Tales Of Two Cities Quotes

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A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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You have been the last dream of my soul.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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โ€ŽAnd yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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There is prodigious strength in sorrow and despair.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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A multitude of people and yet a solitude.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Death may beget life, but oppression can beget nothing other than itself.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss. I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy. I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning himself to let it eat him away.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done, it is a far, far better rest I that I go to than I have ever known." A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
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Barbara Sontheimer
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I love your daughter fondly, dearly, disninterestedly, devotedly. If ever there were love in the world, I love her.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Then tell Wind and Fire where to stop," returned madame; "but don't tell me.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Not knowing how he lost himself, or how he recovered himself, he may never feel certain of not losing himself again.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Before I go," he said, and paused -- "I may kiss her?" It was remembered afterwards that when he bent down and touched her face with his lips, he murmured some words. The child, who was nearest to him, told them afterwards, and told her grandchildren when she was a handsome old lady, that she heard him say, "A life you love.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected." (Frauds on the Fairies, 1853)
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Charles Dickens (Works of Charles Dickens (200+ Works) The Adventures of Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House, David Copperfield & more (mobi))
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Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; - the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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There is a man who would give his life to keep a life you love beside you.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. (John 11:25-26)
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Anonymous (The Holy Bible: King James Version)
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Nothing that we do, is done in vain. I believe, with all my soul, that we shall see triumph.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Oh, do you have A Tale of Two Cities?" "That silly thing? Men going around getting their heads chopped off for love? Ridiculus." Will unpeeled himself from the door and made his way toward Tessa where she stood by the bookshelves. He gestured expansively at the vast number of volumes all around him. "No, here you'll find all sorts of advice about how to chop off someone else's head if you need to; much more useful.
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Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1))
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I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Since I knew you, I have been troubled by a remorse that I thought would never reproach me again, and have heard whispers from old voices impelling me upward, that I thought were silent for ever. I have had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned fight. A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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And a beautiful world we live in, when it is possible, and when many other such things are possible, and not only possible, but done-- done, see you!-- under that sky there, every day.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent and sincere in this one thing. The time will come, the time will not be long in coming, when new ties will be formed about you--ties that will bind you yet more tenderly and strongly to the home you so adorn--the dearest ties that will ever grace and gladden you. O Miss Manette, when the little picture of a happy father's face looks up in yours, when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seeds of rapacious licence and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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The cloud of caring for nothing, which overshadowed him with such a fatal darkness, was very rarely pierced by the light within him.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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In the moonlight which is always sad, as the light of the sun itself is--as the light called human life is--at its coming and its going.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Be natural my children. For the writer that is natural has fulfilled all the rules of art." (Last words, according to Dickens's obituary in The Times.)
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Charles Dickens (Five Novels: Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations)
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Mr Lorry asks the witness questions: Ever been kicked? Might have been. Frequently? No. Ever kicked down stairs? Decidedly not; once received a kick at the top of a staircase, and fell down stairs of his own accord.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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All through it, I have known myself to be quite undeserving. And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire- a fire, however, inseparable in its nature from myself, quickening nothing, lighting nothing, doing no service, idly burning away.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out...
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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He knew enough of the world to know that there is nothing in it better than the faithful service of the heart.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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REMEMBER HOW STRONG WE ARE IN OUR HAPPINESS, AND HOW WEAK HE IS IN IS MISERY!
