This semester, in a short 14 weeks, I have read a total of 27 books and oh boy when I did that math, I was shookt. There were 4 more books I was supposed to read (on Christian philosophers) but you know what, in order to maintain such a high pace of reading some books got to go. To be fair, I don’t think my reading did all the books justice, because some of the books, like Augustine’s Confessions, or Plato’s Republic, demand more than the reading faculties a student with pressing timeline can afford it. Many people have given the advice that in university you don’t actually have to read all the readings – SparkNotes amiright – and I see their point because no one should be expected to do such high-volume reading. However, I have set a goal for myself, that I came here not to pass classes, but also to learn from the literary tradition, so I want to read the books to get the most out of them. As such, I have compiled a commonplace book across all my readings (minus the philosophy ones, because all philosophers write in long sentences that aren’t exactly quotable), and who knows, maybe one of these quotes would make you bolt upright and resonate with you as it did for me.
Ohana means Family
“It is rare for sons to be like fathers; only a few are better, most are worse.” Homer’s Odyssey
“You know how women are. When one darling husband dies, his wife forgets him.” Homer’s Odyssey
“No matter how much of a savage lion a man might be, he does not shed his father’s blood.” Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
“His life is renewed in his child; his name remains behind … the man dies but his fortune lives on in his son.” Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
“Many men and women who are so stupid as to believe that when a young woman has the white veil … she is no longer a woman and no longer feels female cravings.” Boccaccio’s Decameron
“How miserable life will be for a man if he stumbles upon a wife who is not well suited to him.” Boccaccio’s Decameron
everyday I’m Suffering
“After many years of agony and absence from one’s home, a person can begin enjoying grief.” Homer’s Odyssey
“When he himself suffers, it is called misery; when he feels compassion for others, it is called mercy.” Augustine’s Confessions
“What madness not to understand how to love human beings without awareness of the human condition.” Augustine’s Confessions
“The greater the danger in the battle, the greater the joy in the triumph”. Augustine’s Confessions
“Is not human life on earth a trial in which there is not respite?” Augustine’s Confessions
“There is no sorrow greater than, in times of misery, to hold at heart the memory of happiness.” Dante’s Inferno
“Misery alone is free of envy in this our present life.” Boccaccio’s Decameron
“Sorrow in a wise man’s heart is wrong.” Hafez
“I am a bird of paradise, and from this world’s cruel snare I will arise.” Hafez
“I like a look of Agony, because I know it’s true.” Emily Dickinson
“Narcotics cannot still the Tooth that nibbles at the soul.” Emily Dickinson
“I reason, Earth is short – and Anguish – absolute.” Emily Dickinson
“The gloom hanging over man has always increased as man has grown more ashamed of his own race.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“How much blood and cruelty lies at the foundation of all good things?” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“Little room left for suffering – for the capacity of human consciousness is small.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“A man is not a bird to come and go with the springtime.” Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
“You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away; a man is not a piece of fruit.” Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Sick burns
“But as for all of you, I don’t just think you are failures – I know it for a fact.” Plato’s Symposium
“Ignorance and stupidity are given the names of simplicity and innocence.” Augustine’s Confessions
“When you will not listen to ta wise counsellor’s words, you are the stupidest of men.” Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
“Women, when left to themselves in a group, can be quite irrational, and how, without a man to look after them, they can be terribly disorganised.” Boccaccio’s Decameron
“If anyone finds what is written here obscure or unintelligible, I do not think that the blame should lie upon me.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“Every artist knows how detrimental the effects of sexual intercourse can be.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“It’s the only government we have and it would be a lot bigger pleasure not to have to report the kind of things we do.” Katherine Graham’s Personal History
“And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience… and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?” Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons
L is for the way you look at me
“A lover’s vow is no vow at all.” Plato’s Symposium
“Medicine is simply the science of the effects of Love on repletion and depletion of the body.” Plato’s Symposium
“Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together.” Plato’s Symposium
“Reproduction is what mortals have in place of immortality.” Plato’s Symposium
“Not one girl I think who looks on the light of the sun will ever have wisdom like this.” Sappho’s If Not, Winter
“When it comes to love and marriage, it has always been impossible to divine the future, and unfortunately a woman’s fate is especially hard to foresee.” Murasaki’s Tale of Genji
“Never cause a woman to suffer humiliation. Treat each with tact and avoid provoking her anger.” Murasaki’s Tale of Genji
“Love is much more powerful than either you or I.” Boccaccio’s Decameron
“Like most women who are truly in love, the lady was possessed of a lofty spirit.” Boccaccio’s Decameron
“When my bones are rotting, still my soul will not forget his kindness to me.” Hafez
“The pampered are not fit to travel on Love’s Road, only an outcast’s heart can bear the lover’s load.” Hafez
“The one going saddened, the one left behind despondent, we were like single ducks after parting, lost in clouds.” Basho’s Narrow Road
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.” Blaise Pascal
“Once they smell heart on you, you’ve lost.” Allan Gurganus’ Blessed Assurance
“She loved me for the dangers I had passed and I love her that she did pity them.” Shakespeare’s Othello
OMG
“If god commands something contrary to the customs or laws of a people … it has to be done.” Augustine’s Confessions
“You, God, who are a devouring fire, may consume their mortal concerns and recreate them for immortality”. Augustine’s Confessions
