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 #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 #31

“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?”

From Spencer's Faerie Queene. Another beautiful quote to share with people on weekends. Spencer is talking about Fairy Land, a magical, wondrous land with many amazing things inside it. Just a whole new, unknown world. And because it is wonderful, he knows that it must be hard for people to believe that such world exists. Honestly, the world is a fiction, built to satisfy Spencer's hope of England's Golden Age under the Queen – or so I heard.

Nevertheless, it's interesting to see how he describes the matter. “And later times things more vnknowne shall show.” We have seen so many new and amazing things in our time. Try talking to Shakespeare that his play is on TV, he would think witchcraft. Or try telling Titanic passengers that they should have used aeroplane instead of ship, well, I think they wouldn't even consider it. But we know better. And there is more to come. People talk about robots, clones, satellites, and many more. Who knows what the future will bring.

“Why then should witlesse man so much misweene/That nothing is, but that which he hath seene?” We have no reason to not believe in something just because we have never seen it happened in our lives. Many things happened in the past, more will happen in the future.

“What if within the Moones faire shining spheare?/What if in euery other starre vnseene/Of other worldes he happily should heare?” Somebody should tell Spencer how far human being has gone through the universe. Someone must show him the photographs of galaxies, the moon, even the earth. The universe is such a beautiful thing, isn't it. I'm never bored with pictures of the galaxies and constellations, with all their sparks and colours.

No, I'm not promoting Doctor Who.

That's the quote I want to share this week, reminding us all that there are still so many things we don't know yet, and we must never think that we know everything, because we don't. So, want to share yours?

Weekend Quote #30

For he, that once hath missed the right way,
The further he doth goe, the further he doth stray.

Again, from Spencer's Faerie Queene, an interesting quote. It was spoken by Despair to Redcrosse to persuade him to kill himself. Well, it worked.

I can't help imagine somebody who tries to walk a straight path but then he strayed a little, making a small angle between the straight line and his actual path. Then the words above apply so well. The more he walks the further he strays from the path he is supposed to take.

Despair uses that illustration to point out that the more we live, the more we make mistakes. Some of those mistakes can be deadly or terrible. So, why take the trouble of living?

But Despair forgets one thing. Although we make mistakes, we can always readjust out way to again use the straight path we want to tread. In fact, we need to try to do our best in life. We fail at times, but it doesn't mean we can't do anything to mend our way.

That's from me. Want to share yours?

Faerie Queene, Book I: Redcrosse and Una

I had never crossed my mind that reading Faerie Queene would be such a journey. I even had no idea that it would be so long. Not only the length of it, the language of the book is very strange to me, especially the spelling. I by no means dislike the book, though. It's a beautiful and interesting book, written in the form of stanzas and I sense the eagerness of the author to imitate the fine example of Homer and Virgil of old. So, what's the first book all about?

It tells a story of Knight Redcrosse, a knight of Queen Gloriana of Fairy Land, who goes in a journey to defeat a dragon and take back a kingdom from it. In his journey he is accompanied by a beautiful and virtuous lady, Una, the princess of the kingdom mentioned above. On his way, however, both of them have to face different challenges before they at last find the dragon and kill it. In fact, killing the dragon is a matter of one “canto”, while the difficulties of the journey occupy the ten cantos before.

The difficulties mentioned include the three brothers Sansfoy, Sansloy and Sansjoy, the wicked sorcerer Archimago and also the witch Duessa. Another problem they have to face is guilt, mainly in Redcrosse's self, for going with Duessa to the House of Pride and being misled by her before, and for other sins he has committed. This feeling becomes manifest when Redcrosse meets Despair, who reasons that it's better to die now than adding more sin while one is living. Redcrosse falls into despair and even persuaded to kill himself.

Una, knowing what happens, takes the knight to the House of Holiness, where the knight is given a chance to repent and where his sins are washed away. In the House of Holiness dwell Fidelia, Charissa, Speranza, and many others who symbolise the powers that can “heal” people from despair.

And yet through the journey, Redcrosse and Una find friends of many kinds, who help them to complete their journey. For example, when Una is left alone by Redcrosse, she meets a lion who then protects her along her journey, although sadly the lion is later killed trying to protect Una. They also meet King Arthur, who helps Una to free her knight from the Duessa. The people from House of Holiness also prove to be their friends. With such helps along the journey, Redcrosse and Una can at last find the dragon and defeat him. 

Una and the Lion

Among other things, I find the symbolization in Faerie Queene most interesting. The poem was made for the same purpose as when Virgil created Aeneid. Spencer wanted to “deify” Queen Elizabeth, portrayed there as the great Fairy Queen. But apart from that, he had another thing in mind. It's actually about Protestantism in England versus Catholicism. Therefore we see the Knight of Redcrosse, symbolising Holiness, and Una, symbolising Truth, has to deal with Archimago (symbolising the use of images), for example. Thus we also have the three brothers Sansfoy (faithlessness), Sansloy (disloyalty), and Sansjoy (joylessness) as enemies of Holiness and Truth. We also have the personification of Despair, that leads people, even Holy ones, to Death.

Despite my own opinion about all these, I find the way Spencer tries to insert these elements into the story as quite interesting. One complain though: the language. This book is certainly not one for light reading. Anyway, I can't wait to read more of Faerie Queene. 

Weekend Quote #29

“True Loues are ofte[n] sown, but seldom grow on ground.”

From Edmund Spencer's epic poem, Faerie Queene. I won't pretend I truly understand the meaning, and it may mean a lot of things as well, but I will just explain what it means for me.

There are times when we love truly and sincerely, and yet the person we love just don't feel the same way. It's like seeds that are sown in the ground, but don't grow. So the lady who says this sentence perhaps means that people seldom love with equal love towards each other. We often love without being loved, or loved without loving.

That's all from me. Sharing yours?