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Mr. Cruncher... always spoke of the year of our Lord as Anna Dominoes: apparently under the impression that the Christian era dated from the invention of a popular game, by a lady who had bestowed her name upon it.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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You touch some of the reasons for my going, not for my staying away.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I have had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned fight. A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
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Charles Dickens
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Of little worth as life is when we misuse it, it is worth that effort. It would cost nothing to lay down if it were not.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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That glorious vision of doing good is so often the sanguine mirage of so many good minds.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. And when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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You might, from your appearance, be the wife of Lucifer,โ€ said Miss Pross, in her breathing. โ€œNevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am an Englishwoman.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I am not old, but my young way was never the way to age.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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The leprosy of unreality disfigured every human creature in attendance.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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In seasons of pestilence, some of us will have a secret attraction to the disease--a terrible passing inclination to die of it.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I would ask you to believe that he has a heart he very, very seldom reveals, and that there are deep wounds in it. My dear, I have seen it bleeding.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Reading list (1972 edition)[edit] 1. Homer โ€“ Iliad, Odyssey 2. The Old Testament 3. Aeschylus โ€“ Tragedies 4. Sophocles โ€“ Tragedies 5. Herodotus โ€“ Histories 6. Euripides โ€“ Tragedies 7. Thucydides โ€“ History of the Peloponnesian War 8. Hippocrates โ€“ Medical Writings 9. Aristophanes โ€“ Comedies 10. Plato โ€“ Dialogues 11. Aristotle โ€“ Works 12. Epicurus โ€“ Letter to Herodotus; Letter to Menoecus 13. Euclid โ€“ Elements 14. Archimedes โ€“ Works 15. Apollonius of Perga โ€“ Conic Sections 16. Cicero โ€“ Works 17. Lucretius โ€“ On the Nature of Things 18. Virgil โ€“ Works 19. Horace โ€“ Works 20. Livy โ€“ History of Rome 21. Ovid โ€“ Works 22. Plutarch โ€“ Parallel Lives; Moralia 23. Tacitus โ€“ Histories; Annals; Agricola Germania 24. Nicomachus of Gerasa โ€“ Introduction to Arithmetic 25. Epictetus โ€“ Discourses; Encheiridion 26. Ptolemy โ€“ Almagest 27. Lucian โ€“ Works 28. Marcus Aurelius โ€“ Meditations 29. Galen โ€“ On the Natural Faculties 30. The New Testament 31. Plotinus โ€“ The Enneads 32. St. Augustine โ€“ On the Teacher; Confessions; City of God; On Christian Doctrine 33. The Song of Roland 34. The Nibelungenlied 35. The Saga of Burnt Njรกl 36. St. Thomas Aquinas โ€“ Summa Theologica 37. Dante Alighieri โ€“ The Divine Comedy;The New Life; On Monarchy 38. Geoffrey Chaucer โ€“ Troilus and Criseyde; The Canterbury Tales 39. Leonardo da Vinci โ€“ Notebooks 40. Niccolรฒ Machiavelli โ€“ The Prince; Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy 41. Desiderius Erasmus โ€“ The Praise of Folly 42. Nicolaus Copernicus โ€“ On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres 43. Thomas More โ€“ Utopia 44. Martin Luther โ€“ Table Talk; Three Treatises 45. Franรงois Rabelais โ€“ Gargantua and Pantagruel 46. John Calvin โ€“ Institutes of the Christian Religion 47. Michel de Montaigne โ€“ Essays 48. William Gilbert โ€“ On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies 49. Miguel de Cervantes โ€“ Don Quixote 50. Edmund Spenser โ€“ Prothalamion; The Faerie Queene 51. Francis Bacon โ€“ Essays; Advancement of Learning; Novum Organum, New Atlantis 52. William Shakespeare โ€“ Poetry and Plays 53. Galileo Galilei โ€“ Starry Messenger; Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences 54. Johannes Kepler โ€“ Epitome of Copernican Astronomy; Concerning the Harmonies of the World 55. William Harvey โ€“ On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals; On the Circulation of the Blood; On the Generation of Animals 56. Thomas Hobbes โ€“ Leviathan 57. Renรฉ Descartes โ€“ Rules for the Direction of the Mind; Discourse on the Method; Geometry; Meditations on First Philosophy 58. John Milton โ€“ Works 59. Moliรจre โ€“ Comedies 60. Blaise Pascal โ€“ The Provincial Letters; Pensees; Scientific Treatises 61. Christiaan Huygens โ€“ Treatise on Light 62. Benedict de Spinoza โ€“ Ethics 63. John Locke โ€“ Letter Concerning Toleration; Of Civil Government; Essay Concerning Human Understanding;Thoughts Concerning Education 64. Jean Baptiste Racine โ€“ Tragedies 65. Isaac Newton โ€“ Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy; Optics 66. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz โ€“ Discourse on Metaphysics; New Essays Concerning Human Understanding;Monadology 67. Daniel Defoe โ€“ Robinson Crusoe 68. Jonathan Swift โ€“ A Tale of a Tub; Journal to Stella; Gulliver's Travels; A Modest Proposal 69. William Congreve โ€“ The Way of the World 70. George Berkeley โ€“ Principles of Human Knowledge 71. Alexander Pope โ€“ Essay on Criticism; Rape of the Lock; Essay on Man 72. Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu โ€“ Persian Letters; Spirit of Laws 73. Voltaire โ€“ Letters on the English; Candide; Philosophical Dictionary 74. Henry Fielding โ€“ Joseph Andrews; Tom Jones 75. Samuel Johnson โ€“ The Vanity of Human Wishes; Dictionary; Rasselas; The Lives of the Poets
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Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading)
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You are hard at work madam ," said the man near her. Yes," Answered Madam Defarge ; " I have a good deal to do." What do you make, Madam ?" Many things." For instance ---" For instance," returned Madam Defarge , composedly , Shrouds." The man moved a little further away, as soon as he could, feeling it mightily close and oppressive .
