Sam Reviews "The Leadership Secrets of Oz" by BJ Gallagher

This was an interesting little book.  It has a number of good points, interesting references to the story of Oz, and original art from the Oz books as well.  I think the tips in this book are solid, although I feel also commonly talked about.  However, my favorite tidbits tended to be quotes by people other than the author.  This was a quick and informative read with some interesting critical thinking questions.

"If your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt." - Henry Kaiser

"Actions speak louder than words and people watch what you do more than listen to what you say."

"If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.  Do good anyway.
"If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.  Succeed anyway.
"The good you so today will be forgotten tomorrow.  Do good anyway.
"Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.  Be honest and frank anyway.
"The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.  Think big anyway.
"People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.  Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
"What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.  Build anyway.
"People really need help but may attack you of you do help them.  Help people anyway.
"Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.  Give the world the best you have anyway."
- Kent Keith

Sam Reviews: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson

I would like to start by saying, when this story was all over everywhere, I had no idea the book was a crime novel.  I used to gobble these up like candy in middle school (mature content be damned) and may have even enjoyed this book more at that time in my life.  I'm honestly quite shocked that a foreign crime novel got so much attention.  I was extremely interested in half the story (the Chronicle if you will) but the other half (the financial bits) I found pretty boring.  As accomplished as I felt for finishing this book, the last 60 or so pages were pretty lame.  I have very mixed feelings regarding Mikael Blomkvist, but the ending really left a bad taste in my mouth for him.  I also wanted to note that I find it interesting that (I believe) Lisbeth Salander is the "main character" (the character the title revers too at least) but in reading the book, if I hadn't known the title I would have assumed Blomkvist was the main character.  With that in mind I am curious to know how / where the other two books go as their titles strongly imply Salander's presence but not necessarily Blomkvist's.  Over all I managed to read through this pretty quickly, and it is quite a lengthy book compared to my usual reads, so there was something endearing about the mystery and the characters themselves.  I do intend to finish the trilogy but ... I'm not sure how soon that will happen.

"Leviticus, 20:18 - If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood; both if them shall be cut off from among their people."

"Maybe he's just a square peg in a round hole who happens to be poisoning the atmosphere."

"He's pulling the load of an ox and walking on eggshells."

"'What do you need me for?'  [Her] greatest fear, which was so huge and so black that it was of phobic proportions, was that people would laugh at her feelings.  And all of a sudden all her carefully constructed self-confidence seemed to crumble."

Sam Reviews "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte

I genuinely enjoyed this story so much more than I ever could have anticipated.  There was a slight struggle with dialect and language since this was written so long ago, but once you're in the thick of the story it's easy to get past all of that.  I don't really imagine I will reread this very often but I can recommend it to anyone who's considered reading it.

"I know, by instinct, his reserve springs from an aversion to showy displays of feeling - to manifestations of mutual kindliness.  He'll love and hate equally under cover, and esteem it a species of impertinence to be loved or hated again."

"Many could not imagine the existence of happiness in a life of such complete exile from the world as you spend."

"I don't remember another [terrible night] that I can at all compare with it since I was capable of suffering."

"Terror made me cruel."

"I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town.  A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself."

"It is strange people should be so greedy, when they are alone in the world!"

"[She] grumbled herself calm."

"[She] was to mischievous and wayward for a favorite [child]."

"[His words] made her cry, at first; and then, being repulsed continually hardened her, and she laughed if I told her to be sorry for her faults and beg to be forgiven."

"'Why canst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy?'
"'Why cannot you always be a good man, Father?'"

"The little souls were comforting each other with better thoughts than I could have hit on; no parson in the world ever pictured heaven so beautifully as they did."

"They were full of stupid admiration; she is so immeasurably superior to them - to everybody on earth."

"Proud people make sorrows for themselves."

"It is for God to punish wicked people; we should learn to forgive."

"Let me alone, and I'll plan [my revenge] out; while I'm thinking of that I don't feel pain."

"A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o' clock, runs the chance of leaving the other half undone."

"She was full of ambition, and led her to adopt a double character without exactly trying to deceive anyone."

"Sit down; you shall not leave me in that temper.  I should be miserable all night, and I won't be miserable for you!"

"I love him because he's more myself than I am.  Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightening, or frost from fire."

"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger; I should not seem a part of it."

"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods:  time will change it; I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees.  My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath - a source of little visible delight, but necessary."

"I kissed Hateton goodbye; and since then he has been a stranger, and it's very queer to think it, but I've no doubt he has completely forgotten about Ellen Dean, and that be was ever more than all the world to her, and she to him!"

"Well, we must be for ourselves in the long run; the mild and generous are only more justly selfish than the domineering; and it ended when circumstances caused each to feel that the one's interest was not the chief consideration in the other's thoughts."

"My soul will be on that hilltop before you lay hands on me again.  I don't want you, Edgar, I'm past wanting you.  Return to your books. I'm glad you possess a consolation, for all you had in me is gone."

"Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living."

"She abandoned them under a delusion, picturing in me a hero of romance, and expecting unlimited indulgences from my chivalrous devotion.  I can hardly regard her in the light of a rational creature, so obstinately has she persisted in forming a fabulous notion of my character, and acting on the false impressions she cherished."

"Would you like to live with your soul in the grave."

"It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands.  Kiss me again and don't let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me.  I love my murderer - but yours! How can I?"

"Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends - they wound those who resort to them, worse than their enemies."

"She was a happy creature, and an angel, in those days.  It's a pity she could not be content."

"Good words.  But deeds must prove it also; and after he is well, remember you don't forget resolutions formed in the hour of fear."

Sam Reviews "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

I loved this story so much more than I thought I would.  I put off reading this because I assumed I would be bored by the unfamiliar culture and traditions.  But, honestly this is just a well written and interesting story that just so happens to mention and explain Afghanistan culture.  I found myself addicted to this story and I was disappointed on days I couldn't find time to continue it.  I've had a few friends tell me that A Thousand Splendid Suns is better so I'm so excited to read that story soon cuz I loved this one so much.

"It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it.  Because the past claws its way out."

"There is a way to be good again."

"The problem, of course, was that Baba saw the world in black and white.  And he got to decide what was black and what was white.  You can't love a person who lives that way without fearing him too.  Maybe even hating him a little."

"There is only one sin, only one.  And that is theft.  Every other sin is a variation of theft.  When you kill a man, you steal a life.  You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father.  When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth.  When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness."

"Children aren't coloring books.  You don't get to fill them in with your favorite colors."

"A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything."

"Didn't all fathers in their secret hearts harbor a desire to kill their sons?"

"To this day, I find it hard to gaze directly at people who mean every word they say."

"That's the thing about people who mean everything they say.  They think everyone else does too."

"Coming close wasn't the same as winning, was it? ... Winners won and everyone else just went home."

"Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie."

"He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him."

"How could I be such an open book to him when, half the time, I had no idea what was milling around in his head?  I was the one who went to school, the one who could read, write. I was the smart one.  Hassan couldn't read a first-grade textbook but he'd read me plenty.  That was a little unsettling, but also sort of comfortable to have someone who always knew what you needed."

"It was [her] and me against the world.  And I'll tell you this: In the end, the world always wins."

"There is no shame in war."

"Sad stories make good books."

"I envied her.  Her secret was out.  Spoken.  Dealt with."

"Every woman needed a husband.  Even if he did silence the song in her."

"A big part of the reason I didn't care about [her] past was that I had one of my own.  I knew all about regret."

