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1 " It was strange to Old Robert that he, who knew so much more than his neighbors, who had pondered so endlessly, should be not even a good farmer. Sometimes he imagined he understood too many things ever to do anything well. "
― John Steinbeck , Cup of Gold
2 " You see, I have been at revaluing myself in the last few days. I may have some value to historians because I have destroyed a few things. The builder of your Cathedral is forgotten even now, but I, who burned it, may be remembered for a hundred years or so. And that may mean something or other about mankind. "
3 " There was no desire in him for a state or condition, no picture in his mind of the thing to be when he had followed his longing; but only a burning and a will overpowering to journey outward and outward after the earliest risen star. "
4 " ...You are a little boy. You want the moon to drink from as a golden cup; and so, it is very likely that you will become a great man -- if only you remain a little child. All the world'sgreat have been little boys who wanted the moon; running and climbing, they sometimes catch a firefly. But if one grow to a man's mind, that mind must see that it cannot have the moon and would not want it if it could -- and so, it catches no fireflies.' [Merlin] "
5 " Why do men like me want sons?" he wondered. "It must be because they hope in their poor beaten souls that these new men, who are their blood, will do the things they were not strong enough nor wise enough nor brave enough to do. It is rather like another chance at life; like a new bag of coins at a table of luck after your fortune is gone. "
6 " He has come to be the great man he thought he wanted to be. If this is true, then he is not a man. He is still a little boy and wants the moon. "
7 " In all the mad incongruity, the turgid stultiloquy of life, I felt, at least, securely anchored to myself. Whatever the vacillations of other people, I thought myself terrifically constant. But now, here I am, dragging a frayed line, and my anchor gone. "
8 " The ship started a school of fliers that skipped along the wave tops like shining silver coins."These are the ghosts of treasures ost at sea," the cook went on, "the murder things, emeralds and diamonds and gold; the sins of men, committed for them, stick to them and make them haunt the ocean. Ah! It's a poor thing if a sailor will not make a grand tale about it."Henry pointed to a great tortoise asleep on the surface. "And what is the tale of the turtles?" He asked."Nothing; only food... "
9 " The men of Spain held ground for a little while, but then their hearts broke under their fine red coats, and they ran away to hide in the jungle. "
10 " My great complaint is that the only possession I carry about with me is a bag of losses. I am the owner solely of the memory of things I used to have. Perhaps it is well--for I seem to love them more now that I have them not. "
11 " Why are you making no more songs?' I said to him in a tone like that. 'Why are you making no more songs?''I have grown to be a man. Only children make songs -- children and idiots. "
12 " Papers there were in the chest, and parchments, and stiff untanned skins, written in English and Latin and the old Cumric tongue: Morgan was born, Morgan was married, Morgan became a knight, Morgan was hanged. Here lay the history of the house, shameful and glorious. "
13 " Can you not see, Robert? People have so often been hurt and trapped and tortured by ideas and contraptions which they did not understand, that they have come to believe all things passing their understanding are vicious and evil--to think of them as things to be stamped out and destroyed by the first comer. They only protect themselves, thus against the ghastly hurts that can come to them from little things grown up. "
14 " Robert, have you seen those great black ants which are born with wings? They fly a day or two, then drop their wings and fall upon the ground to crawl for all their lives. I wonder when your son will drop his wings. Is it not strange, Robert, how, among men, this crawling is revered--how children tear at their wings, so they may indulge in this magnificent crawling?" "What makes boys grow to men?" Robert asked. "What circumstances rots out their wing roots?" "Why a great many never have wings, and some tear them off for themselves; some are sudden things and others very tedious. "
15 " People have so often been hurt and trapped and tortured by ideas and contraptions which they did not understand, that they have come to believe all things passing their understanding are vicious and evil—things to be stamped out and destroyed by the first comer. They only protect themselves, thus, against the ghastly hurts that can come to them from little things grown up. "
16 " I don't want to be forgotten, Henry. That is greater horror to an old man than death--to be forgotten. "
17 " Young Henry was conscious, this night, that he had lived for fifteen tedious years without accomplishing any single thing of importance. And had his mother known his feeling she would have said,'He is growing.'And his father would have repeated after her,'Yes, the boy is growing.' But neither would have understood what the other meant. "
18 " I say to you, without pleasure, that this son of ours will be a great man, because -- well -- because he is not very intelligent. He can see only one desire at a time. I said he tested his dreams; he will murder every dream with the implacable arrows of his will. This boy will win to every goal of his aiming; for he can realize no thought, no reason, but his own. And I am sorry for his coming greatness... "
19 " Il vino aggiunge maiuscole e asterischi a un buon racconto... a una storia vera. "
20 " ذاكـ صحيح بهذا الشكل أو ذاكـ. ليس خطئي، ولكنهـ صحيح. إن التمدّن يشطر الشخصيّة. والذي يرفض الانشطار ينحدر إلى تحت "
