They had dreams too
One of the most elusive aspects of history, and perhaps insurmountably so, concerns what people felt, thought, and dreamed. Yet the endeavour to explore this is crucial to have a sense of history which is more nuanced than a series of more or less...
The most miserable existence
Deprivation on the Danube, as viewed by a newly arrived governor during the Roman Empire, posted to a wine-less, olive-free desert. Some 1,500 years later, he would surely approve of the progress made, with many fine wines produced in countries through...
Daft and marginal
I liked this description of a region being 'daft-and-marginal' before splitting in two, with one half somehow managing to rule the world for a while. This is from Simon Winder's masterful, erudite and entirely entertaining study of Germany. He writes with...
An empire of leftovers
Simon Winder has a politically incorrect style of presenting history, which makes it a refreshing, thought-provoking read. I loved his book about Germany, which I read on the eve of running a major event there - it was loaned to me by a German colleague...
Leadership as multi-tasking
You get to steer the ship because you can handle multiple tasks at once. Here, John demonstrates his leadership skills: tiller in one hand, pork pie in the other, and lemonade secure between his knees. A CEO in the making, or at least an Admiral. The...
A waste of an island
Wonderful notion this, from one of the best of Ransome's enchanting children's books. Of course if you land on an island, you should light a fire, or what good is the landing? 'They had landed on the island near which they were anchored. They had bathed...
I have discovered that, with the passing of the years, my ignorance in countless areas… has become increasingly perfected while, at the same time, a lifelong practice of haphazard readings has left me with a sort of commonplace book in whose pages I find my own thoughts put into the words of others.
Source: Alberto Manguel, The City of Words, CBC Massey Lecture Series (Toronto: Anansi Press, 2007), p. 3
A different way of crying
Mia Couto's book is about a man who nearly destroys his family through his fury, both manifest and inarticulate; and about the resilience of his sons in surviving it. I found this simple statement surprising and wise - it takes a lot of strength and...
A new breed of cultural object
I loved the unashamed enthusiasm of this statement, Rebanks having dedicated his life to preserving both this rare, tough breed of sheep, and the way of life that goes with it. Also the novel idea (to me), of a breed as a cultural object. The breed is...
A poet on poetry
A surprising combination of qualities to look for in fine poetry (and other writing). Hard to think of poetry which comes closer to embodying all three than the meticulous, mysterious and fresh-voiced verse of George Herbert. 'The three qualities I admire...
Thoughts on modern life
I found this passage striking and moving, perhaps putting its finger on the pulse of much contemporary malaise. It feels a valid and thoughtful statement though you can take issue with certain elements; such as whether pre-modern life was any better for...
Certain of everything
This statement by Robert Rubin resonated with me and, I believe, with Susan Cain, author of Quiet (a reassuring read if you share such a sense of doubt and wonder from time to time if you might be 'introverted'). It reminds me of a note I found on my desk...
Global folly, global range
One of the pitfalls of globalization is the greater range for damaging stupidity which might formerly have been more easily corralled at a local level.This blunt prognosis is from a thoughtful piece by one of the world's preeminent astrophysicists, the...
The book of life
'A million species of animals and plants are threatened with extinction. Three-quarters of the world's land and two-thirds of its marine environments have been "significantly altered" by human action.' I read these lines in The Economist days after this...
Aim high, 17th century style
George Herbert, one of England's greatest poets, as well as being a priest and the Orator of Cambridge University (something like today's corporate spokesperson or public affairs director). He also made a collection of a good thousand proverbs. Here is...
My kind of company
John Donne describes an accomplished woman with a wide-ranging capacity to converse intelligently. I like the spectrum he chose: predestination to slea-silk and, it seems, everything in between.'She knew well how to discourse of all things, from...
A big headache
In the age of supermodels, it was fun to read that the 17th century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi complained to her patron of the difficulties of working with 'expensive female models'.I wonder if one of the 'good ones' she mentions is featured in...
Non-negotiable
The 17th century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi names her price and sticks to it, in a letter to her patron. Incidentally slipping in some slurs on her Neapolitan counterparts. Elsewhere she mentions having had her ideas stolen and questions whether...
Slaves to the sun?
While for the most part these twin sisters are nothing short of bonkers, I liked when one of them questioned the tyranny of time, speaking with splendid disregard for the sun of day and moon of night. For other examples of their more eccentric exchanges,...
Beware rash judgement
Dante is cautioned to beware those who pass speedy judgement - 'Anyone and his wife' who think in witnessing a deed they can securely make assumptions about its karmic consequences. 'So we should be strict towards All people when they judge at too...
