We call those poets who are first to mark, Through earth's dull mist the coming of the dawn, Who see in twilight's gloom the first pale spark, While others only note that day is gone.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read
The books we read should be chosen with great care, that they may be, as an Egyptian king wrote over his library,'The medicines of the soul.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of selecting books wisely as they can greatly influence our inner well-being.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. highlights that books have a profound impact on our mental and emotional state. Just as medicines heal the body, the right books can nurture and heal our souls, suggesting that we should be deliberate in our choices of literature to foster personal growth and understanding.
In practice
During a book club discussion, one could invoke this quote to stress the importance of thoughtful reading.
We call those poets who are first to mark, Through earth's dull mist the coming of the dawn, Who see in twilight's gloom the first pale spark, While others only note that day is gone.
Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.
The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think what we like and say what we think.
Don't you stay at home of evenings? Don't you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?
Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that - one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery.
only through new words might new worlds be called into order
There are only two kinds of books -- good books and the others. The good are winnowed from the bad through the democracy of time.
You write for two people, yourself and your audience, who are usually better educated and at least as smart.
Sometimes you buy a book, powerfully drawn to it, but then it just sits on the shelf. Maybe you flick through it, the ghost of your original purpose at your elbow, but it's not so much rereading as re-dusting. Then one day you pick it up, take notice of the contents; your inner life realigns.
When I first started in this field there were all kinds of stereotypes about autism, as if these were children from another planet, or children who had been brought up by wolves, that they weren't part of our population and were somehow separate.
The drawing teacher has this problem of communicating how to draw by osmosis and not by instruction, while the physics teacher has the problem of always teaching techniques, rather than the spirit, of how to go about solving physical problems.
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