Have you ever given someone a book you enjoyed enormously, with a feeling of envy because they were about to read it for the first time, an experience you could never have again?
Interpretation
This quote reflects the bittersweet feeling of sharing a beloved book, knowing others will have a fresh experience you can never relive.
Jack Finney's quote captures the complex emotions involved in sharing great literature with others. It highlights a unique blend of joy in wanting someone else to experience the magic of a book while simultaneously feeling a twinge of envy for the novelty that they will enjoy, an experience that has already been etched into your memory. This illustrates both the connective power of stories and the inevitable passage of time that takes away the possibility of experiencing that joy anew.
In practice
In a book club discussion, this quote can highlight the joy of sharing recommendations.
So all in all there wasn't anything really wrong with my life. Except that, like most everyone else's I knew about, it had a big gaping hole in it, an enormous emptiness, and I didn't know how to fill it or even know what belonged there.
Let experience, the least fallible guide of human opinion, be appealed to for an answer to these inquiries.
It is with disease of the mind, as with those of the body; we are half dead before we understand our disorder, and half cured when we do.
If you understand others you are smart._x000D_ If you understand yourself you are illuminated._x000D_ If you overcome others you are powerful._x000D_ If you overcome yourself you have strength._x000D_ If you know how to be satisfied you are rich._x000D_ If you can act with vigor, you have a will._x000D_ If you don't lose your objectives you can be long-lasting._x000D_ If you die without loss, you are eternal.
It's possible to fight intolerance, stupidity and fanaticism when they come separately. When you get all three together it's probably wiser to get out, if only to preserve your sanity.
Let not a man do what his sense of right bids him not to do, nor desire what it forbids him to desire. This is sufficient. The skillful artist will not alter his measures for the sake of a stupid workman.
God's faithful servant has no desire for people to say or to give to him, or what he likes to hear or see, for his first and greatest aim is to hear what is most pleasing to God.
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