"It wasn't meant to be.  Or, maybe, it was meant not to be."

"Time can be a greedy thing - sometimes it steals all the details for itself."

"I knew it was better to be miserable than rude."

"How seamless love seemed and then came trouble."  - Hafez

"The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts."

"What was the old saying about the bad penny? My past was like that, always turning up."

"A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer."

"I believe true redemption is when guilt leads to good."

"Perspective was a luxury when your head was constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons."

"Lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty."

"Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end, crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis."

"I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare if epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night."

Sam Reviews "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

Mostly I'm just confused.  The story wasn't bad, though I did find the writing style challenging at times.  The writing style honestly reminded me of American Psycho which is another book I didn't necessarily love.   I'm so curious why this is considered such a classic and necessary part of do many literature curriculums.

"What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse."

I guess "giving a girl the time" used to be a euphemism for sex.

"Almost everytime somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad."

"Sensitive. That killed me. That guy Morrow was about as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat."

"I gave her a good look. She didn't look like any dope to me. She looked like she might have a pretty damn good idea what a bastard she was the mother of. But you can't always tell--with somebody's mother, I mean. Mothers are all slightly insane."

"I had her glued to her seat. You take somebody's mother, all they want to hear about is what a hot-shot their son is."

"That's the thing about girls.  Every time they do something pretty even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are."

"I never did find out what the hell was the matter.  Some girls you practically never find out what's the matter."

"New York's terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night.  You can hear it for miles.  It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed."

"The thing is, it's really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs - if yours are really good ones and theirs aren't.  You think if they're intelligent and all, the other person, and have a good sense of humor, that they don't give a damn whose suitcases are better, but they do."

"[Money] always ends up making you blue as hell."

"All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to."

Sam Reviews: "The Glass Castle: A Memoir" by Jeannette Walls

Amazing.  I figured this would be a good memoir with unique stories but boy what an understatement.  Even though this is written from one person's perspective, I truly felt empathy for each person and I cried for the last 20 pages of the book.  I don't know what more to say than, everyone should read this book.  I'm so grateful my dear friend Alley shared this with me and encouraged me to read it sooner rather than later.

"Dark is a way and light is a place, Heaven that never was Nor will be ever is always true." - Dylan Thomas, "Poem on His Birthday"

Interesting to note that the author capitalizes Dumpster when describing the scene of her mother going through it.

"I'd tried to make a home for myself here, tried to turn the apartment into the sort of place where the person I wanted to be would live."

"What could I do? I'd tried to help them countless times, but Dad would insist they didn't need anything,and Mom would ask for something silly, like a perfume atomizer or a membership in a health club. They said that they were living the way they wanted to."

Not to imply it isn't dangerous to allow a three year old to cook on a stove, but sometimes it's amazing what people can judge after a moment.  My mom always talks about how my brother knew how to cook macaroni and cheese for himself before he was 5 (may not have been 3 but younger than 5) and I never thought that was "wrong" or "inappropriate".  My brother never had a major accident, like burning the better part of his body, but things like that happen all the time, so I wonder how wrong it really is to let a child cook at an early age.

"Twenty-­three men had already proposed to her, Mom told Dad, and she had turned them all down.  'What makes you think I'd accept your proposal?' she asked.
"'I didn't propose to you,' Dad said. 'I told you I was going to marry you.'  Six months later, they got married.  I always thought it was the most romantic story I'd ever heard, but Mom didn't like it.  She didn't think it was romantic at all."

"Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you, she said.  It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried."

"What I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire.  It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes."

"That was the thing to remember about all monsters, Dad said:  They love to frighten people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run.

"You'd be destroying what makes it special, it's the Joshua Tree's struggle that gives it its beauty."

"What could you expect, from an institution run by celibate men who wore dresses."  [in reference to Catholicism]

"Life's a drama full of tragedy and comedy.  You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more."

"Erma can't let go of her misery, it's all she knows."

"Maybe it's because life there was hard and it made people hard."

"Our trips reminded me how easy it was to pick up and move on when the urge struck.  Once you'd resolved to go there was nothing to it at all."

"It seemed to make him feel like he was doing what a father should, plucking up his daughter's courage, helping her face the terrors of the unknown."

"I wondered if he was remembering how he, too, had left Welch full of vinegar at age seventeen and just as convinced as I was now that he'd never return.  I wondered if he was hoping that his favorite girl would come back, or if he was hoping that, unlike him, she would make it out for good."

"We both stood a better chance if we took on the world together."

"I think that maybe sometimes people get the lives they want."

"She looked across the table and smiled at me with the smile you give people when you know you have the answers to all their questions."

"They'd stumbled on an entire community of people like themselves, people who lived unruly lives battling authority and who liked it that way.  After all those years of roaming, they'd found home."

Sam Reviews "A Bend in the Road" by Nicholas Sparks

I'm not sure if age has jaded me or if one author can only write so many breathtaking romance novels but, to me, this was a miss.  I didn't feel any type of way about the love between the main couple and so I didn't feel compelled to root for them through their conflicts.  Speaking of conflicts, every conflict in this book - especially the most important one - seemed far too quickly resolved.  I struggled to be interested in this book even after the initial scene setting and character introductions.  I'm sure I will read other Nicholas Sparks novels but I will not be re-reading this one.

"There was an innocent ring to [her laugh], the kind he associated with children who had yet to realize that the world wasn't simply fun and games."

"Staring at her, he couldn't help but imagine that her words were either an invitation or a promise."

"Charlie suspected that I'd been trying to say that I was sorry [by covering her body with a blanket], and looking back, I think that was part of it.  But the other part was that I simply didn't want anyone to see her the way that I had.  So I covered her up, as if covering my own sin."

"There is a path one takes when moving toward destruction."

"I don't want to be a grown-up.  Grown-ups always say things are complicated."

Sam Reviews "The Pepsi Signs" by James Hansen

I struggled with this book.  The plot was interesting but I find the writing style tiresome. Also there was a lot of redundant descriptions and repeating chunks of monologue.  There were many unexpected twists and turns and moments of high intrigue but I think this particular genre isn't for me.

"Their conversation was not heated but I could tell there were mixed emotions banging back and forth.  Impatience has a certain tinge to it."

"God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason."

"Like any good idea, it was easy to understand."

"I know what it feels like to be in prison.  ...the feelings of a person who has lost the capacity to dream of escape, of freedom regained.  No hope at all of escape to freedom, no escape from the toil of another dreamless day where your every move is analyzed, scrutinized, and your daily routine determined by others."

"And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the wide sweep of the rivers, and the circuit of the ocean, and the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not." - Saint Augustine

"The key to happiness and a fulfilled life was to have as strong and peaceful and just a soul as possible."

"Such fools men were, especially when it came to women who would never love them back."

"She cut him like a stiletto made out of glacial ice when she spoke."

"Ignore them until they disturb your own sense of peace and harmony or until you discover that they are more than [curse/swear] words but a true representation of one's philosophy of life at a bitter moment.  Then either turn the speaker around to a truer path or throw them out."

"Glaring at him with more contempt than any mere man could summon from the deepest, darkest part of his soul."

"People of no honor, no morals, and they Re drawn to you like flies to a dead body and you think this validates your existence and your worth."

"You chose your path and you can't allow yourself to get upset with how it has turned out because you can't unwind the spool of time and go backwards to fix it."

"No one argued with her much anymore because as far as she knew, she hadn't been wrong about anything, ever.  She could convince you that two plus two equaled five just by wearing you down."

"Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave."  -Prophet Muhammad

"The arguments were profound and loud as they tore the family apart."

