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21 " Before long, I had lost my youth and my patience for indulging others. Books were everything in life; books were better than wine. "
― Matthew Pearl , The Last Bookaneer
22 " I prefer the society of one faithful person to an association of rapid talkers, who more than anything else seek admiration from one another. "
― Matthew Pearl , The Dante Club (The Dante Club #1)
23 " 'Yes, we rather condemn people for eternity without the courtesy of informing them.' "
24 " Why did nature not ask my advice about my features? "
25 " There was still the temptation to believe the world was a mere trap for human sin. But sin, the way he saw it, was only the failure of an imperfectly made being to keep a perfect law. "
26 " They always blamed my reading, you know, for my having fewer friends than my brother and for my weak eyes, never thinking that because I had weak eyes and because I was shy, having a book at the ready rescued me. "
27 " Money is good, but it is not all about a man. You will have successes and reversals, but remember it is your reaction to each of them that counts for your character. "
― Matthew Pearl , The Technologists
28 " Dante's Hell is part of our world as much as part of the underworld, and shouldn't be avoided, Lowell said, but rather confronted. We sound the depths of Hell very often in this life. "
29 " 'Do not ask what brings Dante to man but what brings man to Dante-to personally enter his sphere, though it is forever severe and unforgiving.' "
30 " 'Till America has learned to love literature not as an amusement, not as a mere doggerel to memorize in a college room, but for its humanizing and ennobling energy, my dear reverend president, she will not have succeeded in that high sense which alone makes a nation out of a people. That which raises it from a dead name to a living power.' "
31 " Sepa que cuando soy amigo de un hombre lo soy para siempre, y es muy difícil hacerme volver atrás. Y aunque un hombre pueda gozar siendo mi enemigo, no puede convertirme a mí en el suyo mientras yo no quiera. Buenas tardes. "
32 " 'Pity without rigor would be cowardly egotism, mere sentimentality.' "
33 " Obsession of a strong-hearted woman, Mr. Dolby, can be more dangerous than ten men. "
― Matthew Pearl , The Last Dickens
34 " I was looking for something else in books. I could not really say what, but I think I can say why: a notion started in my own brain was probably wrong, but an answer read in a work of literature would be right. That was my conviction at nineteen, and only in later years would I come to trust myself over a book. "
35 " I do not seek the mantle of genius. I am an appreciator, an observer, a preposition, and content in that, and that's me in a nutshell. "
36 " On the trees were no longer only leaves but brown fruits, on the bushes no longer blossoms but clusters of red berries. And the wind had a rough manliness in its voice - the tone not of a lover but of a husband. "
37 " The books do pretend, Mr. Branagan. Surely. But that is not all. Novels are filled with lies, but squeezed in between is even more that is true—without what you may call the lies, the pages would be too light for the truth, you see? "
38 " How odd it must be to go through life believing that a book is a book. "
39 " ...and luckily I have enough in my head to balance what is wanting in my back. "
40 " In fact, the laboratory may be the greatest friend to dumb animals. As science advances, the lives of animals will improve as we depend less and less on their labor and no longer ignore their conditions in order to improve ours. You know, there is much to learn from animals if we are ever to be truly industrial creatures. The beaver is the finest builder of bridges and the silkworm a better weaver than any man or woman. God gave industry perfectly to the caterpillar while we must learn our arts. That is technology--our way to become closer to being like animals. "