Weekend Quote #51

I am sorry, I have truly forgotten to post a Weekend Quote yesterday. This is bad, because it means that for those who live in Eastern part of the world will have very short time to join us.

Mine ears against your suits are stronger than
Your gates against my force.

Another from Coriolanus. It's one of those times when the words just stick with you and won't leave yo even in your sleep.

Menenius was trying to persuade Coriolanus not to attack Rome. Coriolanus was so bitter in soul that nothing he said could sway him from his decision to burn the town down with all its inhabitants. Thus the words.

To be honest, the lines are pure stubbornness, or if you want a more positive term, determination. But, still, I'd say stubbornness. Honestly, can you think of a better way, in the character of Coriolanus, to express it?

(I would heed my friend's advice and try to read and write something not Shakespeare-related next week, lest I'd bore my readers and lest this blog changes into a Shakespeare blog, which I already have in another URL.)

Weekend Quote #50

You were used
To say extremity was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That when the sea was calm all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating;

Shakespeare's Coriolanus. Yes, I've read and finished reading the play. Being one of the latter plays, Coriolanus aptly shows Shakespeare's command of language. Who am I to resist his strong wordy expression?

Some of the lines that struck my attention the moment they occur were those above. Coriolanus was just banished by the people of Rome, and sadly he bore the sad news home, to his mother and wife. The ambitious mother was devastated. Coriolanus was her only son and her only hope. Coriolanus reminded her of her own advice on the theme of misfortune and suffering in life.

Quite amazing for a “Be strong!” advice, don't you think? He is saying that what really shows a man's spirit is not just suffering, misfortune, or sadness, but the extreme conditions of those. Extremity will show who you really are.

When he says “common chances common men could bear” of course he is playing with the word 'common' as something usual in its first use and as something low and debased in its second use. But even when we ignore the pun, it's still encouraging. By enduring hardships worse than most people, we have the chance to prove ourselves stronger than most people who have never had the same thing. It's not something to boast, but it kind of consoles me.

The last two lines give beautiful imagery that further emphasizes the point. It's easy to 'float' around, and float beautifully too, when the circumstances are convenient. The ship's quality is tested, not in sunny days, but in stormy nights. Likewise our quality is proven when we bear troubles, and triumph over them.

Thus my (somewhat long) Weekend Quote. Please share yours. 

Weekend Quote #49

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
        Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— 

This weekend I must put down two lines from Keats' renowned poem - "To Autumn." It's a beautiful, sweet poem describing - as the title suggests - autumn. But the lines that I love the most are the ones above. It's just that they feel so lonely.

In that poem, Keats mentioned Summer as 'warm days', something bright, warm, and lovely. And he connected the Spring with music, merriment, joy. Spring and Summer are usually described as such. Youth, bliss, love, joy, happiness, spirit. Autumn is quiet, and I feel it's usually a perfect picture of decay.

But Keats saw it differently. "Thou hast thy music too." Autumn is not Summer or Spring, not as lovely, not as sweet. But it has its music too. It is special in its own way.

Suddenly we are all Autumn. We are different, and we are not always understood. There are people better than us, there are people richer, smarter, nicer, kinder, prettier than us, and that is life. There are times when we compare ourselves to Spring and Summer of the world - those people. But you know what? 'Don't think about it! We have our music too.'

Top 5 Quotes of the Year

Again, Fanda's Kaleidoscope. Quotes are my favourite. In fact, I tried to write down a quote every single week (which failed). Choosing just 5 favourite quotes from massive piles of pages is not an easy task. I have forgotten many of the quotes I found beautiful. So, in order to get those quotes, I consult my weekly meme "Weekend Quote" and my little phone where I read my books.

Here they are:

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

Who else has the right to talk about love more than our beloved Will, who speaks of so many kinds of affection? The pain of despair and hope in love, and generally in life, is summed up in these 3 lines.

“Despair and hope make thee ridiculous
The one doth flatter thee in thoughts unlikely,
In likely thoughts the other kills thee quickly”

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

“All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”

Being cast out alone in the middle of nowhere, Robinson Crusoe found that life does not depend on riches, luxury, or comfort. In his island, he found a lot of things to be thankful of, and he realised that when we are thankful for what we have, we will be content, and that makes us happier, despite our circumstances.

Spenser's Faerie Qveene

“And later times things more vnknowne shall show.
Why then should witlesse man so much misweene
That nothing is, but that which he hath seene?
What if within the Moones faire shining spheare?
What if in euery other starre vnseene
Of other worldes he happily should heare?”

Grand things, again. Reading this, I remember that I started to sigh and imagine a vast unknown universe. I started to imagine what the world would be in years to come, what wonders, what miracles could happen. We know so little things that we need forever to discover the world we live in - and even that wouldn't be enough.