"Nothing, absolutely not a fucking thing remains the same, even when it's perfect."

"I think I know you except of course for the well of information that every woman keeps hidden from a man."

"They said good-bye to their love affair, a sad moment for most, but not for them as the memories of their excitement and the purity of their days together would in the future help them overcome any negative wave that came their way."

"Those are the most dangerous kind [of women], those lonely ones."

"He truly only wanted to have a perfectly nice day out on the town with Laura so they would always have just that...in case their friendship would remain forever what it had been for the past ten years.  Let her take the subway home.  At least tomorrow, he would give her a first date that her next ten lovers would never match."

"He turned on his heel and walked away, never turning back to her for any kind of final look.  And she knew that if they turn around to look, they are truly interested in you."

"Chance favors the prepared mind."  - Louis Pasteur

"Michael knew he was a successful man by most standards, but he also carried with him the burden of believing that somewhere, somehow, greatness awaited him.  And he hungered for it, an escape from the ordinary."

"A bored girl is a dangerous girl."

"Show me a good woman and I'll show you a man who's tired of sleeping with her."

"Most people have as much brains as God gives a goose."

"I always believed that there are only solutions in life.  There aren't any problems worth worrying about.  If it's cancer, then you have to worry.  But not all the rest of the shit that clogs our minds every day, thwarting our progress, our pursuit of happiness.  Things you did in the past, things you didn't do.  Decisions you wish you could have another chance to make differently, what a waste of time.  You didn't take that job because you didn't have the nerve to try.  You didn't marry that young man or young lady because you didn't love him or her enough.  You didn't leave them sooner than you should have because you didn't want to take charge of your own life."

Sam Reviews "The Blood of Innocents" by Guy Reel, Marc Perrusquia, and Bartholomew Sullivan

So many years ago, probably around 2010 or 2013, my sister gifted me some true crime novels she thought I would be interested in.  They were added to my quickly growing pile of "To Be Read" books that I very clearly never got around to.  This book is actually about a notorious trial of The Memphis Three, a trial that found 3 teens guilty of murder with literally zero actual evidence.  This book was written in 1993, around the time when the sentence was actually applied.

I actually just recently found out about this case after falling down a rabbit hole about the Dixie Chicks conspiracy because one of the singers spoke out on behalf of the teens in 2001 or so.  So I did a Google search and realized this was actually a huge deal and I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it before.  There are three movies called Paradise Lost (with various subtitles) which were released in 1993, 2001, and 2012 respectively.

Reading this book after watching all three movies is interesting.  Not only because I know how the story "ends" if you will, but also just the time shock, which is only further proven by statements such as, "Under Arkansas law, Luminol test results are not admissible in court because they are considered unreliable, suggestive, and highly prejudicial."  A lot of reviews on Goodreads rate this book as 1 Star simply because of it's bias.  Upon finishing the book, I don't know where people got the idea that there was a bias at all.  I feel that this book was far more in depth that the "Paradise Lost" documentary, and it had accounts for many more people, which only went to show how confusing this case was and how insubstantial the evidence was.

For a true crime novel, I actually found this one more enjoyable to read than most.  Of course, it's strange reading a book that is 20 years old about a case that has already been revisited and resolved, but regardless I'm glad I got this additional point of view on the case.  Since I'm prone to falling down rabbit holes, I will also be trying to find interviews on YouTube and will be watching the film "The Devil's Knot" soon enough, and hopefully I'll find a way to watch "West of Memphis" soon, too.

Sam Reviews: "Courage my Love" by Merle Shain

"Psychoanalysts believe that if a baby has a good relationship with the breast he grows up to feel gratitude and learns to love.  But if the breast eludes him as often as it gives succor and relief, he feels anger and fear and learns envy and guilt and hate."

"If he ends up having to beg for what he needs, he learns more than just not to love, he learns to fear needing love, and to resent anyone who has that power over him."

"You can look the country over, searching for someone who sees the person you want to believe you are, but in the end, if you don't give yourself approval they won't be able to do much anything for you, no matter how much you try."

"The world was always yours, you would not take it.  Reach out your hand to yourself and it is yours."  -Archibald MacLeish

"You want to be in love all the time.  It's not possible to have romance every day in a longstanding relationship.  I can give you contentment and loyalty and enough security so you can grow.  But I can't give you excitement, I can't promise to admire you each and every day.  And while we would have, I hope, little renaissances along the way, there would not be that beating heart excitement which you seem to crave."

"Human love is based in every day, not fantasies or illusions.  It acknowledges the other person as a separate person and even loves them for their imperfections, for their vulnerabilities and their incompleteness, abd allows them to change and to grow.  It seeks to honor, not to use, to empower, not to overpower, and when it fails, it just gets cranky, it does not blow a fuse."

"In that world we all seek, that world of gifts given and gifts received, that world where there is goodness of fit, where there is always someone to catch our fall, the name of trust goes hand in hand with love."

"Respect is love in plain clothes, someone once said, and so is acceptance and understanding and really being known."

"There are people who idealize others as a way of solacing themselves, and others who keep you on a treadmill, auditioning for their approval, but always seem to keep the approval strangely in reserve.  And there are people who seem to always be in crisis, but it's hard to find a person who gives as good as they get or one who loves you for yourself."

"Intimacy requires accommodation and gentleness at the core."

"There is no intimacy unless there is mutual acceptance and mutual trust, no matter whatever else there is."

"One can make deals, or one can make love.  A deal asks back and love gives away and a contract has to be paid.  But love never comes due, because once given away, it always comes back to you."

"There was a time when we needed each other for support, both financial and domestic, but each sex can those things pretty well for themselves today.  Emotional support is the only thing we really need each other for now.  And if we aren't able to do that for each other, there won't be any reason to be together at all."

"Many of us have been sidelined bht violations so commonplace we can hardly find a friend to listen to us when we need to vent."

"The contract between men and women is entirely different now.  Nobody promises to love, honor, and obey any more.  At best, they promise to give it their best shot.  In a society in which fear of commitment has reached epidemic proportions, marriage is considered the last of the romantic gestures.  A triumph of hope over experience, and most people prefer to live together making bargains rather than promises."

"I don't want to be patient anymore.  And I don't want to be impatient either.  I want to be treated fairly.  And I don't want any more points for denying my needs."

Sam Reviews: "Hearts That We Broke Long Ago" by Merle Shain

"For my son - should he ever wonder if I loved him enough and my father who I never got to tell how much I did."

"Why, if she wished to drown herself, she was torturing herself with shallow waters."

"Whether the melon falls on the knife or the knife falls on the melon, it's the melon that suffers."

"Some of us hurl ourselves at life, and others crouch and wait for it to roll up over us, but you can usually tell who it is who is taking on life and who it is who is fending it off and whether this is a new game or whether it is old."

"The first person she ever loved was her father whom she could never please, and this man she was trying so hard to won, the one with the iron band locked around his heart, was just a substitute for him, someone with whom she could plat at trying to please her father still."

"It has been said that women of our generation 'grew up to be the men they always wanted to marry'."

"I am a part of all that I have met, and so, my friend, are you, and most of hd would have skipped a chapter here and there if we were the ones to choose.  But in the end it doesn't matter how what happened to you made you what you are today, only if you want to be there, and if it feeds you enough for you to stay."

"The girl who can't dance says the band can't play."

"No one is cheated in this world, unless it's by himself."

