Tree of Life

Between my lastname, my streetname, nature, air, books--trees are a big part of my life. Trying to keep them alive while living in the concrete jungle.

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"But then books, as I’m sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action. Books generally just confirm you in what you already have, perhaps unwittingly, decided to do already. You go to a book to have your convictions corroborated. A book, as it were, closes the book."

An Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett

"‘And I hate to tell you,’ he said, ‘but I think that once you have a fair idea where you want to go, your first move will be to apply yourself in school. You’ll have to. You’re a student—whether the idea appeals to you or not. You’re in love with knowledge. And I think you’ll find, once you get past all the Mr. Vinsons, you’re going to start getting closer and closer—that is, if you want to, and if you look for it and wait for it— to the kind of information that will be very, very dear to your heart. Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them-if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.’"

The Catcher in the Rye

Yet, even as he takes pleasure in poking holes in an innocent idealism, Vaillant says his hopeful temperament is best summed up by the story of a father who on Christmas Eve puts into one son’s stocking a fine gold watch, and into another son’s, a pile of horse manure. The next morning, the first boy comes to his father and says glumly, “Dad, I just don’t know what I’ll do with this watch. It’s so fragile. It could break.” The other boy runs to him and says, “Daddy! Daddy! Santa left me a pony, if only I can just find it!

A great article on how everyone’s different: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true

Beautiful Literary Quotes

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