Thoreau's Walden

This is the quote I've always wanted to put on my Weekend Quote but always forgot to since I began to read the book a month ago (yes, and I haven't finished it).

"For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of men?"

Really, as I classic lover, I can't help but nodding to that remark. It doesn't mean that non-classics are rubbish. It's just that when a book is classic, it passes the test of time, so it can't be rubbish - at least probably not.

Tolkien's The Hobbit

"This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down."

If there's anything that the poets talk more of than Love and Death, it is Time. I wrote in my diary once that poets seem to hate time so much because time is the symbol of decay, of change, of uncertainty. Ah, goodness, now it reminds me of one of my poems.

So let's end it all. Those above are five quotes I choose for this year. I think those are big. What did I read during the year? I promise I will put down some lighter ones next year. I hope I will manage to find them.

Weekend Quote #48

"We are underbred and low-lived and illiterate; and in this respect I confess I do not make any very broad distinction between the illiterateness of my townsman who cannot read at all and the illiterateness of him who has learned to read only what is for children and feeble intellects."

Yay! At last, another weekend quote to feature on this blog. This time it is Thoreau's. I truly love his idea on reading. What is the benefit of one's ability if he never uses it? He who is able to read but reads nothing has no advantage over him who cannot read at all. The disadvantage, on the contrary, is that he has put effort to learn how to read but never reads anyway.

That being said, reading as Thoreau here writes, involves more than just reading whatever your eyes meet. It's about choosing and choosing carefully what is to read. There are too many books in the universe to read in one's lifetime, so reading 'whatever' is not the best option there is. Thoreau mentions the books of antiquity, such as the Bible (which I still struggle to finish), the Greeks and the Romans.

It doesn't mean, of course, that reading other 'lighter' books is useless. No! But Thoreau reminds us not to neglect amazing literatures of the past. "For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man?" he asked.

By the way, that's the quote that I will (hopefully) discuss on this blog next. Happy weekend.

Weekend Quote #47

Certainly, Madam; to smile at the jest which plants a thorn in another's breast is to become a principal in the mischief.

This weekend's quote is taken from Sheridan's play The School for Scandal, which is nice enough to read, and quite funny too. Actually, I don't really like choosing the quote above since it was spoken by an annoying character, but because the words are so true, I decided to have it put down here.

Well, School of Scandal, as the title suggests, talks about scandals and gossips which circulate among people from the upper class of society. The people participating in it insist that they intent no harm while what they do is absolutely the contrary. Even as they laugh upon the misfortune or slander of others, they forget that somebody is hurt.

For me personally, the quote above reminds us all to think before we speak, to have in mind what effect our words might have on others. When somebody is being ill-spoken of, even smiling at it – thus considering it as entertainment – would be wrong. Instead of meddling with other people's business, let's mind our own, which if taken seriously, would consume most of our times anyway.

Ha! That's the weekend quote for you. Now, please share yours.  

Weekend Quote #46

I hope I am not too late for this week's Weekend Quote. I should have posted mine yesterday, but, yesterday being all hectic and busy, I decided to write it today, late as it is.

So, here it is:

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons' difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
'This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.'
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in every thing.
I would not change it.

From Shakespeare's As You Like It, this is the words of Duke Senior, who was exiled by his brother, and whose dukedom was taken from him. He, and some of his followers, stayed in the forest of Arden, like Robin Hood and his merry men, happy and content with their new lives.

The quote above is full of expression of contentment, which I find very interesting and inspiring. In court, where they dwelt before, even with all the riches of the world, they had to deal with enmity, and worse, flattery. But in the forest, they feel like ordinary human beings again, They hunt for food, eat what they get, find recreation in nature, and feel happy about it. For philosophers, the Duke being one of them, he finds many things to think and meditate upon.

Living such life, I have no wonder that the Duke could rightly say, “I would not change it.”

That's my choice for this weekend. Don't be shy to share yours. 

Weekend Quote #45

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."

Taken from Wilde's play The Importance of being Earnest. This quote attracts my attention because that's exactly what I do every single day. I always leave my house with my diary and a pencil case in my bag.

Well, I've been keeping diaries since I was 10 or so. I don't write everyday, unfortunately, but I always bring it anyway, because I love reading it over and over again. It's funny to see how time and experience form you.

Besides, by having a diary, I can always track people I fall in love with. (Want to guess who are on the list?)

That's the quote for this weekend. Want to share yours?

Weekend Quote #44

“Most people's first books are their best anyway; it's the one they wanted most to write.”

Taken from Josephine Tey's novel The Daughter of Time, this quote caught my eyes when I read it. It's not even the point of the story. In fact, it has nothing to do with the (brilliant, by the way) story. But I think it has some truth in it.