"When you want to, there are many ways to give hostages fortune, many ways to be sucked like a firefly to the flame, so those who fear abandonment find someone new to abandon them over and over again, and those who feel unworthy ask to be humbled, and the world always answers their prayers."

"According to [Hasidic Jews], on Judgement Day, each person will be invited to hang from the Tree of Sorrows all of his own miseries, and that done, he will be given permission to walk around the tree and survey everyone else's miseries in order to select a set he likes better.  ...  'Take what you want,' said God, 'and pay for it.'"

"It doesn't matter if you are chained by a golden chain or an iron one if it holds you in a place that is doing you harm."

"All things are possible and nothing safe."

"No one goes forward who hasn't finished with the past, and those, who try to, keep coming out the same door they went in."

"Despair is anger with no place to go, pain that has gone deep inside and dug in deep."

"Fears fight wars, and conquer worlds, build temples and bank accounts, get married and raise kids, but those who fear are always planning their defenses and their retreat, never living life, just escaping, never loving, only weeping."

"The answer doesn't lie in learning how to protect yourself from life.  It lies in learning how to strengthen yourself so you can let a bit more in."

"Why must I pretend to scorn in order to pity?  Why must I hide myself in self-contempt in order to understand? Why must I be so ashamed if my strength, so proud of weakness?  Why must I live in a cage like a criminal, defying and hating, I who love peace and friendship? Why was I born without a skin?  O God, that I must wear armor in order to touch or be touched."  Eugene O'Neill "The Great God Brown"

"Sometimes when a child doesn't get what he needs when he is small an anger develops deep within him because he feels unsupported, and hence frightened and alone.  And because the road between fear and hate is such a short one, many people travel over it without ever leaving home."

"We all need love, and want it, and fear to get it too.  Fear that if it comes, is to accept our need for it and give it power over us.  So many people spend their lives trying to dissuade themselves of their needs, and they ask for love in a thousand places and spit to windward when it answers their call."

"As long as you blame someone it makes the problem not yours but theirs, and allows you to keep it without taking responsibility for anything but pointing the finger.  Which means you give them responsibility for your life and paralyze yourself forever in a place you don't want to be."


"When you are continually seeking the privileged place of the favored child, you are trading off acceptance of yourself as you actually are for an idealized image of the person you wish you were, which means judging yourself by higher standards than you'd set for anyone else.  So you're always finding yourself wanting, always letting yourself down, and your overblown evo always lets you know."

"I can handle hurts of many kinds, the challenges galore.  It's kindness I have trouble with, and tenderness from someone I could love that always makes me cry.  I suppose the joy reminds."

"Unexpected emotions are a good way to figure out what hurts.  Tempers that flare about unimportant things, tears that appear at odd times when we don't expect them, tell us what we feel even when we aren't telling ourselves."

"Our North American culture, more than any other, thrusts independence on us at an early age, and needs for community and affection and dependence are sacrificed to the god of standing tall.  Which means that a lot of people who needed to be protected when they were small got pushed from the nest too soon and had to learn to lool after themselves.  But often what they learned to protect themselves from was their own needs, needs that were never wrong."


"Fear is not love.  Nor os love dependence, jealousy, possessiveness, domination, responsibility, duty, self-pity, or any of thr other things that conventionally pass for love."

"All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own, just as by our actions we create the world we live in, what we send into the world is out there to greet us on the morrow when we go out to see."


"Thank you for the gift of my life and for helping me develop the strength to be a giver.  I realize now that it is a privilege to be able to give."

"No one can have too many people in their life who love them, only not enough."

"Cynicism is a form of cowardice, a failure of courage to hope."

"To hope is to set yourself up for a possible loss, so many people deny their hopes and by so doing detach themselves from shat they want, not recognizing that hope is a forward scout on the path of time, and without it there is no tomorrow, there is not even much to be said for today."

"I don't know where we got the idea that it is an either/or situation, that it's freedom or commitment, personal growth or responsibility, and that if we choose commitment it will be our loss and not our gain.  Because one grows in commitment, one doesn't diminish.

Sam Reviews "When Lovers Are Friends" by Merle Shain

I'm not sure if the title is misleading, or if this author's philosophy is that all people we care about are "lovers" but not necessarily "sexual lovers".  This books is about friendship, not about relationships, but I still feel like there is a lot of great information and metaphors in this book.  I continue to be impressed by how powerful her words are while being so simply written and quick to read.

"For my friends whom I need not name as they know who they are and what they mean to me."

"Love is short, forgetting's long, and understanding takes longer still."

"Independence carried to the furthest extreme is just loneliness and death, nothing more than another defense, and there is no growth in it, only a safe harbour for a while."

"We are a society of winners where almost everybody feels himself a loser, where but i clothes and size of genitalia as well as make of car tell us who we are.  We are youth cult where everyone is made to feel old, a live cult where far too many feel unloved.  And because we set up life so it hurts, most of us hurt a lot."

"Perhaps it's because we are all so desperate for love that we believe if ever it comes to us we will be happy evermore, and when it comes along we pay with the self we had for the love we want."

"If you are you, and we are us, then who is it that's I?"

"Marriage has done terrible things to friendship in the name of love."

"The search for the perfect other is always search for what we lack.  And the reason that we never find them is because the search goes on as long as we feel inadequate ourselves."

"We all have defenses we use more than wr need, and for everything they protect us from they cost us something more.  Defenses come in many forms, many more than I can name, and while some of them are more primitive than others, they all keep the world away from us just the same."

"As the story began to unfold it became clear that the man who he thought was championing his cause was really the problem and that without him it wouldn't exist.  The young man was up for promotion, which meant he would pass out of the older man's control, so the older man invented a problem that only he could solve.  He told the young man how much opposition there was to his appointment, how many people there were who didn't want him around.  And then when the young man was appointed, the older man took a lot of bows for managing the impossible.  And the young man felt grateful as well as dependent, so the older professor didn't have to worry about losing his control over him for a while."

"Getting control over others has a lot to do with making them feel weak.  You can make them feel indebted or make them feel inadequate in yet some other way."

"Many a person who kept another from growing up and away then found they had to carry that person for the rest of their days."

"We often fear being rejected so very much that we reject ourselves first before anyone else has the chance."

"Some people don't have to wait for others to accept them but accept themselves first, while others - no matter how much love they get - stand begging forever at a door they themselves have closed."

"If you must seek approval, choose the right audience to seek it from, and if you don't like what you hear get another opinion, get two or three.  And when someone wants you to be what you aren't or refuses you permission to be who you are, try to understand that is their problem, really, and you don't have to make it yours.  And don't let anyone tell you you have to be perfect to be loved, because that simply isn't true.  If the people in your life only love you if you put on a false front, they don't love you at all, so you haven't much to lose."

"Some people let others define them because they need their approval so much they are willing to let them call the shots, and others do it because they are so lacking in self-worth they are afraid that if anyone found out who they really were they would be rejected out of hand.  But if being honest means that occasionally you give yourself away by acknowledging limitations in yourself that someone might have missed before, well, that's only as bad as you consider it to be."

"There is something terrifying about learning that someone you'd always felt to be much more courageous than yourself has given up the fight."

"It is much easier to be courageous when people are applauding you than when you are in defeat.  And many of us who pass as brave when a crowd is all waving hats would crumble if they turned on us and started throwing rocks."

"A girl I know has been married since she was very young to a man she has loved since she was a child, and she has a life that in almost every way is story-book perfect and unblemished by hurt of any kind.  But she isn't half as strong within herself as other friends of mine who have had some bad days mixed in with the good.  And although I have heard others say they envy her and that they wish their lives had been so blessed, the fact is that she is very insecure at times, and as the years go by she worries more and more about how she would survive if her husband wasn't by her side."

