Tag Archives: books
The Outward Sign Of Inward Grace
In this excerpt from Americans: A Book of Lives, ©1946, Hermann Hagedorn describes the business environment of Theodore Roosevelt’s America: To these men the rapid development of the country seemed a definite good in itself and became, indeed, a kind of religion, not superseding so much as fulfilling the Christian principles on which most of …
The Things They Hold Precious
Another excerpt from If I Knew Then What I Know Now– So What? by Estelle Getty, ©1988: As a student of human nature, I love to people-watch. It’s also essential to my craft– I’ll pick things up I see on the street and incorporate them into my roles. It was my idea, for instance, for …
Noah’s Ark Syndrome
Excerpted from If I Knew Then What I Know Now– So What? by Estelle Getty, ©1988: I’ve always felt that loneliness, not age, is the real killer. I get a lot of letters from women who tell me how difficult life is– they’re widowed and alone and scared and sick– and the show (The Golden …
Lens
“Of all forms of slavery there is none that is so harmful and degrading as that form of slavery which tempts one human being to hate another by reason of his race or color. One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.” ~Booker T. Washington …
How To Read a Novel
Excerpted from Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, © 2004: A novel is not an allegory, I said as the period was about to come to an end. It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don’t enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, …
You Will Never
“I should have been more kind. That is something a person will never regret. You will never say to yourself when you are old, ‘Ah, I wish I was not good to that person.’ You will never think that.” ~Khaled Hosseini, in And the Mountains Echoed ©2013 (via)
Less Seriously
“If we’re not too confused or hard on ourselves, we will discover the sanity beyond habitual reactions. Identifying less with habits and more with our basic nature lightens things up. With more space in our mind, we take our reactions less seriously. We can watch them the way we would watch children at play– knowing …
The Outer Fringe
Americans: A Book of Lives ©1946 by Hermann Hagedorn has been really fun and informative. In this excerpt, he shared horticulturist Luther Burbank’s concept of life, the universe, and everything: “Life,” Burbank wrote, “is not material… the life-stream is not a substance. Life is a force– electrical, magnetic, a quality, not a quantity.” He saw …
Phonograph
In this excerpt from Americans: A Book of Lives ©1946. Hermann Hagedorn describes the moment Thomas Edison first tested his new invention to record and play back sounds: Three weeks after his interest had first been stirred, he (Thomas Edison) handed his chief mechanic a rough sketch of a queer-looking instrument, including a metal cylinder …
Circumstantial/Essential
Excerpted from Interconnected: Embracing Life in Our Global Society by Ogyen Trinley Dorje ©2017 (via): We are in many ways creatures of habit. If we live within certain conditions long enough, they come to seem natural to us. But if we had lived in different conditions, they would seem equally natural. Looking at the cultural, religious, …
