
“No furniture so charming as books.”
Vol. I, ch. 9
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)
Source: A memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith
"Bookworms"
In the Name of the Bodleian, and Other Essays
“No furniture so charming as books.”
Vol. I, ch. 9
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)
Source: A memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith
On the song "Wuthering Heights"
The Kate Bush Story (2014)
“And finally a great savior broke the charm.”
On confronting the Siren-Zo of Sireneca, in Ch. 4
Space Chantey (1968)
Context: "'Monday and Tuesday and Monday and Tuesday and Monday and Tuesday,' so the poor slaves had to sing in their labor for the puca. And finally a great savior broke the charm. 'And Wednesday too' he said, and then it was all over with."
"Roadstrum is the great savior who breaks the charm," Roadstrum announced. "I will set a Wednesday-term to the monster. But there are other elements in this…"
“Every book is a great action and every great action is a book!”
“I could read the great books but the great books don't interest me.”
Source: The Last Night of the Earth Poems
“A great book begins with an idea; a great life, with a determination.”
Source: Education of a Wandering Man (1989), Ch. 1
Context: A great book begins with an idea; a great life, with a determination.
My life may not be great to others, but to me it has been one of steady progression, never dull, often exciting, often hungry, tired, and lonely, but always learning. Somewhere back down the years I decided, or my nature decided for me, that I would be a teller of stories.
Decisions had to be made and there was nobody but me to make them. My course altered a number of times but never deviated from the destination I had decided upon. Whether this was altogether a matter of choice I do not know. Perhaps my early reading and the storytelling at home had preconditioned me for the role I adopted.
Somewhere along the line I had fallen in love with learning, and it became a lifelong romance. Early on I discovered it was fun to follow along the byways of history to find those treasures that await any searcher. It may be that all later decisions followed naturally from that first one.
One thing has always been true: That book or that person who can give me an idea or a new slant on an old idea is my friend.
“Great books write themselves, only bad books have to be written.”