"A lot of people get confused when they listen to a friend about what the purpose of that listening is, and feel they should do something to help out.  So they either take their friend's life away from them or, trying so hard to pull them from the hole they're in, fall inside themselves."

"There seem to be three main streams to life - the emotional, the sensual, and the rational - and all of us are made up of all these three, although in differing amounts.  ...  I don't know how we become lopsided or what causes one skein in the braid to become thicker than the rest - whether we back away from what we are afraid of, or go with the part of us that functions best.  I only know that most people grow more in one way than in others, and the side of them which is the most developed, determines their life.  And because this is the case, the side of them which is the most developed also dictates the kind of friend they make."

"It takes a long time to understand that there is no relationship which is all-supporting, only those which help you grow stronger in yourself.  So a lot of people never realize how important it is to have real friends or how crucial they can be even if you have a mate."

"I wish that men understood better the value of friendship as women are coming to know it now, because too often they still see other people as things to be conquered or held off.  Men have allies and they have enemies, but only a few of them really have friends."

"We are an achievement-oriented society, so a lot of men put their energy into getting ahead and being a success, postponing closeness with other human beings as if it were a luxury they couldn't afford just yet, and they complain a lot about all the work there is to do as if the priorities were set by someone else.  And many of them think of fulfillment as something to be found in money, wealth, success, and applause and don't learn until it's too late that the only wealth that really counts is having loving friends."

"I don't think you could have done me much more harm if you had hated me.  How odd that you should think of that as love."

"You don't get from friends what you give to them, you get what they have to give."

"You will save yourself a lot of grief if you keep in mind that you don't have you for a friend, however much you might wish you did.  You have that person out there instead.  Perhaps you will take chicken soup to a friend who is sick, and they will forget your birthday just the same.  Or maybe you will have them to your parties and they will give none to which you might be asked.  But maybe they will hand you a piece of truth one day, in a sentence tossed off with a sidelong glance, and if it's something you couldn't have found inside yourself, you will have been repaid in full."

"Life doesn't consist of total people.  It consists of moments, moments which are gifts that you can pick up and hang like pearls around your neck, but no one will hand them to you.  You have to supply the string in order to hug them to yourself."

"We are all essentially alone, and sometimes the people whom you love can make it through, and sometimes they can't get to you no matter how much they try."

"The people in one's life are like the pillars on one's porch you see life through.  And sometimes they hold you up, and sometimes they lean on you, and sometimes it is just enough to know they're standing by."

Sam Reviews "Some Men Are More Perfect Than Others" by Merle Shain

It's kind of amazing to read something written in the 70s that seems so relevant today. We are living in the future she was hoping for (though we've still got some improving to do). This feels somewhat self-help style but in a very casual and easy to read way. Can't wait to dive into more of her writing.

"Men are supposed to fear loving because they fear dependency and truly loving always involves surrender of power. ... So most men opt for security in lieu of feeling and call their decision maturity."

"Loving someone because you failed to love someone else isn't the same as loving them for themselves."

"Loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life."

"The value of a man is the sum of his commitments ... and men who are loving make their women bloom.  And because one of the best reasons for loving anyone is that they love you, men who understand that love is like the kind of flowers that grow more the more one gives away, are loved a lot, and men who do not water their gardens do not have roses to love."

"Women need men to love them so they can love them back."

"Our times are obsessed with finding fulfillment, so there are times when people try too hard, and there are people who want to have the newest feelings just as there are those who want to have the latest model car.  You can't play at love any more than you can be proud of your humility, or add water to your perfume and expect it to smell the same."

"One can get obsessions about people who give and then take away.  Then what the lover doesn't have he seeks for obsessively until the seeking becomes a replacement for the loved object and is more satisfying still."

"There are men who are addicted to the magic of falling in love, and the ego-aggrandizing, intoxicating splendor of it s all, and never learn that loving is better still.  For them there is no help for a love that is losing its excitement but to fall in love again, with someone else - and when that too loses it's intensity with someone else again."

"Loving acknowledges the differences between people and helps each person to grow, and while it's unpredictable, and sporadic, because it's a process of exchange, generally lovers who are loving are more self-approving, yet less selfish, and happier in themselves.  Romantic love seeks to possess the other person out of fear of loss, and romantic lovers want to give up everything for each other, merging themselves in the ones they love, until they have nothing left to give and their partners nothing left to love."

"Women are often trapped by their own romantic natures into believing that love means surrender, not recognizing that men who demand a woman's surrender are protecting themselves against her."

"Girls gave sex to get love and boys have love to get sex and conning girls was the favorite indoor sport."

"Men found their bodies through women but women sometimes didn't find there's at all, and women who didn't find their bodies often didn't find themselves, so they didn't love back much either, which was everybody's tragedy and still very often is."

"Pleasure is not the same as joy."

"Once we couldn't speak of sex and now we can't speak of love."

"Love is lonely and poetic and mysterious and whether we recognize it or not we climb into bed wrapping our identities closely around us, not knowing what we want from each other, and fearing both that it might be too much and not enough."

"When we love more than one person at the same time, we are expressing various sides of ourselves, so men with mistresses as well as wives come to their mistresses to find themselves, not the woman they seek."

"Women need men to believe in because that's how they've been raised, and when they no longer believe in the one they've got they feel abandoned and terribly in need."

"Women who've been raised to believe they will find fulfillment through a man think the man has failed when he doesn't give them what they think he should."

"Nobody loves anybody like anybody wants to be loved."  -Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook

"'In every marriage there is the one who loves and the one who lets himself be loved,' Somerset Maugham wrote.  And there are people who prefer to have someone to hurl themselves against than to have someone who is on their side."

"Marriage doesn't work when it cuts us off from finding who we are and defining ourselves for ourselves."

"...so [marriages] based on the premise that a wife's needs are met by meeting her husband's are doomed before they start.  And whether the worst offender is the woman who rushes to give up her needs hoping to please the man, or the man who accepts her sacrificial gifts, they both pay for it a thousand times."

"Men often want to have children, like writers who want to have written more than they want to write, so after they father children, they leave them at home while they go elsewhere for their lives."

"There is a difference between wanting and needing and loving, and both partners have a right to what they need, although not always what they want.  Each partner has a right to one life and to that life he has the sole right.  He hasn't a right to his spouse's life, and he hasn't a right to his child's, but he has a right to his life, and no one should interfere with that."

"It is not possible for one person to meet all of another's needs and marriage partners who expect this soon find each other wanting.  When people don't meet all of our needs, they are not always rejecting us - more often, they are saving themselves - and in a good marriage this is perfectly all right."

"The happy hungry man believes in food.  The happy homeless man believes in home.  The happy unloved man believes in love.  I wouldn't mind believing in something myself."  - George Jonas

"Loving someone means helping them to be more themselves, which can often be different from being what you'd like them to be, although often they turn out the same.  When you ask someone to live through you and for you, they warp like a Japanese tree to suit the relationship which you are, and cease to be what you chose them for, that is, cease to be themselves."

"A woman who marries a man to give herself an identity tends to choose the most powerful man she can find, so she often marries an over-achiever, thinking that his success will make her a success as well.  One always things that very successful men will be more generous and kind, but over-achievers of either sex are driven people, hoping to win love from every source, and a woman who chooses that kind of man is usually neglected for his work, and ends up with less identity than she had to start."

