[W]hat we think and feel during a sleepless night is completely useless, utterly futile, a wasted moment of life.
Og derfor dukket døden opp i en lesebok
da jeg så det diktet
Det handlet om at kjærligheten krevde mot
og det mer enn jeg likte
Men det er lenge siden nå
at vi gikk på den skolen
Det er lenge siden nå
at hun bar den kjolen
Og derfor dukket døden opp som en sprø idé
for da jeg så på henne
og skjønte at hun bare ville være i fred
ble det tungt å leve
Men det er lenge siden nå
at hun var en ung kvinne
som jeg aldri kunne få
noensinne
Det som skjer mot slutten er noe av det vakreste av alt
Bare tenk på høsten, like før bladene har falt
ned på bakken
Varme farver gjør meg øm og glad,
får meg til å forstå at døden er bra
Jeg husker best Når villdyret våkner og Den siste mohikaner. Var en hyggelig del av skoledagen det.
Hvor mange det inspirerte til å lese er jeg derimot usikker på. Verken var eller ble mange lesehester der.
Philip had never been able to surmount what he acknowledged was a defect in his resolute desire for a well ordered life, and that was his passion for living in the future
"I've got a rotten nature," he said to himself. "I look forward to things awfully, and then when they come I'm always disappointed."
It is not very comfortable to have the gift of being amused at one's own absurdity.
He was not of those who can talk of what moves them without caring whether it bores or not the people they talk to.
…he had the unfortunate gift of seeing things as they were, and the reality which was offered him differed too terribly from the ideal of his dreams.
Jeg tenker egentlig andre veien. Jeg synes det er spesielt viktig å legge de bøkene jeg låner på biblioteket eller av andre her inne, fordi jeg synes det er morsomt å ha oversikt over de bøkene jeg har lest og etter en stund kanskje glemmer noen av de jeg ikke fysisk har i bokhylla.
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.
The bright hopes of youth had to be paid for at such a bitter price of disillusionment.
I was afraid of burglars and thugs and snakes and fires and Jack the Ripper, when I should have been afraid of thirty years in a bank and a take -over bid and a premature retirement
How briefley and to the point people always seem to speak on the stage or on the screen, while in real life we stumble from phrase to phrase with endless repetition.
He did not know how wide a country, arid and precipitous, must be crossed before the traveller through life comes to an acceptance of reality.
You will find as you grow older that the first thing needful to make the world a tolerable place to live in is to recognize the inevitable selfishness of humanity.
Philip was a good listener; though he often thought of clever things to say it was seldom till after the opportunity to say them had passed.