Book Nook Cafe discussion

I thought I would give us a thread to post quotes, song lyrics or poems that we would like to share.

You can also post some favorite quotes from a book you are reading. Perhaps you can share a terrific first line or two from the opening of a book. :)

They can be on any topic.

I found this one on GR Quotes.


"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."

~ Joseph Brodsky

Alias Reader wrote: "

"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them..."

GOOD ONE!

I agree, i like that one very much. Thanks.

I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.
~~~ Martin Luther King Jr.

I wanted to add a quote here, so went to my book notes, deciding to add the last one i wrote down. It's funny it's this one, as on another thread we were discussing positive attitudes.

Martha Washington wrote the following life philosophy to Boston friend & patriot Mercy Warren, "The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstance."

deborah

madrano wrote: "I wanted to add a quote here, so went to my book notes, deciding to add the last one i wrote down. It's funny it's this one, as on another thread we were discussing positive attitudes.

Martha Wash..."
--------------------

:) I went to my journal and selected one to post, too !

I'll try to post one every day or so and hope others join in.

It's funny we both posted quotes about being positive. In another thread I noted it's a fine line when others tell us to be positive and being told your circumstances are caused by a negative attitude. One is suggested to help relive pain. The other one points the figure of blame.

I like this plan. I'll keep working my way up (from latest to earliest read) & see what randomly pops up. It'll be interesting to see if this sort of serendipity occurs again.

deb

Thought I would join in on the quotes -- as I like this idea. And you have motivated me to look for a quote each day. So here's my first offering.

"The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer up somebody else." Mark Twain

That's a very true one, Barbara. You forget your own woes when you help others.

From my jnl.

Remember, a mind once stretched by a challenge, never returns to its smaller shape.
~~~~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, 19th century author & physician

Not all of mine are deep. This is from Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and The Single Girl.

“Of course, maddeningly, the least appealing time to do anything is when you already aren’t doing something.”

Loved because it is so true for me!

deborah

You can tell nothing from a man's appearance; no thing except the depth of your own prejudice.

Alias Reader wrote: "You can tell nothing from a man's appearance; no thing except the depth of your own prejudice."

I like that one! So true!


Donna

Alias Reader wrote: "You can tell nothing from a man's appearance; no thing except the depth of your own prejudice."

this may be true, but first impressions are lasting ones! Ask any employer.

My quotes seem to be about happiness, like as not. Curious.

From Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

"Happiness...depends on what lies between the sole of your foot and the crown of your head; and whether it costs a million or a hundred louis, the actual amount of pleasure that you receive rests entirely with you..."

deborah

Found this one about friendship that I like --

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'"

C.S. Lewis

Sounds like many of us when we discovered Book Boards!