"If women have to ve small so men can be big in their own eyes, nobody much us fooled, and men who require this lose out in other ways "

"I'm not sure there can be loving without commitment, although commitment takes all kinds of forms, and there can be commitment for the moment as well as commitment for all time.  The kind that is essential for loving marriages - and love affairs, as well - is a commitment to preserving the essential quality of your partner's soul, adding to them as a person rather than taking away.  And if you haven't got that you haven't got loving, though you might have something else.  You could have adventure or a postgraduate course, you might have rehabilitation, or a bit of gossamer to highlight an otherwise somber life, but you haven't got loving, and of that you should be sure."

"I've learned not to ask for everything, just to make sure I get what I must have.  It doesn't matter who else gets what - it only matters if youre deprived."

"Being faithful means not costing people you love more than they can afford to pay."

"Women who hoped their husbands would take care of everything and then turned cool when they found that he could not, would be wiser if they parted with their illusions instead of with their husbands.  Because after you're divorced, you're still left with yourself."

"No marriage is one person's failure any more than it's one person's success, so it works best to see a marriage that has ended simply as something that didn't work out."

"It is not necessary to devalue the past and find it spurious because it doesn't last forever, it is possible to simply go on to what's next."

"If there are no endings, there are no beginnings and you see no new lands, so for everything that's lost, there is usually something gained."

"It is more difficult to plan when you're alone and your whole world could change twice before tomorrow."

"Single life looks exciting to those who are quietly settled, and contentment looms large and elusive to those who've had a lot more emotion than they can take but very little quiet joy."

Sam Reviews: "Paradiso" (The Divine Comedy #3) by Dante Alighieri

"Throughout this realm, to all the realm 'tis pleasing,
"As to the King, who makes his will our will.
"His will is our peace; this is the sea
"To which is moving onward whatsoever
"It doth create, and all that nature makes."

"To follow her, in girlhood from the world
"I fled, and in her habit shut myself,
"And pledged me to the pathway of her sect.
"Then men accustomed unto evil more
"Than unto good, from the sweet cloister tore me;
"God knows what afterward my life became."

"That which Timaeus argues of the soul
"Doth not resemble that which here is seen,
"Because it seems that as he speaks he thinks.
"He says the soul unto its star returns,
"Believing it to have been severed thence
"Whenever nature gave it as a form."

"This principle ill understood once warped
"The whole world nearly, till it went astray
"Invoking Jove and Mercury and Mars."

"That as unjust our justice should appear
"In eyes of mortals, is an argument
"Of faith, and not of sin heretical."

"Such was the flowing of the holy river
"That issued from the fount whence springs all truth;
"This put to rest my wishes one and all."

"'I wish to know if man can satisfy you
"'For broken vows with other good deeds, so
"'That in your balance they will not be light.'
"Beatrice gazed upon me with her eyes
"Full of the sparkle of love, and so divine,
"That, overcome my power, I turned my back
"And almost lost myself with eyes downcast."

"The greatest gift that in his largess God
"Creating made, and unto his own goodness
"Nearest conformed, and that which he doth prize
"Most highly, is the freedom of the will,
"Wherewith the creatures of intelligence
"Both all and only were and are endowed."

"Let mortals never take a vow in jest;
"Be faithful and not blind in doing that."

Lilies most commonly mean devotion or purity, though meaning can vary by type of lily, culture, and color.

"To the public standard one of the yellow lilies
"This little planet doth adorn itself 
"But in commensuration of our wages
x

"Opposes, the other claims it for a party,
"So that 'tis hard to see which sins the most."

"With the good spirits that have active been,
"That fame and honour might come after them;
"And whensoever the desires mount thither,
"Thus deviating, must perforce the rays
"Of the true love less vividly mount upward."

"With our desert is portion of our joy,
"Because we see them neither less nor greater."

"Herein doth living Justice sweeten so
"Affection in us, that for evermore
"It cannot warp to any iniquity."

"And to his dignity no more returns,
"Unless he fill up where transgression empties
"With righteous pains for criminal delights."

"Man in his limitations had not power
"To satisfy, not having power to sink
"In his humility obeying them,
"Far as he disobeying thought to rise;
"And for this reason man has been from power
"Of satisfying by himself excluded."

"'For 'tis impossible
"That nature tire, I see in what is needful.'
"Whence he again:  'Now say, would it be worse
"For me on earth were they not citizens?'
"'Yes,' I replied; 'and here I ask no reason.'
"'And can they be so, if below they live not
"Diversely unto offices diverse?
"No, if your master writeth well for you.'
"So came he with deductions to this point;
"Then he concluded:  'Therefore it behoves
"'The roots of your effects to be diverse.'"

"And if the world below would fix its mind
"On the foundation which is laid by nature,
"Pursuing that, 'twould have the people good.
"But you unto religion wrench aside
"Him who was born to gird him with the sword,
"And make a king of him who is for sermons;
"Therefore your footsteps wander from the road."

"Declare unto him if the light wherewith
"Blossoms your substance shall remain with you
"Eternally the same that it is now;"

"When, glorious and sanctified, our flesh
"Is reassured, then shall our persons be
"More pleasing by their being all complete;
"For will increase whate'er bestows on us
"Of light gratuitous the Good Supreme,
"Light which enables us to look on Him;"

"Suffice it of my elders to hear this;
"But who they were, and whence they thither came,
"Silence is more considerate than speech."

"To hear how races waste themselves away,
"Will seem to thee no novel thing nor hard,
"Seeing that even cities have an end.
"All things of yours have their mortality,
"Even as yourselves; but it is hidden in some
'That a long while endure, and lives are short;"

"I turned me round, and then what love I saw
"Within those holy eyes I here relinquish;
"Not only that my language I distrust,
"But that my mind cannot return so far
"Above itself, unless another guide it.
"There much upon that point can I repeat,
"That, her again beholding, my affection
"From every other longing was released."

"There shall be seen the woe that on the Seine
"He brings by falsifying of the coin,
"Who by the blow of a wild boar shall die.
"There shall be seen the pride that causes thirst,
"Which makes the Scot and Englishmen so mad
"That they within their boundaries cannot rest;
"Be seen the luxury and effeminate life
"Of him of Spain, and the Bohemian,
"Who valor never knew and never wished;
"Be seen the Cripple of Jerusalem,
"His goodness represented by an I,
"While the reverse an M shall represent;
"Be seen the avarice and poltroonery
"Of him who guards the Island of the Fire,
"Wherein Anchises finished his long life;"

"And she smiled not; but 'If I were to smile,'
"She unto me began, 'thou wouldst become
"'Like Semele, when she was turned to ashes.
"'Because my beauty, that along the stairs
"'Of the eternal palace more enkindles,
"'As thou hast seen, the further we ascend,
"'If it were tempered not, is so resplendent
"'That all thy mortal power in its effulgence
"'Would seem a leaflet that the thunder crushes.'"

"...the use of men is like a leaf
"On bough, which goeth and another cometh."

"O joy!  O gladness inexpressible!
"O perfect life of love and peacefulness!
"O riches without hankering secure!"

"'If I my colour change,
"'Marvel not at it; for while I am speaking
"'Thouh shalt behold all these their colour change.'"

"Fidelity and innocence are found
"Only in children; afterwards they both
"Take flight or e'er the cheeks with down are covered.
"One, while he prattles still, observes the fasts,
"Who, when his tongue is loosed, forthwith devours
"Whatever food under whatever moon;
"Another, while he prattles, loves and listens
"Unto his mother, who when speech is perfect
"Forthwith desires to see her in her grave."