Yours to win, not lose
These racing monosyllables have the pace and certainty of one who runs, and lives, as if he can only win. I have a certain admiration for such bounding assurance.'But this one ran as if the race were hisTo win, not lose. As his life was, and is.''... e...
Of sisters dissimilar
Dante meets the two sisters in Purgatory, and Leah describes, with Dantesque pithiness, the difference between them. For other quotations concerning rather more similar sisters, see Jane Eyre, or a few examples of sister-shared insanity in Mervyn Peake's...
A sociable breakfast
Little Lord Fauntleroy is out of fashion these days, but I think that's because most people haven't read the book, and believe him to be nothing but the Pears' Soap poster child of velvet and lace collars. He's actually funny, asking innocently adroit...
How dare you think?
A tale of riches to rags by the author of The Secret Garden, one of my two all time favourite children's books - recommended reading for disenchanted adults. Sara is a stalwart and fearless girl who confronts adult cruelty with the straightforwardness of...
I got me…
More loving lines from George Herbert's 'Easter' poem. Herbert was a cleric and his poem is religious, but even if you aren't, this has a wholehearted generosity to it; one person bringing what feels like armfuls of gifts to another, only to find that they...
Can there be any day but this?
These lovely lines are from George Herbert's poem 'Easter', and that is the day of which he says there is but one. Whether or not you celebrate Easter, it struck me as a reminder to treat each day as a unique bundle of time, life and, if we're lucky,...
On finding your way
What do you do when you're lost? In this magical world, you can try paddling round and round until the fairytale magnet needle points you in the right direction. Listen or look out for those mysterious 'attractions'. Another lovely book by the playful,...
For one awful moment
Timothy and his siblings run away from their strict grandmother and land, unwittingly, at their uncle's place. Ambrose is a dream uncle and a dream teacher, getting them educated by morning classwork and evening homework. But the afternoons are theirs to...
And this is anger
Dante's description of Anger is gloriously conveyed in Clive James' translation by the delicious echo of 'plots and plans' in 'pots and pans'. And reduced to but a clattering din in the house, you have to wonder if it's worth it. As Homer describes it,...
Being certain vs being correct
Know the sort? Enough confidence and you can get yourself obeyed even if you are ordering people in the wrong direction. This quality often passes for 'leadership', regardless of whether the organization ends up being led off a cliff. From a favourite...
The immorality of short-cuts
This imperious dismissal of short-cuts as immoral and inevitably causing confusion made me laugh. I have mixed feelings about them.Where it's an innovative way to do something faster without any loss of quality, I'm all for them; the immorality lies in...
Chew on it
A satisfying simile for mulling over an idea before implementing it. There is much playful language in the wisdom deftly embedded in Elizabeth Goudge's writing.One of the best English children's authors, and this is among my favourite of her books. See the...
Four good men
Hemingway's protagonist goes recruiting and chooses quality over quantity. Trust is what sorts the good men from the 'undependables'. ‘I could use twenty more men, to be sure,’ Robert Jordan said.‘Good ones do not exist. You want undependables?’‘No. How...
Sing what you cannot say
In January 1942, a score of Verdi's Requiem was smuggled into Theresienstadt concentration camp and performed by prisoners, conducted by Rafael Schäcter.Starting with about 150 singers, the numbers dwindled as they disappeared into this or that hellish...
As it sounded, so it looked
In the preface to his marvelous translation of Dante, Clive James mentions the poet's pithiness. I can't judge it in the original Italian, but it certainly comes through his English version.So I liked this example, a summary conclusion that things really...
Nervous as horses before a thunderstorm
Steinbeck's alarming simile launches a powerful, gripping overview of societal and economic malaise, which resonates uncomfortably with much current public discourse on jobs (or their loss, precarity or deficiency) and inequality. It articulates in deeply...
Synaesthetic sound
An early evocation of synaesthesia - I like Dante's portrayal of a voice in terms of visibility. This is from Clive James' superb translation. 'And yet He said these wise things visibly -I mean that you could see the sound ...' (Purgatory, Canto...
Summary impatience
I liked this sharp injunction to Dante to hurry up and spit it out. You can imagine an impatient parent or schoolmaster snapping at a nervous, faltering child, a chronological equivalent to the commonly heard exasperation: 'I'm not made of money, you...
As a conqueror enters a surprised city
For Valentine's Day, a heart-warming account by the first biographer of the poet George Herbert on how he met his wife.Jane Danvers was one of nine daughters of Charles Danvers, who liked George Herbert so much he said repeatedly that he'd be delighted to...
