Favourite quotes and poems
Here is a collection of quotations, poems and thoughts that have resonated with me at varying epochs of my life. I save them here mainly to save them for myself, but in sharing them I hope perhaps you’ll discover some writer or philosopher for yourself. Some are well-known, some obscure.
If you discover any errors or misquotes, or inaccuracies in referencing the source, please do tell me.
Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realise the blessings of fair weather.
The Count of Monte Cristo He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life. Live, then, and be happy…
The Count of Monte Cristop. 1605 Just as the body needs food, the soul needs books.
Syria's Secret Library Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate. Adventures do occur, but not punctually.
A Passage To India L’homme n’est rien, l’œuvre tout!
Translation in English: The man is nothing, the work everything!
I am past scorching; not easily can’st thou scorch a scar.
Moby Dick No man is an Island, intire of it selfe; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
Devotions Upon Emergent OccasionsMeditation XVII