“If you are a king, be as a slave towards God; the heart of any man who is ungrateful to God will be filled with countless fears.” Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
“Deceit, though, is specifically a human wrong, and hence displeases God the more.” Dante’s Inferno
“For Gods, who solves all sorrows, knows the sorrows of our absence and desire” Hafez
“Could anything be devised to equal the power of that symbol of the ‘holy cross’?” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“Gods were believed to look favourably upon cruel spectacles.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“Except for the ascetic ideal, Man, the animal Man, has had no meaning.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“There is no happiness when no wisdom, no wisdom but in submission to the gods.” Sophocles’ Antigone
“Gods were still able to fight their own battles.” Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
“God doesn’t like doing everything, depriving us of our free will and of our share in the glory.” Machiavelli’s The Prince
“God made the angels to show Him splendor, as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But Man, He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of his mind.” Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons
“When a man takes an oath, he’s holding his own self in his own hands like water, and if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.” Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons
So, You’ve Chosen Death
“Not everything grows old, but everything dies … things rise and emerge into existence, the faster they grow to be, the quicker they rush towards non-being.” Augustine’s Confessions
“Our bodies are born to die … a man cannot reach the heavens while he is alive; he is the prey of death.” Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
“If we say death is just, what would injustice be? Why must we weep and wail so much at what is just?” Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
“Fire is not what gently smiles from candles’ flames, it’s what annihilates the flocking moths.” Hafez
“My life had stood – a loaded Gun … I have but the power to kill, without – the power to die.” Emily Dickinson
“As freezing persons, recollect the Snow – First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go.” Emily Dickinson
“I could not stop for Death – he kindly stopped for me.” Emily Dickinson
O wise one
“Free curiosity has greater power to stimulate learning than rigorous coercion.” Augustine’s Confessions
“They love truth when it shows itself to them but hate it when its evidence goes against them.” Augustine’s Confessions
“Words are the better portion, since they do not decay as an old building decay in the snow and rain.” Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
“Wisdom we mortals possess does not merely consist of remembering things past and apprehending the present, but on the basis of these two activities being able to predict the future.” Boccaccio’s Decameron
“The page of truth his heart enclosed was annotated publicly.” Hafez
“The passage of time and the changing world making me see, so far, only uncertain traces … this was one virtue of pilgrimage, the joy of being alive.” Basho’s Narrow Road
“Publication is the Auction of the Mind of Man.” Emily Dickinson
“Truth must dazzle gradually or every man be blind.” Emily Dickinson
“A word is dead, when it is said … I say it just begins to live that day.” Emily Dickinson
“The very essence of all civilisation is to produce a tame and civilised animal, a domesticated animal.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“If a shrine is to be built, a shrine must be destroyed.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“We are nutcrackers of the soul, questioning and questionable, as though life were nothing but the cracking of a nut.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“First bread, then ethics.” Bertolt Brecht
“Only the superficial people know themselves.” Oscar Wilde
“I should be wise: for honesty’s a fool and loses that it works for.” Shakespeare’s Othello
“A prince needs to be a fox to discover the traps and a lion to scare off the wolves.” Machiavelli’s The Prince
Watts Power
“The temptation is to wish to be feared or loved by people for no reason other than the joy derived from such power.” Augustine’s Confessions
“The lions become brave by being tested.” Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
“Look for no allies in this world; righteousness and innocence are your only friends.” Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
“Where there is a kingdom, there is warfare.” Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
“Poverty does not take away a man’s nobility of character only wealth can do that.” Boccaccio’s Decameron
“To demand of strength that it should not express itself as strength … is just as absurd as to require of weakness that it should express itself as strength.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“Without cruelty, no feast.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“Punishment hardens and numbs … punishment tames man, but does not make him better.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“The strong instinctively strive for isolation just as the weak strive for alliance.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“Behind every oligarchy there always lurks the lust for tyranny … trembles with tension from the effort … to maintain this control over this desire.” Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals
“The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel.” Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
“A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches.” Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
“If some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.” Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day
“Great butlers wear their professionalism as a decent gentleman will wear his suit” Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day
“A man who tries to act virtuously will soon come to grief at the hands of the unscrupulous people surrounding him. Thus, a prince who wants to keep his power must learn how to act immorally.” Machiavelli’s The Prince
“Men are less hesitant about letting down someone they love than in letting down someone they fear.” Machiavelli’s The Prince
“Fortuna is a woman, and if you want to stay on top of her you have to slap and thrust.” Machiavelli’s The Prince”
“When a statesman forsakes their own private concerns for public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.” Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons
“Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide?” Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons
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