When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set. - Lin Yutang

The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine; he is limited to contact and conversation with a few friends and acquaintances, and he sees only what happens in his immediate neighbourhood. From this prison there is no escape. But the moment he takes up a book, he immediately enters a different world, and if it is a good book, he is immediately put in touch with one of the best talkers of the world. This talker leads him on and carries him into a different country or a different age, or unburdens to him some of his personal regrets, or discusses with him some special line or aspect of life that the reader knows nothing about. An ancient author puts him in communion with a dead spirit of long ago, and as he reads along, he begins to imagine what the ancient author looked like and what type of person he was.

Totisesti on olemassa hetkiä, jolloin elämä on meille liian suurta, jolloin kaikki tyynni on liitossa meitä vastaan pettääkseen ja tuhotakseen toiveemme; silloin ihminen on kuin kulkija, joka on metsässä kadottanut suuntamerkit tai joutunut maanalaiseen luolaan, missä törmää kivimuuriin, kääntyipä minne hyvänsä.

that it is not when he is working in the office but when he is lying idly on the sand that his soul utters, “Life is beautiful