Well, not for all people, of course. Some people become a greater writer after a while. Ass Shakespeare says, 'custom lends us a kind of easiness'. But the first book is like the first born child. It's new experience. People put everything they have in that one first book.

That's the quote I want to share with you this weekend. I'm supposed to make it yesterday, but I think it's still weekend anyway. And if you haven't read Daughter of Time, I hugely recommend it to you. Will write a review in a couple of days. Meanwhile, have a nice weekend.

Weekend Quote #43

And is there care in heauen? and is there loue
In heauenly spirits to these creatures bace,
That may compassion of their euils moue?
There is: else much more wretched were the cace
Of men, then beasts....
And all for loue, and nothing for reward:
O why should heauenly God to man haue such regard?

Again this week's quote is from Spenser's Faerie Queene. No, I haven't finished it. It turns out that the book is much more difficult than what I thought before (and sometimes boring) because the spelling and grammar is so different from the English I usually know. Anyway...

The quote above reminds me of God's compassion towards his creatures. The last line truly resembles Psalm 8, that Milton once did into verse saying, “What is a man that you remember yet?”

That's my quote for this week. Care to share yours?

Weekend Quote #42

Sorry, sorry, a thousand apologies I need to say to you. I've been missing from this blog almost a month, without any post but the most necessary. Fact is, I'm working on my thesis and I can't do much beside that (except reading several books late at night or on the way). And I know, I've been neglecting the Weekend Quote, which I don't intend to do, and I hope I won't do again in the future, though I very doubt that as long as I still need to do my thesis.

Well, here's the quote of the week.

“And were I not, yet is my trouth yplight
And loue auowd to other Lady late,
That to remoue the same I haue no might
To chaunge loue causeless is reproch to warlike knight.”

I take it from Fairy Queen by Spencer, that's why the spelling is somewhat old. Those are Guyon's word when Mammon offered him his daughter as a spouse. Guyon represents “Temperance” and he passed that test by saying that he couldn't take that offer.

I especially love the last line. “To change love causeless is reproach to warlike knight.” Not only to knights, I suppose, but to all human beings. It isn't fair to 'change love' without reason. The other party may feel betrayed.

That's my quote for this week. Please share yours below.

Weekend Quote #41

Three weeks without any quote! Why, I'm at failure as a host. Such thing must not happen again. Hopefully. So here's this week's.

“Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.”

From Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Beautiful thing to say, isn't it? Yes, of course, but not in its context.

It was spoken after Gatsby's death, by a friend of his. In his life, many people claimed to be his friends. Many overexploited is generosity and felt no shame at all about it. They took their advantage of him and gossiped about him behind his back. Those people were just like parasites around him.

Then he died, and nobody seemed to care about what he was truly like, or who he was truly, or anything about him. It's just so sad. They didn't even bother to attend his funeral.

Out of context, however, the quote sounds really good. We have the opportunity to love people and let them know that we love them only while they are alive. Let's show our loved ones 'friendship' while we can. We don't know what will happen tomorrow, and we don't want to regret having missed an opportunity to truly love somebody.

That's the quote for this week. Share yours!

Weekend Quote #40

“How well he's read, to reason against reading!”

Hitting two birds with one stone, I post this quote for the weekend. I take it from Shakespeare's comedy Love's Labor's Lost, which I'm trying to read for the #LRP event.

The context is very funny. Berowne, one of the king's friends, imparts his objection against studying with the king for three years with all its restrictions (including no meeting with any woman). He states so many reasons and excuses against it that the king at last says the line above.

Very much like poets, Shakespeare being one of them, to play with the same word within a line. It's like saying, “He knows everything against studying” or something like that. Berowne, I think, will be my favourite character in the play. He's so smart and fast with his tongue, and he's funny.

That's my quote for the weekend. Please share yours. 

Weekend Quote #39

“All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”

Robinson Crusoe's line this week. I have just finished reading that book last week, therefore the beautiful words still dwell in my heart. Despite losing my phone, in which I put all the quotes I want to share, I remember this one, and I could find it, thankfully.

Robin, in his desolation, strangely felt satisfied in all respects and said he wouldn't want anything else (apart from some tools that could make his life even more easier). Instead of complaining about the things he didn't have, such as company, decent clothes, delicious dishes, and so on, he chose to be content with what he had and thanked God for it. It made his life more easy and joyful instead of miserable.

For me personally, it reminds me to be content with my primal needs, to be thankful for what I have and not to complain too much or to compare myself with others. It's interesting that Crusoe concludes the more thankful we are for what we have, the less likely we are to complain and to feel unhappy about our situation.

That's what I want to share this weekend. Waiting for your quotes, friends.  

Weekend Quote #38

“Who loveth once, must love alway.”

