Life According to the Classics

As those of you who know me (which should be all of you, unless you are one who likes to read the blogs of strangers), I love to read. Despite what one certain person who calls me a book snob might think, I do in fact try to read a little bit of everything. I will, however, admit that my first love is the Classics.

The Classics are called the Classics for this obvious reason: they have withstood the test of time. Therefore it follows that the Classics are (mostly) worth the time and effort required to read them. Once the reader gets past the outdated language and the foreign customs, she will almost always find some valuable life lesson or useful tidbit of information. So as not to forget these hidden jewels, I have begun writing down my favorite quotes from the Classics. Here is a sampling of what I have discovered:

§ "Importance may sometimes be purchased too dearly." (Elizabeth Bennett, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)

§ "Let us laugh when we are laughy, as we sleep when we are sleepy." (Men's Wives, by William Thackery)

§ "Is it love to worship a saint in heaven, whom you dare not touch, who hovers above you like a cloud, which floats away from you even as you gaze? To love is to feel one being in the world at one with us, our equal in sin as well as in virtue.” (Sir Percy Blakeney, I Will Repay by Emmuska Baroness Orczy)

§ "He can hold his tongue well. That man's dumbness is wonderful to listen to." (Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy)

§ "Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage." (Feste, Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare)

§ “The destiny of Man is to unite, not to divide. If you keep on dividing you end up as a collection of monkeys throwing nuts at each other out of separate trees.” (Merlin to King Arthur, The Once and Future King by T.H. White)