Ill guidance, bad leadership
A strikingly modern sounding comment by Dante, resonating painfully when the evening news seems to be forever picking apart the latest vagaries of bad leadership. 'Ill guidance is the cause of the ill fameThe world has earned, this wicked world of pain...
Too much information
Dante anticipated the age in which we are drowned in facts, fake and otherwise. Note his observation of our being overwhelmed by it, written in the 14th century. Wonder what he would make of the endless bombardments of information now. 'Overwhelmed...
Doubt in an age of faith
Dante lived in an age where faith was the norm, at least in public, and doubt could land you in trouble. How modern his assertion therefore sounds, allowing doubt to be not only natural, but rooted in the truth and sprouting from it as a healthy...
The carnivore’s dilemma
I liked the honesty of Hall's admission of hypocrisy and am sorry to report that I know the feeling. Morally, rationally, I would, should, probably, be a vegetarian, and can happily go without meat for relatively long periods. But give it up all...
The thoughts of a pig
A wonderfully involved tail of a pig's escape and eventual recapture.Firstly, a protracted endeavour to find him, eventually discovered resting in a barn, engaged in 'thinking unutterable things'. Secondly, the vain boast of an Irishman who was sure he...
A plea for pity – II
Keats' plea for tolerance, given we each have flaws that can be painfully exposed. See Theodore Dreiser's similar suggestion that pity and compassion be given more room in a stony-hard universe. And George Eliot importunes us to lean towards tenderness...
A plea for pity – I
A pithy plea for pity in a rocky, raging universe. See Keats' equally eloquent expression of the need for tolerance. And George Eliot importunes us to err on the side of compassion rather than severity.We all have a weak side easily exposed. Let's go...
Do what a hero must
Naturally, any would-be hero or heroine needs to set sail, or how are they to prove their worth? Clive James, from whose splendid translation this and other nearby quotations come, remarks on Dante's economy of phrasing, and this is one example. Lapidary...
A fair request
In an age where you are expected to shout, tweet, bluster and generally blather about everything you do, it is heartening to read Virgil's pithy injunction that reasonable requests should be responded to by silent action. "The answer to a fairRequest...
Joys unsung and untold
At winter's advent, a reminder of its beauty and magic. May you be safe and warm within the stronghold. For another fine description of its harshness and splendour, see James Rebanks. ‘This is winter,’ he declaimed. ‘Winter’s stronghold. But winter...
Where gannets swoop and rise
In the countdown to a major gift-giving season, I liked this ancient reference to a human presents. May you give and receive gifts in a spirit of open-hearted affection, bringing real pleasure all round. And if you celebrate it, have a wonderful Christmas,...
Stories as therapy
The story as a means to bear sorrow is an idea I'd like to believe, but can't quite relate to personally. Karen Blixen was likely speaking from her own experience, and I can only admire the implicit resilience. 'All sorrows can be borne if you put them...
Stories as generosity
An expansive view of stories from Turkestan, as if they embody the sweeping spaces of the steppe, and the freedom of those who tell them. Take me to some tales from Turkestan...'The essence of the stories from Turkestan is generosity, a virtue of the...
Can’t bear the noise
I don't blame them either. A delightful recollection of a sensible ursine response to the outrage of war in their habitat. See another lovely account from the same book, of monster lobsters."Last year, when the hard fighting was going on up there" he...
The lobsters of Skopelos
Hyperbole, nothing like it when suitably blatant, creative and outrageous. You couldn't possibly eat one of these, only engage them in a civilized conversation about world affairs, or in a game of chess.See, from the same book, a similarly improbable yet...
Of art and Ithaca
This poetic summary resonates deeply - the search for green eternity as opposed to 'mere astonishments'. I've always been baffled by sensationalism or the desire to shock as a motivation in itself, rather than as a possible by-product of creating...
Two types of aesthetic
A pithy way to categorize an aesthetic response - the straightforward reflection of a mirror or the more complex refraction of a prism. I will test this out next time I look at a building, sculpture, painting or poem. 'Two aesthetics exist: the passive...
In praise of the unknown and unseen – I
The great humanist George Eliot sings the praises of those who act well or kindly in countless unmarked ways, without any song or dance about it. See a similar example in her superb Adam Bede, and Vasily Grossman's plea for the value of untraceable...
In praise of the unknown and unseen – II
Highlighting the significance of the insignificant people who constitute most of humanity and its history. See a similar praise of unsung heroes in Eliot's Middlemarch, and an echoing cry by Vasily Grossman. I sense that George Eliot and Vasily Grossman...
