the quote festival, second helping

Yes, really, I'm back with more quotes. See, it's a grey day here, and in between listening to rain spattering the window and the whispering of the pine tree just outside it, I've begun to feel a little dull.

My main writing task today is building the outline for this sequel I'm working on... so far so good, but I need a little coffee, as well as a little literary caffeine.


Double remedy: French press coffee--hazelnut, with a pinch of cinnamon, oh my... wish I could pour you some--and another dip into my quote book. That, at least, I can share. Coffee and fine words are just meant to go together, aren't they?


All I desire is such letters as the heart dictates, and which the hand cannot transcribe fast enough. -- Heloise, to Abelard (... Somehow this loses its ring when you substitute emails or facebook messages or texts... Yes, Heloise, I'll still believe in letters with you.)

The person, being it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. -- Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey. (This was found first by my sister, and it makes me laugh every time!)

Pray remember me to Every body who does not enquire after me. -- Jane Austen in a letter to her sister. (Also funny. I want to say things like this when I grow up. Heck, I'd like to be Jane Austen when I grow up, but I think that's been taken...)

The significant, life-forming times are the dull, in-between times. -- Jan Karon, In This Mountain

It is a pleasant pastime to think of what might be a good kitchen for yourself. -- M.F.K. Fisher

It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning. -- Bill Watterson

Of all the presentiments which some people are always having, some surely must come right. -- William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

The fact that you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you. -- Adrienne Kress, Alex and the Ironic Gentleman

It was one thing to be all alone and facing certain death or worse at the hands of Dr. Mennus, and it was another thing to be expected to do it without coffee. -- Michael Hoeye, Time Stops for No Mouse (Can the same be said for outlining? I think so.)


Okay, I saved the biggest for last, but it's so worth it. Savor this one. It's the perfect note to get me back to my desk...

Books are never out of humour, never envious or jealous, they answer all questions with readiness; they reveal the secrets of Nature, the events of the past; they teach us how to live and how to die; they dispel melancholy by their mirth, and amuse by their wit; they prepare the soul to suffer everything and desire nothing; they introduce us to ourselves; they uphold the downcast, and restrain the conceited by warning that days are swift and life short; and all they ask in return is a quiet corner where they may be safe from the attacks of their enemies. -- Holbrook Jackson, The Anatomy of Bibliomania

They introduce us to ourselves... perhaps the loveliest thing you can say about a book.

That does it... back to the outline.