Meandering while we wander . . .

Today is the birthday of Khalil Gibran (January 6, 1883 - April 10, 1931), artist, poet, and writer.

"Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge."
- Khalil Gibran

"To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but what he aspires to."
- Khalil Gibran

"Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love."
- Khalil Gibran

"A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?"
- Khalil Gibran

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens."
- Khalil Gibran

"The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind."
- Khalil Gibran

"If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were."
- Khalil Gibran

"If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees."
- Khalil Gibran

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Meandering to and fro . . .

Today is the birthday of Umberto Eco (Born 5 January 1932) is an Italian philosopher and novelist. He is best known for his novel The Name of the Rose.

"Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them."
- Umberto Eco

"A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion."
- Umberto Eco

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth."
- Umberto Eco

"Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told."
- Umberto Eco

"What is life if not the shadow of a fleeting dream?"
- Umberto Eco

"We live for books."
- Umberto Eco

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Meandering along . . .

Today is the birthday of Gao Xingjian (born January 4, 1940), novelist, playwright, critic, and painter. In 2000, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Here is another author whose work has been banned.

"Walk where your heart leads you, there are no restrictions and no burdens."
- Gao Xingjian

"The human species does not necessarily move in stages from progress to progress ... history and civilization do not advance in tandem. From the stagnation of Medieval Europe to the decline and chaos in recent times on the mainland of Asia and to the catastrophes of two world wars in the twentieth century, the methods of killing people became increasingly sophisticated. Scientific and technological progress certainly does not imply that humankind as a result becomes more civilized."
- Gao Xingjian

"When you use words, you're able to keep your mind alive. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence."
- Gao Xingjian

"Everyone has to have either this or that problem, if he can't find any problem, he loses all reason for living."
- Gao Xingjian

"Dreams are more real than reality itself, they're closer to the self."
- Gao Xingjian

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Meandering on the path . . .

Today is the birthday of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973), writer, poet, philologist, and university professor. He is best known as J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

"A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renenwed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

"You can only come to the morning through the shadows."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

"A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

"It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

"Never laugh at live dragons"
- J.R.R. Tolkien

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Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Isaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992), science fiction author and professor of biochemistry.

"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
- Isaac Asimov

"Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution had to be wisdom. You did not refuse to look at danger, rather you learned how to handle it safely."
- Isaac Asimov

"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
- Isaac Asimov

"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."
- Isaac Asimov

"We're forever teetering on the brink of the unknowable, and trying to understand what can't be understood."
- Isaac Asimov

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Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Edward Morgan Forster (January 1, 1879 – June 7, 1970), novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist.

"Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice."
- E.M. Forster

"We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm--yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine."
- E.M. Forster

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
- E.M. Forster

"Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them."
- E.M. Forster

"I cannot help thinking that there is something to admire in everyone, even if you do not approve of them."
- E.M. Forster

"Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes."
- E.M. Forster

Forster image source (1)

Happy New Year!