deb

There are very few bad people. There are just a lot of people that are unlucky.

~~~ Johnny Nolan to his Daughter Fancie
From the novel ~ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn~ Betty Smith

"Let us live like Chinese philosophers, drunk on the moon."

from May Sarton's Plant Dreaming Deep by May Sarton

Someone just sent me this:

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.

- Cicero (106BC-43BC)

madrano wrote: ""Let us live like Chinese philosophers, drunk on the moon."

from May Sarton's Plant Dreaming Deep by May Sarton"
----------------------

Deb, I keep looking at the May Sarton books on my shelf and saying I need to read or re-read them.

I want to start with

Journal of a Solitude

Interestingly, until I typed the title in GR I didn't focus on the "a" in the title. That makes a big difference.

Sort of like how people always say, Origin of the species. The correct title is origin of species. Big difference.

"Motives, like muscles, have to be exercised to become strong and driving."

This is from Now, Voyager by Olive Higgins Prouty.

deborah

"Don't let the past take your future."

~~ said by Grace in the novel
Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God ~Joe Coomer

Alias Reader wrote: "Deb, I keep looking at the May Sarton books on my shelf and saying I need to read or re-read them.

I want to start with

Journal of a Solitude..."

Alias, i cannot recall if that's the one i have at home or not. If so, i'd like to read it with you, if you can wait. I feel the same way when i look at the book.

Interesting re. the title. I didn't notice that either. Those pesky li'l articles can tell readers much, IF we pay attention. :-)

deb

madrano wrote: Alias, i cannot recall if that's the one i have at home or not. If so, i'd like to read it with you, if you can wait. I feel the same way when i look at the book.
.."
------------------

I'm in no hurry. It's been on my TBR for a few years! :) I think I read a library copy a very long time ago and liked it a lot. If this is the book, the only thing I recall was her home was two stories and she had to move downstairs because she couldn't make the stairs anymore.

We read in April of 2008
Plant Dreaming DeepMay Sarton

I also have on my TBR stacks a copy of At Seventy: A Journal ~ May Sarton

I bought both books at a used book store for 50 cents each.

Poor woman. I know a couple who added a room to the back of their early 20th century house, just in case such a thing happened. It was awkward, as it ended up off the kitchen. Turns out they moved into an apartment instead. At least it was one with an elevator, though.

The curious thing is that ever since they did that, when i decorate our new homes one of the things i think about is "could i live on this floor alone, if i had to?" LOL! In Maryland, which had 3 sets of steps i never worked it out.

deborah, hoping Alias has a note in her book that i want to read it with her!

madrano wrote: "Poor woman. I know a couple who added a room to the back of their early 20th century house, just in case such a thing happened. It was awkward, as it ended up off the kitchen. Turns out they moved ..."
-----------------

I won't forget.

Interesting that I have often thought about the possibility of my having to live on my first floor alone. I think it would just take minor adjustment. Moving around some furniture and kind of making it into a studio apartment. There is a bathroom and a kitchen -- so the "main room" could be made into a studio.

Bobbie, in most of my homes that's worked out (in my head), too. When i have a problem is when bathrooms aren't on one floor. Fortunately this hasn't been an issue thus far.

deborah

"You say the Dante wrote that the hottest place in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality"

From the book: The Catastrophist~~ Ronan Bennett

Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.

-Erma Bombeck

"Time may wrinkle the skin, but worry, doubt, hate and the loss of ideals wrinkle the soul"

~~ Myron Taylor

.

~ When I took the leap,
I had faith I would find a net;
instead I learned I could fly.

~ When I seek truth, right or communion rather than victory, my adversary is precisely the teacher I need.

From the book:

Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity ~ Catherine Whitmire

I'll share an oldie but a goodie because it ties in with yours, Alias.

From a '60s wall poster--

"You can fly but that cocoon has got to go!"

My old 60's poster had a quote on it from Dag Hammarskjold.....

"Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions."

I still think it's important.

Connie, i agree with you.

deborah

"Trying to plan for the future without knowing the past is like trying to plant cut flowers."

~~ Historian Daniel Boorstin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_J...

That's a keeper, Alias!

.



What is defeat?
- nothing but education;
nothing but the first
step to something better.

~ Windell Phillips (1811-1884)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_...

Wendell Phillips (29 November 1811 – 2 February 1884) was an American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, and orator. He was an exceptional orator and agitator, advocate and lawyer, writer and debater

.

A Book

“Now” - said a good book unto me -
“Open my pages and you shall see
Jewels of wisdom and treasures fine,
Gold and silver in every line,
And you may claim them if you but will
Open my pages and take your fill.

“Open my pages and run them o’er,
Take what you choose of my golden store.
Be you greedy, I shall not care -
All that you seize I shall gladly spare;
There is never a lock on my treasure doors,
Come - here are my jewels, make them yours!

“I am just a book on your mantel shelf,
But I can be part of your living self;
If only you’ll travel my pages through,
Then I will travel the world with you.
As two wines blended make better wine,
Blend your mind with these truths of mine.

“I’ll make you fitter to talk with men,
I’ll touch with silver the lines you pen,
I’ll lead you nearer the truth you seek,
I’ll strengthen you when your faith grows weak -
This place on your shelf is a prison cell,
Let me come into your mind to dwell!"

— Edgar Guest

Until i return to Texas, i am out of quotes. SO many of the things i save from books i read are relevant only to me and observations i have. I hope others continue to share, making up for my lack of contribution. These are encouraging to read, imo.

deb

This quote also made me think about our "bucket list" thread.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore Dream Discover"
Mark Twain

Good one, Bobbie. I've been asking myself that, having observed DD doing the same thing the last couple of years. It's a valid way for me to figure out my own darned priorities.

deb

This place on your shelf is a prison cell,
Let me come into your mind to dwell!"

— Edgar Guest

Was it Dorothy Parker who wrote

I'd rather flunk my Wasserman Test
Than read a poem by Edgar Guest.

??

.


Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

~~ Carl Jung

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung

-was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology. Jung is considered as the first modern psychologist to state that the human psyche is "by nature religious" and to explore it in depth. Though not the first to analyze dreams, he has become perhaps the most well known pioneer in the field of dream analysis. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician, much of his life's work was spent exploring other areas, including Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts.

May I join in?

G.K. Chesterton said--"Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up."

Not as deep as some, but I like it.

Connie, i didn't know that Parker quote. Thanks for the laugh.

Carolyn, that's another good one, imo. Thanks.

deborah

Carolyn (in SC) C234D wrote: "May I join in?

G.K. Chesterton said--"Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up."

Not as deep as some, but I like it."
-------------

Yes ! The more that join in the better.
The quotes, songs or poems don't need to be deep. They can be funny, silly or serious.. whatever.

On one of my cable channels they always run old programs of Chesterton.

.


Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Wa...

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American philosopher, essayist, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. His teachings directly influenced the growing New Thought movement of the mid-1800s.[1:] [2:] He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society.

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
Robert Frost


Donna in Southern Maryland

Alias Reader wrote: ".


Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and ser..."

My favorite, and an important, if difficult thing to learn.....at least for me. I have a magnet on my refrigerator with this quote on it and I try to remember to read it and think about it every day.

Connie