“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.”
Tag Archives: culture
The Beautiful and Damned – Large Print
“Things are sweeter when they’re lost. I know–because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it it turned to dust in my hand.”
The Art of War – Sun Tzu
The oldest military treatise in the world. Full of wisdom that can be applied to our modern world. Includes sections on: I. LAYING PLANS II. WAGING WAR III. ATTACK BY STRATAGEM IV. TACTICAL DISPOSITIONS V. ENERGY VI. WEAK POINTS AND STRONG VII. MANEUVERING VIII. VARIATION IN TACTICS IX. THE ARMY ON THE MARCH X. TERRAIN XI. THE NINE SITUATIONS XII. THE ATTACK BY FIRE XIII. THE USE OF SPIES
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
“Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.”
Tarzan of the Apes
“I am Tarzan of the Apes. I want you. I am yours. You are mine. We live here together always in my house. I will bring you the best of fruits, the tenderest deer, the finest meats that roam the jungle. I will hunt for you. I am the greatest of the jungle fighters. I will fight for you. I am the mightiest of the jungle fighters. You are Jane Porter, I saw it in your letter. When you see this you will know that it is for you and that Tarzan of the Apes loves you.”
Silas Marner
“A child, more than all other gifts
That earth can offer to declining man,
Brings hope with it, and forward-looking thoughts.”
—WORDSWORTH
Sense and Sensibility
“I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be yours.”
Roughing It – Mark Twain
“It was a splendid population – for all the slow, sleepy, sluggish-brained sloths stayed at home – you never find that sort of people among pioneers – you cannot build pioneers out of that sort of material. It was that population that gave to California a name for getting up astounding enterprises and rushing them through with a magnificent dash and daring and a recklessness of cost or consequences, which she bears unto this day – and when she projects a new surprise the grave world smiles as usual and says, “Well, that is California all over.”
Riders of the Purple Sage
“He oughtn’t have tried to throw a gun on me – whatever his reason was. For that’s meetin’ me on my own grounds. I’ve seen runnin’ molasses that was quicker’n him.”
Pride and Prejudice
“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
Pinocchio
“Where are the gold pieces now?’ the Fairy asked.
‘I lost them,’ answered Pinocchio, but he told a lie, for he had them in his pocket.
As he spoke, his nose, long though it was, became at least two inches longer.”
These are the adventures of Pinocchio, the wooden boy, who got mixed up with all sorts of nefarious characters. This richly told classic is full of tragedy and triumph and holds much more power than the films of the same name.
Persuasion
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.”
Northanger Abbey – Large Print
“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
Moby Dick
“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure….Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.
Consider all this; and then turn to the green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? “
Mansfield Park
“Good-humoured, unaffected girls, will not do for a man who has been used to sensible women. They are two distinct orders of being.”
Leaves of Grass – Large Print
“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere – on water and land. ” – Walt Whitman
Little Women
“Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say no when they mean yes, and drive a man out of his wits just for the fun of it.
Jane Eyre – Large Print
“Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you.”
Heart of Darkness – Large Print
“He struggled with himself, too. I saw it — I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself.”
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark – Large Print
“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
Gulliver’s Travels – Large Print
“Whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.”
Large Print Treasury 