"Not to see the harm doth not excuse them."

"Not only does the beauty I beheld
"Transcend ourselves, but truly I believe
"Its Maker only may enjoy it all."

"With voice and gesture of a perfect leader
"She recommenced:  'We from the greatest body
"'Have issued to the heaven that is pure light;
"'Light intellectual replete with love,
"'Love of true good replete with ecstasy
"'Ecstasy that trascendeth every sweetness.'"

"There is a light above, which visible
"Makes the Creator unto every creature,
"Who only in beholding Him has peace,"

"'O Lady, thou in whom my hope is strong,
"'And who for my salvation didst endure
"'In Hell to leave the imprint of thy feet,
"'Of whatsoever things I have beheld,
"'As coming from thy power and from thy goodness
"'I recognise the virtue and the grace.
"'Thou from a slave hast brought me unto freedom,
"'By all those ways, by all the expedients,
"'Whereby thou hadst the power of doing it.
"'Preserve towards me thy magnificence,
"'So that this soul of mine, which thou hast healed,
"'Pleasing to thee be loosened from the body.'"

"'Tis true that in the early centuries,
"With innocence, to work out their salvation
"Sufficient was the faith of parents only.
"After the earlier ages were completed,
"Behoved it that the males by circumcision
"Unto their innocent wings should virtue add;
"But after that time of grace had come
"Without the baptism absolute of Christ,
"Such innocence below there was retained."

"Even such was I at that new apparition:
"I wished to see how the image to the circle
"Conformed itself, and how it there finds place;
"But my own wings were not enough for this,
"Had it not been that then my mind there smote
"A flash of lightning, wherein came its wish.
"Here vigour failed the loft fantasy:
"But now was turning my desire and will,
"Even as a wheel that equally is moved,
"The love which moves the sun and the other stars."

Sam Reviews: "Purgatorio" (The Divine Comedy #2) by Dante Alighieri

"Insane is he who hopeth that our reason
"Can traverse the illimitable way,
"Which the one Substance in three Persons follows!
"Mortals, remain contented at the 'Quia;' *
"For if ye had been able to see all,
"No need there were for Mary to give birth;
"And ye have seen desiring without fruit,
"Those whose desire would have been quieted,
"Which evermore is given them for a grief."

* - from what I could find on Google, "Quia" is an adjective (not comparable) (Lutheranism) Relating to the belief that the Book of Concord is authoritative because it faithfully describes the Christian faith as revealed in the Bible.

"After I had my body lacerated
"By these two mortal stabs, I gave myself
"Weeping to Him, who willingly doth pardon.
"Horrible my iniquities had been;
"But Infinite Goodness hath such ample arms,
"That it receives whatever turns to it."

"This mount is such, that ever
"At the beginning down below 'tis tiresom,
"And aye the more one climbs, the less it hurts.
"Therefore, when it shall seem so pleasant to thee,
"That going up shall be to thee as easy
"As going down the current in a boat,
"Then at this pathway's ending thou wilt be;
"There to repose thy panting breath expect;
"No more I answer; and this I know for true."

"Why doth thy mind so occupy itself,
"That thou thy pace dost slacken?
"What matters it to thee what here is whispered?
"Come after me, and let the people talk;
"Stand like a steadfast tower, that never wags
"Its top for all the blowing of the winds;
"For evermore the man in whom is springing
"Thought upon thought, removes from him the mark,
"Because the force of one the other weakens."

"Long since we all were slain by violence,
"And sinners even to the latest hour;
"Then did a light from heaven admonish us,
"So that, being penitent and pardoning, forth
"From life we issued reconciled to God,
"Who with desire to see Him stirs our hearts."

"'Twas he of Este had it done, who held me
"In hatred far beyond what justice willed."

"and for no crime else
"Did I lose heaven, than for not having faith;"

"There dwell I with the little innocents
"Snatched by the teeth of Death, or ever they
'Were from our human sinfulness exempt.
"There dwell I among those who the three saintly
"Virtues did not put on, and without vice
"The others knew and followed all of them."

"'Twas now the hour that turneth back desire
"In those who sail the sea, and melts the heart,
"The day they've said to their sweet friends farewell,
"And the new pilgrim penetrates with love,
"If he doth hear from far away a bell
"That seemeth to deplore the dying day"

"How long in woman lasts the fire of love,
"If eye or touch do not relight it often."

"Do ya not comprehend that we are worms,
"Born to bring forth the angelic butterfly
"That flieth undo judgement without screen?"

"In sooth I had not been so courteous
"While I was living, for the great desire
"Of excellence, on which my heart was bent.
"Here of such pride is paid the forfeiture;
"And yet I should not be here, were it not
"That, having power to sin, I turned to God."

"Covered with sackcloth vile they seemed to me,
"And one sustained the other with his shoulder,
"And all of them were by the bank sustained."

"For all their lids an iron wire transpierces,
"And sews them up, as to a sparhawk wild
"Is done, because he will not quiet."

"through the horrible seam,
"Pressed out the tears so that they bathed their cheeks."

"Small is the offence
"Committed by their being turned with envy."

"As avarice had extinguished our affection
"For every good, whereby was action lost,
"So justice here doth hold us in restraint,
"Bound and imprisoned by the feet and hands;
"And so long as it pleases the just Lord
"Shall we remain immovable and prostrate."

"The while among the verdant leaves mine eyes
"I riveted, as he is wont to do
"Who wastes his life pursuing little birds,"

"Make me not speak while I am marveling,
"For ill speaks he who's full of other longings."

"The water which thou seest springs not from vein
"Restored by vapour that the cold condenses,
"Like to a stream that gains or loses breath;
"But issues from a fountain safe and certain,
"Which by the will of God as much regains
"As it discharges, open on two sides.
"Upon this side with virtue it descends,
"Which takes away all memory of sin;
"On that, of every good deed done restores it."

"The four and twenty Elders, two by two,
"Came on incoronate with flower-de-luce.
"They all of them were singing:  'Blessed thou
"Among the daughters of Adam art, and blessed
"For evermore shall be thy loveliness.'
"After the flowers and other tender grasses
"In front of me upon the other margin
"Were disencumbered of that race elect,
"Even as in heaven star followeth after star,
"There came close after them four animals,
"Incoronate each one with verdant leaf.
"Plumed with six wings was every one of them,
"The plumage full of eyes; the eyes of Argus
"If they were living would be such as these."

"Over her snow-white veil with olive cinct
"Appeared a lady under a green mantle,
"Vested in colour of the living flame.
"And my own spirit, that already now
"So long a time had been, that in her presence
"Trembling with awe it had not stood abashed,
"Without more knowledge having by mine eyes,
"Through occult virtue that from her proceeded
"Of ancient love the mighty influence felt.
"As soon as on my vision smote the power
"Sublime, that had already pierced me through
"Ere from my boyhood I had yet come forth,
"To the left hand I turned with that reliance
"With which the little child runs to his mother,
"When he as fear, or when he is afflicted."

"As to the son the mother seems superb,
"So she appeared to me; for somewhat bitter
"Tasteth the savour of severe compassion."

New Vocab:  Asperges - is a name given to the rite of sprinkling a congregation with holy water.

"My soul was tasting of the food, that while
"It satisfies us makes us hunger for it."

"Of fear and bashfullness
"Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself,
"So that thou speak no more as one who dreams."

