Change and Transformation

In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer.

That which does not kill me makes me stronger.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

 

Every child is affected thus the first time he is treated unfairly. All he thinks he has a right to when he comes to you to be yours is fairness. After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but he will never afterwards be quite the same boy.

 

All children, except one, grow up.

 

An old author is constantly rediscovering himself in the more or less fossilized productions of his earlier years.

To rest upon a formula is a slumber that, prolonged, means death.

Hardship is vanishing, but so is style, and the two are more closely connected than the present generation supposes.

A thousand things advance; nine hundred and ninety-nine retreat: that is progress.

Creation destroys as it goes, throws down one tree for the rise of another. But ideal mankind would abolish death, multiply itself million upon million, rear up city upon city, save every parasite alive, until the accumulation of mere existence is swollen to a horror.

To learn new habits is everything, for it is to reach the substance of life. Life is but a tissue of habits.

It is mere childishness to expect men to believe as their fathers did; that is, if they have any minds of their own. The world is a whole generation older and wiser than when the father was of his son’s age.

One cannot help using his early friends as the seaman uses the log, to mark his progress.

Savagely is necessary ever}' four or five hundred years in order to bring the world back to life. Otherwise the world would die of civilization.

Terror … often arises from a pervasive sense of disestablishment; that things are in the unmaking.

 

There's a very fine line between a groove and a rut a fine line between eccentrics and people who are just plain nuts.

Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles.

 

The world has changed. I see it in the water. I feel it in the Earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it. J. R. R.

The world changes, and all that once was strong now proves unsure. J. R. R.

 

Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.

Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it - but sail we must. And not drift, nor lie at anchor.

Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.

I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.

A great novel is a kind of conversion experience. We come away from it changed.