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 #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.  

Robinson Crusoe: The Power of Gratitude

This book is a great relief. I'm so grateful that I have to read this book this month, when I feel a bit depressed by so many tasks that seem endless. Moreover, I read and watch books and films that give the idea how “weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world.” Well, yes, Hamlet is one of them. And then, there's Lupin. And also Euripides' The Trojan Women. Those books make me gloomy and sad, and give my heart so much pain just by thinking about them. Hamlet more than the others. That's why I'm so happy to read how cheerful Robinson Crusoe is. The book kindles again in me the idea of goodness in men and the grace and mercy of God, instead of despair and hatred.

Robinson Crusoe is the name of the main character in the story. When he was young, he was hungry for adventures and despite his father's advice, he set out for the sea. But he was not destined to be a sailor. He went from bad to worse every time he sailed to sea. Once, he set himself in Brazil, and owned a plantation. But the adventurous soul still rages inside him that he set out again to the sea, and this time, the sea was not so merciful to him.

He was shipwrecked and landed in an uninhabited island. There he had to strive to live. But for me personally, it's the best adventure that he had in all his life. He hunted, tamed goats, sew, made candles, canoes, and potteries. He even became a farmer, and learned all trades he needed to stay alive and make the best of his condition. But the most important thing is, in that island, he learned to be content with what he had and not to overly focus on his miserable condition. Instead, he learned to be grateful for what he had and to get closer to God. Reading about his thoughts and anxieties during his life on the island brings me into deep contemplation. His life there makes me think about the things most important in my life.

After his solitary life, he found out that the island is frequently visited by savages, who used it as a ceremony place of some kind, where they would take their prisoners and eat them up there. Euh. It made Crusoe so frightened, but in time, he could get one of their prisoners to his side. His name was Friday. This man later became his most trustworthy servant and friend, most loyal and faithful to him. Not long after he saved two other prisoners, a Spanish and another native. Then more came. This time some Englishmen who at last brought him back to his homeland – not without much trouble.

At last, quoting the book, “I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job better than the beginning.” Crusoe found out that his friends and business partners had been loyal and honest to him. He ended up being rich and happy, grateful with all that he had – except perhaps still a thirst for adventures somewhere in the corner of his heart.

This book is a lesson of gratitude, of contentment, and of positive thinking. This book shows us what we really need compared to what we think we need, what really precious compared to what people think precious. The book also teaches us to believe in people, to believe that even the most strange people and different from us are the same deep inside. That people keep goodness inside them. I love it.

I will put and analyse some quotes from the book in later weeks. The book is most incredible in its imagination, its thrill and excitement, and its moral lesson. Again, I'm so happy to finish the book. It will stand high in my regards, always.