An excellent precaution
Long gone the days of bedbugs and room tics, when a lady might think to travel with her own linen. Still, something in the wording suggests a wryness in Jane Austen's view of such fastidiousness.'She always travels with her own sheets; an excellent...
Call him Titus
Baby Titus, born into a crumbling, rambling pile of stone, with parents of a warmth and tenderness approximately equivalent to the building material of their castle. Here is his mother, prescribing his care for the first five years of his life, at which...
I shall teach the boy…
The Countess of Gormenghast ponders her personal curriculum for her newborn son, after despatching him to a régime of nanny-care for the first five years of his life. She clearly has higher hopes for him than for his neglected sister.Her capacity for love...
Where every word starts with ‘a’
I love Mandelstam's poetic summary of place, here the city of Sukhum, where he says every word starts with A and you should start your study of Caucasian alphabets. 'Sukhum: a city of mourning, tobacco, and fragrant vegetable oils. Here is where one...
Footing the bullet bill
This is half funny, half awful - your country of birth, having given you the death sentence, hounds you in exile with bills to cover the cost of your eventual execution. In the event, they left him in (one) peace. He was, by the way, the Principal...
Argumentative authenticity
You can't help admiring people said to be as authentic as argumentative, including in themselves, and in their art and architecture. This from a slender, entertaining and masterful look at one of the great Roman poets, and his continuing relevance to our...
Appreciation is a better mode for the understanding of achievement than are all the analytical kinds of accounting for the emergence of exceptional individuals. Appreciation may judge, but always with gratitude, and frequently with awe and wonder. Â
By ‘appreciation’ I mean something more than ‘adequate esteem’. Need also enters into it, in the particular sense of turning to the genius of others in order to redress a lack in oneself, or finding in genius a stimulus to one’s own powers, whatever these may emerge as being.
Source: Harold Bloom, Genius (London: Fourth Estate, 2002), p. 5
A page per year
Taleb is an erudite and provocative writer, sometimes coming across as intellectually arrogant, though always interesting. Here he shows a healthy sign of self-deprecation which I found entertaining. He's published a few bestsellers, but it doesn't seem...
On living forever
Listening time: 2 minutes. This long and winding quotation enchanted me to the extent that I wrote it out by hand some 20-30 times and sent individual copies to as many friends. It is one of a small trove of prose quotations I’ve learned by heart, to recite at dawn to...
On hearing Beethoven for the first time
Listening time: 4 minutes. A favourite quotation from a favourite novel, Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, reviewed here (soon also available in audio).In print, it can look dauntingly long, so it is the perfect candidate for the first WritingRedux...
No summer is long enough
Referring to the Arctic, where the summers are short and the winters long, this rueful statement made me think about our own longer summers and how they can fill your reservoirs with light and warmth to carry you through the darker, colder months. 'No...
A single moment, a lifelong memory
This spare and tender novel captures a simple gesture in a passing moment and how it haunts someone for life. These moments can change everything, or simply reveal needs and dreams deeply buried.'"Another one?" the young woman asked, and Egger nodded. She...
Frogs around a pond
I liked Socrates' image of the Mediterranean, that great big watery basin, as a pond around which we live like frogs.'We live round a sea,' Socrates had told his Athenian friends, 'like frogs round a pond.'Â Â Â Source: Quoted in Peter Brown, The World of...
Of science and art
Someone spotted this on a wall at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), a bastion of cutting edge science, and therefore intriguing to see how they position it in relation to art. 'Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a...
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 from it, and...
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. Â 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 most people,...
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 Astronomer...
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 sad quotation...
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 towardsAll people when they judge at too great pace ...Our...
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 parve di...
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 sprawling work...
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 have been...
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, possibility.'Can...
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, hostility is...
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 were as bad...
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 10)See also our...
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 know'. 'Name your...
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 -Bad...
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 with such a...
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 off-shoot. 'Doubt is...
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 others to...
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 should be the...
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 kindnesses.Long...
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 would have...
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. Â 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 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 over. I liked...
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 the naming of...
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 from Logue's...
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...
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