Bad but not dull
How about that for a jowl-shaking quaff? Proof that bad wine can be 'interesting' even if dentally dangerous.See another of Hemingway's graphic descriptions, this time in a vast soup tureen. And for a different but equally florid wine review, see Evelyn...
A strong soup
Surely one of the most memorable methods for mass disposal of enemies. Hard to compute the numbers in this recipe. See also Hemingway's lively description of a bad wine. '‘I would like to swim ten leagues in a strong soup made from the cojones of all of...
Hunger for the universal
Having had such a yearning for as long as I can remember, I was surprised by recognition in seeing it articulated, here presented as a form of hunger. I wasn't born in a ghetto, but did feel constraints in scope which I needed to scramble away from. 'If...
A transcendent mind
A capacious mind which rises above and speeds ahead of the spillth and swirls of world affairs, political, sociological or technological. To Zorba, but a pile of rusty old rifles. Here's to similar levels of detachment from time to time.'Why, all these –...
A long lane
Keats had a humbling capacity to squeeze out moments of joy even while grappling with the illness which would kill him and which had already killed his mother and brother. But he also gave expression to the toll it took on his spirit, here likening it to a...
A thicket of thorns
A moment of despair for Keats, despite his resilient spirit and his desperate attempts to seize life and wring every drop of joy out of it. He snatched moments, but didn't survive the tuberculosis which killed his mother and brother. 'I see nothing but...
An Antarctic tsunami
I loved the slowly growing momentum of this vast wave, though one has to hope it would never make landfall, but could gently dissipate its force and dimension in travelling across open ocean. See also the bestellar review of this stupendously lean and...
Mamma turns up
A few signals to keep an eye out for so you don't miss the moment a god may show up: it could be aural, olfactory, visual or just a change in temperature. In this case it was the perfume of oceanic lavender that first hinted at the arrival of a...
How clever can you get?
I liked these piled up and shamelessly outrageous examples of cleverness, although of their various skills, the first is the most impressive, suggesting an astonishing level of practical competence and dexterity. It deserves to enter the language as...
Bread and coins
This intriguing picnic caught my eye, in particular the honey-water soaked barley bread. "... straight to Pluto's palace. But don't forget to take with you two pieces of barley bread soaked in honey water, one in each hand, and two coins in your mouth..."...
Not yet fully formed
A wonderful comment by Zorba regarding the mental development of his boss. Not, perhaps, a line to try on your own boss, however true it may seem. See also his equally crushing comment on his boss's behaviour towards the workers. “I hope you don’t...
Career choices
Here Zorba points out the choices his boss has to make, since you can't prattle about socialism and be a capitalist at the same time, or at least not without some hypocrisy. See him also put his boss in his place as far as mental development is concerned....
Home sweet home
In Patrick Leigh Fermor's telling of it, the Mani region of Greece comprises two harsh elements: searing sunlight and endless stoniness. Here, a Maniot sums it up with what appears to be characteristic pithiness. "When God had finished making the world,...
A load of old bull
Here Patrick Leigh Fermor tests the veracity of a much touted myth about Maniots in the Peloponnese being bull wrestlers. I liked the progressive debunking of the myth, starting out with simple denial, then embellished with further evidence, all the way...
Colours as emblems
This is an opening line in Christa Wolf's novel Till Eulenspiegel. Something about it haunted me, two colours flying as emblems of the Middle Ages, and since I took the photo on a brilliant day in October, they are equally pennants of autumn. Hence posting...
News, any news
I loved this eager old man stuck up a mountain, starved of company, starved of news. And in the age of fake news, his closing clause made me laugh. 'Once near the top of Mt. Kedros in Crete, a white-bearded old shepherd had shouted to my guide and me to...
One for the microbe
A charming variant of 'one for the road' justifications for one more drink. May you enjoy all the optimism, vigour and dauntlessness of a giant without recourse to the bottle. And beware the 'flask-wielding host'. '"One more," says the flask-wielding...
Pickled inside and out
Here is a novel form of the elixir of youth - no magic potions, just preserved in brine and other substances. I liked the final conclusion of the boatman. 'A year after the war I told Mirso, a boatman in Poros I hadn't seen since 1938, that he...
My kinda cats – II
Generally speaking, I'm not a big cat fan, preferring dogs all round. However, although I can be dismissive of the pampered creatures slouching around domestic hearths, some cats with strong characters, or a sassy, streetwise streak, can partially win me...
My kinda cat – III
This is one memorable cat. Patrick Leigh Fermor had chance to observe the same big tom-cat every night in Athens after the war, performing what was clearly a regular feline routine. I loved this whole story. For other cat-related Greek tails, see also...
