from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“Our job is to record, each in his own way, this world of light and shadow and time that will never come again exactly as it is today.”
– Edward Abbey, 1927-1989, American, author, writer, essayist
Month: February 2018
with a nod to Li Po and his Hard Roads: for Frank
a face westward
a deep sigh
a wayward old heart
torn in two
“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”
from Douglas Moore’s blog Art of Quotation
“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”
W. Somerset Maugham
this old man
tears come so easily
to this old man
a scene from a film
a phrase in a book
a song on the radio
the tears uncontrollable
flooding down his cheeks
the associations the memories
life is so beautiful
it is so sad
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President.”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President.”
— Theodore Roosevelt, president
from The Private Lives of Trees by Alejandro Zambra
Now Julian has a real family, the kind that spends Saturday afternoons doing science homework or watching Tim Burton movies. Daniela has just fallen asleep, and he strains his ears, anticipating his wife’s arrival, but he can only make out, distantly, the hoarse bubbling of the aquarium they set up in the living room a few months ago. Stealthily, Julian approaches Cosmo and Wanda, who continue with their changeless voyage through the dirty water, and he observes them with disproportionate attention, his face to the glass. Suddenly, theatrically, Julian takes on the attitude of a watchman, a fish watcher, a man specially trained to keep fish from leaving aquariums.
this wind
this wind that howls
outside my windows
spraying rain at times
on the terraces the balconies
this wind that moans
beyond my windows
is the only music
I listen to
and for reasons unexplained
comforts me
more than Sibelius
or Ralph Vaughan Williams
could today
“When truth cannot make itself known in words, it will make itself known in deeds.”
from Douglas Moore’s blog Art of Quotation
“When truth cannot make itself known in words, it will make itself known in deeds.”
Roger Scruton, English, philosopher, author
“…kakistocracy — rule by the worst”
from Douglas Moore’s blog Art of Quotation
“We really are seeing kakistocracy — rule by the worst”
Paul Krugman, journalist, twitter feed Feb. 2, 2018
The Tiniest of Lives by Chin Jen-jui
Beneath the leaf a green insect, and frost upon the leaf;
The tiniest of lives, having come to this, is most to be pitied.
Had I the strength of high heaven and rotund earth,
I’d make you live a thousand autumns, ten thousand years.
translated by Irving Lo
Leonard Durso 