Today’s One-Liner (#240)
La règle guérit tout. Disciplines cures everything. –Colette’s maxim, cited by Michael Dirda, Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life
Category: World Literature
Churches
“I had hired a Bohemian as my servant while I remained in London, and being much pleased with him, I asked Dr. Johnson whether his being a Roman Catholick should prevent my taking him with…
Today’s One-Liner (#239)
I hope to read the whole Bible once a year as long as I live. –Dr. Samuel Johnson, quoted in Fiona MacMath, The Faith of Samuel Johnson: An Anthology of His Spiritual and Moral Writings…
Inexplicable, and I Most of All
“And I shall also tell you, dear mother, that each of us is guilty in everything before everyone, and I most of all.” At that mother even smiled, she wept and smiled: “How can it…
Today’s One-Liner (#238)
And every day, down to this day, I have remembered the long-suffering servant of God, Mikhail, in my prayers. –Starets Zosima, in Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
These Two
[Dale] Carnegie commanded anyone wishing to acquire truly extensive and precise diction to give over his days and nights to the Bible and Shakespeare. So I began to read these two sacred texts at bedtime. …
“Pleased to Meet You, Hope You Guess My Name”
There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy…
Today’s One-Liner (#234)
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” —William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Soulwork
“One big thing is to develop a strenuous accountability (you see it’s moral, no gadgets invade man’s true necessity), and the habit, the daily labor of writing en passant, keep a vast and cosmic diary….
It’s Not Everyday Your Soul Gets Restored
“Rakitin,” [Alyosha Karamazov] suddenly said loudly and firmly, “don’t taunt me with having rebelled against my God. I don’t want to hold any anger against you, and therefore you be kinder, too. I’ve lost such…