...So I don't forget, because this book was thick and contained a lot of truth. This was one of the truthier bits, I thought.
"
In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world.
We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in this world."
Timshel.
"
Thou mayest."
You have a choice.
--John Steinbeck
2 comments:
i like these excerpts very much, pear. thank you for sharing!
This is a weird connection -- I'll just say that right off -- but while Dickens didn't put it this way, I feel like this perfectly captures the the theme of A Christmas Carol and what Scrooge ultimately learned during his journeys into his past, present, and ESPECIALLY future. Such a great lesson for us all. Thanks!
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