Bakeneko’s most recent Quotables

A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone.

We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy

Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.

There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.

I have discovered that there is one main reason why we procrastinate: it rewards us with temporary relief from stress.

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid.

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

Those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters, for without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves we collude with it through our apathy.

Humans do have a knack for choosing precisely those things which are worst for them.

I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.

Killing oneself is, anyway, a misnomer. We don't kill ourselves. We are simply defeated by the long, hard struggle to stay alive. When somebody dies after a long illness, people are apt to say, with a note of approval, "He fought so hard." And they are inclined to think, about a suicide, that no fight was involved, that somebody simply gave up. This is quite wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

A home without books is a body without soul.

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.

If you only ever read one book in your lifetime, I highly recommend you keep your mouth shut.

Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.

When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he shall make the face of Heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.

If you go home with somebody and they don't have books in their house, don't sleep with them. I think that's very important.

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.