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby-Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pecuchet, and A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers. What a sad paradox, thought Amalfitano. Now even bookish pharmacists are afraid to take on the great, imperfect, torrential works, books that blaze paths into the unknown. They choose the perfect exercises of the great masters. Or what amounts to the same thing: they want to watch the great masters spar, but they have no interest in real combat, when the great masters struggle against that something, that something that terrifies us all, that something that cows us and spurs us on, amid blood and mortal wounds and stench.
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Roberto Bolaรฑo (2666)
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I had read a Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the first page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life...her voice slid in and curved down trough and over the words. She was nearly singing.
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Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1))
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So does a whole world, with all its greatnesses and littlenesses, lie in a twinkling star. And as mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyse the manner of its composition, so, sublimer intelligences may read in the feeble shining of this earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice and virtue, of every responsible creature on it.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Tell the Wind and the Fire where to stop; not me.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Without turning, the pharmacist answered that he liked books like The Metamorphosis, Bartleby, A Simple Heart, A Christmas Carol. And then he said that he was reading Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. Leaving aside the fact that A Simple Heart and A Christmas Carol were stories, not books, there was something revelatory about the taste of this bookish young pharmacist, who ... clearly and inarguably preferred minor works to major ones. He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pecouchet, and A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers. What a sad paradox, thought Amalfitano. Now even bookish pharmacists are afraid to take on the great, imperfect, torrential works, books that blaze a path into the unknown. They choose the perfect exercises of the great masters. Or what amounts to the same thing: they want to watch the great masters spar, but they have no interest in real combat, when the great masters struggle against that something, that something that terrifies us all, that something that cows us and spurs us on, amid blood and mortal wounds and stench.
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Roberto Bolaรฑo (2666)
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A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it! Something of the awfulness, even of Death itself, is referable to this. No more can I turn the leaves of this dear book that I loved, and vainly hope in time to read it all. No more can I look into the depths of this unfathomable water, wherein, as momentary lights glanced into it, I have had glimpses of buried treasure and other things submerged. It was appointed that the book should shut with a a spring, for ever and for ever, when I had read but a page. It was appointed that the water should be locked in an eternal frost, when the light was playing on its surface, and I stood in ignorance on the shore. My friend is dead, my neighbour is dead, my love, the darling of my soul, is dead; it is the inexorable consolidation and perpetuation of the secret that was always in that individuality, and which I shall carry in mine to my life's end. In any of the burial-places of this city through which I pass, is there a sleeper more inscrutable than its busy inhabitants are, in their innermost personality, to me, or than I am to them?
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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When they took a young man into Tellson's London house, they hid him somewhere till he was old. They kept him in a dark place, like a cheese, until he had the full Tellson flavour and blue-mould upon him. Then only was he permitted to be seen, spectacularly poring over large books, and casting his breeches and gaiters into the general weight of the establishment.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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You speak so feelingly and so manfully, Charles Darnay
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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We'll start to forget a place once we left it
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I am no more annoyed when I think of the expression, than I should be annoyed by a man's opinion of a picture of mine, who had no eye for pictures; or of a piece of music of mine, who had no ear for music.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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When the time comes, let loose a tiger and a devil; but wait for the time with the tiger and the devil chained -not shown- yet always ready.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Good never come of such evil, a happier end was not in nature to so unhappy a beginning.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I am a disappointed drudge, sir. I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I wish you to know you have been the last dream of my soul. Since I knew you, I have been troubled by a remorse that I thought would never reproach me again, and have heard whispers from old voices impelling me upward, that I thought were silent for ever. I had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned fight. A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothingโ€ฆ But I wish you to know that you inspired it. And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into the fire.
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Charles Dickens
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Era el mejor de los tiempos y era el peor de los tiempos; la edad de la sabidurรญa y tambiรฉn de la locura; la รฉpoca de las creencias y de la incredulidad; la era de la luz y de las tinieblas; la primavera de la esperanza y el invierno de la desesperaciรณn. Todo lo poseรญamos, pero nada tenรญamos; รญbamos directamente al cielo y nos extraviรกbamos en el camino opuesto. En una palabra, aquella รฉpoca era tan parecida a la actual, que nuestras mรกs notables autoridades insisten en que, tanto en lo que se refiere al bien como al mal, sรณlo es aceptable la comparaciรณn en grado superlativo.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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When you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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The great grindstone, Earth, had turned when Mr. Lorry looked out again, and the sun was red on the courtyard. But, the lesser grindstone stood alone there in the calm morning air, with red upon it that the sun had never give, and would never take away.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Will you never understand that I am incorrigible?