"From the most holy water I returned
"Regenerate, in the manner of new trees
"That are renewed with a new foliage,
"Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars."

x

Sam Reviews: "Inferno" (The Divine Comedy #1) by Dante Alighieri

"Because this beast, at which thy criest out,
"Suffers not any one to pass her way,
"But also doth harass him, that she destroys him;
"And has a nature so malign and ruthless,
"That never doth she glut her greedy will,
"And after food is hungrier than before."

"Love moved me, which compelleth me to speak."

"Never were persons in the world so swift
"To work and to escape their woe,
"As I, after such words as these were uttered."

"All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"

"Here all suspicion needs must be absorbed,
"All cowardice must needs be here extinct."

"This miserable mode
"Maintain the melancholy souls of those
"Who lived withouten infamy or praise.
"Commingled are they with that caitiff choir
"Of angels, who have not rebellious been,
"Nor faithful were to God, but were for self.
"The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair;
"Nor them the nethermore abyss receives,
"For glory none the damned would have from them."

"These have no longer any hope of death;
"And this blind life of theirs is so debased,
"They envious are of every other fate.
"No fame of them the world permits to be;
Misericord and Justice both disdain them."

"That they sinned not; and if they merit had,
"'Tis not enough, because they had not baptisim
"Which is the portal of the Faith though holdest;
"And if they were before Christianity,
"In the right manner they adored not God."

"For such defects, and not for guilt,
"Lost are we and are only so far punished,
"That without hope we live on in desire."

"And to a place I come where nothing shines."

"The infernal hurricane that never rests
"Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine;
"Whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them."

"The carnal malefactors were condemned,
"Who reason subjugate to appetite."

"The first of those, of whom intelligence
"Thou fain wouldst have
"The empress was of many languages,
"To sensual vices she was so abandoned,
"That lustful she made licit in her law,
"To remove the blame to which she had been led."

"There is no greater sorrow,
"Than to be mindful of the happy time
"In misery."

"In the third circle am I of the rain,
"Eternal, maledict, and cold, and heavy;
"Its law and quality are never new."

"For the pernicious sin of gluttony
"I, as thou seest, am battered by this rain."
(Envy, arrogance, and avarice)

"Vengeance upon the proud adultery."

"Thus we descended into the fourth chasm
..."As doth the billow there upon Charybdis
"That breaks itself on that which it encounters,
"So here the folk must dance their roundelay.
"Here I saw people, more than elsewhere, many,
"On one side and the other, with great howls,
"Rolling weights forward by main force of chest."

"Clerks those were who no hair covering
"Have on the head, and Popes and Cardinals,
"In whom doth Avarice practice its excess."

"The undiscerning life which made them sordid
"Now makes them unto all discernment dim."

"For all the gold that is beneath the moon,
"Or ever has been, of these weary souls
"Could never make a single one repose."

"And I, who stood intent upon beholding,
"Saw people mud-besprent in that lagoon,
"All of them naked and with angry look.
"They smote each other not alone with hands,
"But with the head and with the breast and feet,
"Tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth."

"Son, thou now beholdest,
"The souls of those whom anger overcame."


"That was an arrogant person in the world;
"Goodness is none, that decks his memory;
"So likewise here his shade is furious.
"How many are esteemed great kings up there,
"Who here shall be like unto swine in mire,
"Leaving behind them horrible dispraises!"

"Here are the Heresiarchs,
"With their disciples of all sects, and much
More than thou thinkest laden are the tombs.
"Here like together with its like is buried;
And more and less the monuments are heated."

"But because fraud is mans' peculiar vice,
"More it displeases God; and so stand lowest
"The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them.
"All the first circle of the Violent is;
"But since force may be used against three persons,
"In three rounds 'tis divided and constructed."

"A death by violence, and painful wounds,
"Are to our neighbour given; and in his substance
"Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies;
"Whence homicides, and he who smites unjustly,
"Marauders, and freebooters, the first round
"Tormetneth all in companies diverse.

"Man may lay violent hands upon himself
"And his own goods; and therefore in the second
"Round must perforce without avail repent
"Whoever of your world deprives himself,
"Who games, and dissipates his property,
"And weepeth there, where he should jocund be."

"Violence can be done the Deity,
"In heart denying and blaspheming Him,
"And by disdaining Nature and her bounty.
"And for this reason doth the smallest round
"Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors,
"And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart."

"Wherefore within the second circle nestle
"Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic
"Falsification, theft and simony,
"Panders, and barrators, and the like filth."

"The river of blood, within which boiling is
"Whoe'er by violence doth injure others."

"A grand old man stands in the mount erect,
"Who holds his shoulders turned tow'rds Damietta,
"And looks at Rome as if it were his mirror."

"There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,
"Wholly of stone and of an iron colour,
"As is the circle that around it turns.
"...And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom."

"Beheld I horned demons with great scourges,
"Who cruelly were beating them behind.
"Ah me!  how they did make them lift their legs
"At the first blows!  and sooth not any one
"The second waited for, nor for the third."

"I saw upon the sides and on the bottom
"The livid stone with perforations filled,
"All of one size, and every one was round.
"...Out of the mouth of each one there protruded
"The feet of a transgressor, and the legs
"Up to the calf, the rest within remained.
"In all of them the soles were both on fire;
"Wherefore the joints so violently quivered,
"They would have snapped asunder withes and bands."

"And people saw I through the circular valley,
"Silent and weeping, coming at the pace
"Which in this world the Litanies assume.
"As lower down my sight descended on them,
"Wondrously each one seemed to be distorted,
"From chin to the beginning of the chest;
"For tow'rds the reins the countenance was turned,
"And backward it behoved them to advance,
"As to look forward had been taken from them."

"A painted people there below we found,
"Who went about with footsteps very slow,
"Weeping and in their semblance tired and vanquished.'
"They had on mantles with the hoods low down
"Before their eyes, and fashioned of the cut
"That in Cologne they for the monks are made."

"These orange cloaks
"Are made of lead so heavy, that the weights
"Cause in this way their balances to creak."

"Now it behoves thee thus to put off sloth,
"...for sitting upon down,
"Or under quilt, one cometh not to fame,"

"Among this cruel and most dismal throng [of monstrous snakes]
"People were running naked and affrighted.
"Without the hope of hole or heliotrope.
"They had their hands with serpents bound behind them;
"These riveted upon their reins the tail
"And head, and were in front of them entwined."

"For once a man of blood and wrath I saw him.
"And the sinner, who had heard, dissembled not,
"But unto me directed mind and face,
"And with a melancholy shame was painted.
"...'What thou demandest I cannot deny;
"'So low am I put down because I robbed
"'The sacristy of the fair ornaments,
"'And falsely once 'twas laid upon another;"

"We were not made to live like unto brutes
"But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge."

"For who repents not cannot be absolved,
"Nor can one both repent and will at once,
"Because of the contradiction which consents not."

[the ninth Bolgia] "Between his legs were hanging down his entrails;
"His heart was visible, and the dismal sack
"That maketh excrement of what is eaten."

"All the diseases in one moat were gathered,
"Such was it here, and such a stench came from it
"As from putrescent limbs is wont to issue." [Punishes forgers]

"And when to me their faces they had lifted,
"Their eyes, which first were only moist within,
"Gushed o'er the eyelids, and the frost congealed
"The tears between, and locked them up again."

"Then I beheld a thousand faces, made
"Purple with cold; whence o'er me comes a shudder,
"And evermore will come, at frozen ponds."

"And there he died; and as thou seest me,
"I saw the three fall, one by one, between
"The fifth day and the sixth; whence I betook me,
"Already blind, to groping over each,
"And three days called them after they were dead;
"Then hunger did what sorrow could not do."