Still Euripides' Trojan Women. It also surprises me how many quotes touched my heart from such a short play. Hecuba tells Menelaus not to bring Helen on the same ship as he, because then he won't have the heart to kill the lady. Well, we know well enough from Odysseus that Helen regains her position as Menelaus' beloved wife instead of being killed as Menelaus promised to Hecuba.

I feel so touched by what she said, how love is hard to forget. So many other writers wrote the same idea. Shakespeare says “Love is not love which alters when alteration finds.” Mercedes also said to Monte Cristo that one can only love once. Even Pushkin's brave and resolute “I loved you” is succeeded by a weaker phrase, “and perhaps I love you still.”

It's a good thing and a bad thing, to love so hard and so long. When requited, eternal love will make eternal bliss and happiness. When not, eternal torment. Haha. Happily, we can always move on. I think love is not like a star that fixes its place in the universe, but like a plant in the garden that can blossom and die when we see most fit to make it so. Still, love will leave a mark, somewhere in the corner of our hearts, when we loved somebody.

That's the quote I want to share with you this weekend. I invite you to share yours. :D

Weekend Quote #37

I have not so much as hope, the last resource of every human heart, nor do I beguile myself with dreams of future bliss, the very thought whereof is sweet.”

Another sad quote from Andromache in The Trojan Women. She compared herself with Polyxena, whom she thought had better fate than she because Polyxena had died, and therefore, felt no pain anymore while she had to live without hope.

But I love how she mentioned hope as 'the last resource of every human heart', because, yes, it is. Hope is so precious, something that we can still have even when we have lost all other things. When somebody loses his/her hope, the effect is paralytic. Therefore never, ever, lose your hope. It's a resource that will help you go through many sufferings and disasters in this world.

That's all from me. Please share yours below or through the linky.

Weekend Quote #36

“'Tis all one, I say, ne'er to have been born and to be dead, and better far is death than life with misery. For the dead feel no sorrow any more and know no grief; but he who has known prosperity and has fallen on evil days feels his spirit straying from the scene of former joys.”

I don't know why this quote sits so in my heart. Perhaps I watch too much of Hamlet that I'm somehow infected with his melancholy.

I love Andromache. She's a fine woman. When she weeps about her misery and wishes for death, I cannot bear it. I read truth in her words, that in respect of pain, death is so much more painless than life. I cannot help thinking about what Hamlet says in one of his great monologues:

“And by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.”

When we are sad, it's so easy for us to think that death is far better. “To die; to sleep.” And about not being born, doesn't the book of Ecclesiates from the Bible say as much, 'it's better the dead than the living, but better still the ones that not yet born'?

And yet, when we are happy, and in sober mind, is there anything we want better than to stay so – happily alive?

Weekend Quote #35

“I may turn out an intellectual, but I'll never write anything but mediocre poetry.”

Still from This Side of Paradise by Fitzgerald. This is a quote by Amory Blaine, which is himself a pretty good poet, and better reader.

This quote has nothing to do with except for the fact that I also feel that I won't be able to write anything beyond mediocre – be it poetry or prose. The more I read, the more I feel worthless. Those great people – Shakespeare, Pushkin, Dumas, Hugo, and other great writers – make me feel like a dwarf among giants.

Okay. Something too much of this. That's the quote I want to share with you, and please share yours with me. Have a nice weekend.

Weekend Quote #34

"I'm not sentimental – I'm as romantic as you are. The idea, you know, is that the sentimental person thinks things will last – the romantic person has a desperate confidence that they won't.”

Taken from Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise, the idea of this sentence occurs at least two times, although in different words. It's cute, I think, the way Amory describes his philosophy. He doesn't have so much time thinking about it, yet he believe that it's true.

For me, personally, it's so sceptical to think that things won't last – no, not romantic. But true, it's not very wise to believe that all the good things will last forever. We need a balance between both. It reminds me of the quote I chose last week, about how despair and hope can both make us mad.

That's the thing from me this week. Anything to share?

Weekend Quote #33

“Despair and hope make thee ridiculous
The one doth flatter thee in thoughts unlikely,
In likely thoughts the other kills thee quickly”

Another quote this weekend, from dear grandpa William. I'm still in love with his Venus and Adonis, describing the goddess of love herself loving a man, a mortal man to the point of madness. She was looking for Adonis in the wood, afraid that he was dead already, when she ehard a voice of a hunter. Thinking that it might be Adonis, she uttered the words in our quote today.

As human beings, we experience despair and hope in our daily lives. We sometimes hope too high, thinking that there's hope still when it is very unlikely. At other times, we despair when the worst has not and maybe will not happen anyway. Sometimes after all is over, we look back and realise how ridiculous we are.

That's what I'd like to share with all of you this week. Have a nice weekend and don't forget to share anything if you want to.