Reading out Loud #2

The second entry in a (very) occasional series of words that caught and held my attention, that are well worth sharing.

https://pixabay.com/en/book-manipulation-nature-fantasy-2152349/

“Human relationships flourish and decay, quickly and silently, so that those concerned scarcely know how brittle, or how inflexible, the ties that bind them have become.”  – Anthony Powell – A Question of Upbringing

“He reached for his pocket, and found there, only reality” – Victor Hugo – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

“He was one of the numerous and varied legion of dullards, of half-animated abortions, conceited, half-educated coxcombs, who attach themselves to the idea most in fashion only to vulgarize it and who caricature every cause they serve, however sincerely.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment

“Proof is what lies at the heart of maths, and is what marks it out from other sciences. Other sciences have hypotheses that are tested against experimental evidence until they fail, and are overtaken by new hypotheses. In maths, absolute proof is the goal, and once something is proved, it is proved forever, with no room for change.” – Simon Singh – Fermat’s Last Theorem

“It was one of the dullest speeches I ever heard. The Agee woman told us for three-quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.” – P. G. Wodehouse – The Girl in Blue

https://pixabay.com/en/lighthouse-coast-cube-secrets-2398832/

“The neighbourhood is a place of…intrigue and emotional espionage, where when two people stop to talk on the street their tongues are like the two halves of a scissor coming together, cutting reputations and good names to shreds.”  – Nadeem Aslam – Maps for Lost Lovers

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”  – Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse Five

“The values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs.” – Jared Diamond – Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

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 “A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.” – Bertrand Russell – A History of Western Philosophy

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“Poetry makes life what lights and music do the stage.” – Charles Dickens – The Pickwick Papers