Of facts and poetry
Having also tried various neat distinctions which inevitably crumble in the face of precise examples that don't fit, I liked Thoreau's conclusion that a 'beautiful fact' can't easily be excluded from a notebook on poetry. For similar overlaps between fact...
The scientist and the artist
This quotation, copied from an exhibition in Budapest, seems a neat summary of the similar qualities needed to make a (great) scientist or a (great) artist.It also reminded me of a quotation from Thoreau's journal in which his attempts to keep poetry and...
Cobalt polar lapis blue
A dazzlingly variegated Greek sky. It was under such a sky, which for me also includes hyacinth blue and lilac, that I realised the Greek national flag is simply the pairing of the deep inviting blue of its sky and the blinding whiteness of its church...
Of violet eyes
Only the second example I have come across of violet eyes, never yet seen in real life. Here the 76th Earl of Gormenghast learns from his physician, Dr. Prunesquallor, that the newborn 77th Earl-to-be, Titus, has this glorious oddity. The other, also of...
Half a prayer
A perfect example of mercurial Greek god behaviour. No rhyme or reason, I grant this, I grant that, I refuse one thing, and not the other. May your prayers be granted, in whole or in part, but if in part, let it be the right part. 'God heard his prayer and...
Fortune’s favour
This reminds me of an anonymous Elizabethan verse which I cite from memory: 'Lift up thy heart and courage eke, Be bold and of good cheer; For Fortune most doth favour those Who all things least do fear.' So, go forth and fear not! This is...
Wait your turn!
This observation of a family of swallows over 150 years ago struck me, along with another surprising tale by Thoreau. Apart from the impressive behaviour of the birds on both counts, in reading these immediate, living accounts, I wonder whether Thoreau had...
Airborne support
This touching account in Thoreau's journal has a swallow, injured by a shot from a gun, being given airborne support by another swallow. The duly contrite swallow-sniper thereafter showed reverence towards these lovely small birds. I hope the injured one...
Hospitality protocol 101
Homer is awash with examples of great hospitality and generosity between hosts and guests, even uninvited ones washing up on the beach. Here is a pithy proverb summing up the responsibility of each. Logue's magnificent rendition of several books of the...
To charm, to change …
Odysseus is a tricky hero, part noble, upstanding and brave, part slippery, trickery, too-clever-by-half. He is a compelling orator, and it is hard to tell if his apparent shuffling shyness is a feint to lull his audience, or win their sympathy.This is...
Singing a stone-song
Water is the principal element in Williamson's assiduously researched, powerfully imagined life of an otter. I loved the idea of its singing a song by flowing over stones on its way to the sea. 'The water sang its stone-song in the dark as it flowed its...
The law of life
We need water for life, and life and water share a fundamental law: change. They may also share another, apparently contradictory quality, that of being always different and yet somehow the same. 'The law of life was also the law of water - everlasting...
Ferrari on aerodynamics
This is of course an outrageous statement, but I loved it when I saw it spray-painted on the wall of a motor museum in the Netherlands. Ridiculously macho approach, breezily dismissive of working with the power of physics to add speed. No, you work with...
The path to alchemy
The route to alchemy? There is none, there is no set path. As I understand this enigmatic injunction, we need to find our own path to creating, not seek or follow others' paths. Which isn't to preclude great draughts of inspiration from the alchemy they...
The eyes have it
An imaginative description of an otter's reaction to the firstborn of her first litter. Williamson spent years studying otters before and while attempting to recreate their lives and feelings in writing. A masterpiece of human empathy for another...
Treading water
Tarka's mother cleverly entices her cubs into the water, first by putting the food she has caught close to the water, then teaching them to hunt for themselves by various feints and incentives. Water is their element but there is a momentary fear when they...
Long term thinking
A family gathering for the christening of the heir to the Gormenghast title, Titus, appears to be the first time this disfunctional family gets together since the christening of his now 15 year old sister. Here, Lady Groan, Countess of Gormenghast, seeing...
A thinking breakfast
This is one of two delightful quotations from Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan in which the characters mention their need to think. Here we have 15 year old Fuchsia, daughter of the Earl of Gormenghast, eccentric but saner than many of the adults around her,...
Zeus dispenses with practicalities
Zeus here neatly rebuffs his daughter Athene's requests. I like his suitably arch reaction, which puts all supplicants in their petty place, even gorgeous goddesses, allowing the god of gods to just hang out on Olympus undisturbed. ‘Child, I am God, Please...
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