[WT Sharpe]

.....…and of course the clear and certain truth no man has seen
.....nor will there be anyone who knows about the gods and what I say about all things.
.....For even if, in the best case, one happened to speak just of what has been brought to pass,
.....still he himself would not know. But opinion is allotted to all.
..........— Xenophanes of Colophon (late 6th and early 5th centuries B.C.E.), Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, poet.

Here's an alternate translation of that same passage from A History of Western Philosophy (1945) by Bertrand Russell:

.....The certain truth there is no man who knows, nor shall ever be, about the gods and all the things whereof I speak. Yea, even if a man should chance to say something utterly right, still he himself knows it not—there is nowhere anything but guessing.

[poohbear_nc]

"All children are to attend school until the age of sixteen or until they have learned everything, whichever be the sooner." (Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde)

[Michizzle]

‎"All the lives we could live, all the people we will never know, never will be, they are everywhere. That is what the world is."

~Aleksandar Hermon, "The Lazarus Project"

[WT Sharpe]

.....In fact, this tethering of divine logic to the terrestrial logic of politics and economics helped push religion toward moral enlightenment. It is the main reason for that crucial synergy between ethics and universalism—the main reason that the circle of moral consideration has expanded over time, beyond the bounds of tribe and race. This lofty drift of the divine can be understood only by appreciating divinity’s subservience to the facts on the ground.
..........— Robert Wright (1957 - ), American journalist, scholar, author of books dealing with science, evolutionary psychology, history, religion, and game theory. The Evolution of God (2009).

[Ea]

"She herself was a victim of that lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which cannot be stilled save by the frequent and plentiful acquisition of books. This passion is more common, and more powerful, than most people suppose. Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursuit of his drug."

-- -- Robertson Davies. Tempest-Tost, first book of the Salterton Trilogy (1951)

[BenG]

But wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it. All honest people saw the point of Mark Twain's wit. Not a few dishonest people felt it."
A Handful of Authors, G.K.Chesterton

[Michizzle]

Originally Posted by Ea

"She herself was a victim of that lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which cannot be stilled save by the frequent and plentiful acquisition of books. This passion is more common, and more powerful, than most people suppose. Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursiut of his drug."

-- -- Robertson Davies. Tempest-Tost, first book of the Salterton Trilogy (1951)

LOVE this! Thanks for sharing!

[Michizzle]

"There is something about words in expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner."
~Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale


"Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes - characters even - caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you."
~Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale


"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island."
~Walt Disney


"Books are not merely lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves."
~Gilbert Highet

[WT Sharpe]

.....It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
..........— Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British Conservative statesman, Prime Minister 1940-1945 and 1951-1955. My Early Life (1930).


Full disclosure: I love a good book of quotations, and I think it's a good thing for educated men and women as well. And I love what you all have posted to this thread!

[WT Sharpe]

.....A vindictive Temper is not only uneasie to others, but to them that have it.
..........— William Penn (1644 – 1718), English entrepreneur, philosopher, founder and "absolute proprietor" of the Province of Pennsylvania, early champion of democracy and religious freedom. Some Fruits of Solitude In Reflections And Maxims (1682).

[Michizzle]

"Oh but to age is cruel! Little changes that slip by unnoticed, that can never be arrested. The nectar of youth slipping through a blind sieve whose holes continue to widen. And thus, a friend turns to foe."
~Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden

[WT Sharpe]

.....One of the major problems of the Indian people is the missionary. It has been said of missionaries that when they arrived they had only the Book and we had the land; now we have the Book and they have the land. An old Indian once told me that when the missionaries arrived they fell on their knees and prayed. Then they got up, fell on the Indians, and preyed.
..........— Vine (Victor) Deloria, Jr. (1933 - 2005), Native American author and activist. Custer Died for Your Sins (1969).

[WT Sharpe]

.....I fall a lot, but other than that I can pretty much control my liquor.
..........— Chelsea Handler (1975 - ), American comedian, actress, and author. My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands (2005).

[WT Sharpe]

.....A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
..........— Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born Swiss-American scientist. The World as I See It (1934).