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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If I may ride with you, Citizen Evremonde, will you let me hold your hand? I am not afraid, but I am little and weak, and it will give me more courage." As the patient eyes were lifted to his face, he saw a sudden doubt in them, and then astonishment. He pressed the work-worn, hunger-worn young fingers, and touched his lips. "Are you dying for him?" she whispered. "And his wife and child. Hush! Yes." "Oh, you will let me hold your brave hand, stranger?" "Hush! Yes, my poor sister; to the last.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Other sound than the owl's voice there was none, save the falling of a fountain into its stone basin; for, it was one of those dark nights that hold their breath by the hour together, and then heave a long low sigh, and hold their breath again.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I distress you; I draw fast to an end.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Above all, one hideous figure grew as familiar as if it had been before the general gaze from the foundations of the world - the figure of the sharp female called La Guillotine. It was the popular theme for jests; it was the best cure for headache, it infallibly prevented hair from turning gray, it imparted a peculiar delicacy to the complexion, it was the National Razor which shaved close: who kissed La Guillotine looked through the little window and sneezed into the sack.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Why should you particularly like a man who resembles you? There is nothing in you to like; you know that.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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...the one woman who had stood conspicuous, knitting, still knitted on with the steadfastness of Fate.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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The two stand in the fast-thinning throng of victims, but they speak as if they were alone. Eye to eye, voice to voice, hand to hand, heart to heart, these two children of the Universal Mother, else so wide apart and differing, have come together on the dark highway, to repair home together and to rest in her bosom.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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It is a long time,' repeated his wife; 'and when is it not a long time? Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.' 'It does not take a long time to strike a man with Lightning,' said Defarge. 'How long,' demanded madame, composedly, 'does it take to make and store the lightning? Tell me?
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way โ€“ in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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That, they never could lay their heads upon their pillows; that, they could never tolerate the idea of their wives laying their heads upon their pillows; that, they could never endure the notion of their children laying their heads on their pillows; in short , that there never more could be , for them or theirs , any laying of heads upon pillows at all , unless the prisioner's head was taken off. The Attorney General during the trial of Mr. Darnay
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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his face, though lined, bore few traces of anxiety. But, perhaps the confidential bachelor clerks in Tellson's Bank were principally occupied with the cares of other people; and perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Do you particularly like the man?โ€ he muttered, at his own image; โ€œwhy should you particularly like a man who resembles you? There is nothing in you to like; you know that. Ah, confound you! What a change you have made in yourself! A good reason for taking to a man, that he shows you what you have fallen away from, and what you might have been! Change places with him, and would you have been looked at by those blue eyes as he was, and commiserated by that agitated face as he was? Come on, and have it out in plain words! You hate the fellow
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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ุฅู†ู‡ ูƒุงู† ุฃุญุณู† ุงู„ุฃุฒู…ุงู† ูˆูƒุงู† ุฃุณูˆุฃ ุงู„ุฃุฒู…ุงู† .. ูƒุงู† ุนุตุฑ ุงู„ุญูƒู…ุฉ ูˆูƒุงู† ุนุตุฑ ุงู„ุฌู‡ุงู„ุฉ .. ูƒุงู† ุนู‡ุฏ ุงู„ูŠู‚ูŠู† ูˆุงู„ุฅูŠู…ุงู† ูˆูƒุงู† ุนู‡ุฏ ุงู„ุญูŠุฑุฉ ูˆุงู„ุดูƒูˆูƒ .. ูƒุงู† ุฃูˆุงู† ุงู„ู†ูˆุฑ ูˆูƒุงู† ุฃูˆุงู† ุงู„ุธู„ุงู… .. ูƒุงู† ุฑุจูŠุน ุงู„ุฑุฌุงุก ูˆูƒุงู† ุฒู…ู‡ุฑูŠุฑ ุงู„ู‚ู†ูˆุท .. ุจูŠู† ุฃูŠุฏูŠู†ุง ูƒู„ ุดูŠุก ูˆู„ูŠุณ ููŠ ุฃูŠุฏูŠู†ุง ุฃูŠ ุดูŠุก .. ูˆุณุจูŠู„ู†ุง ุฌู…ูŠุนุง ุฅู„ู‰ ุณู…ุงุก ุนู„ูŠูŠู†ุŒ ูˆุณุจูŠู„ู†ุง ุฌู…ูŠุนุง ุฅู„ู‰ ู‚ุฑุงุฑ ุงู„ุฌุญูŠู…. ุชู„ูƒ ุฃูŠุงู… ูƒุฃูŠุงู…ู†ุง ู‡ุฐู‡ ุงู„ุชูŠ ูŠูˆุตูŠู†ุง ุงู„ุตุงุฎุจูˆู† ู…ู† ุซู‚ุงุชู‡ุง ุฃู† ู†ุฃุฎุฐู‡ุง ุนู„ู‰ ุนู„ุงุชู‡ุงุŒ ูˆุงู„ุง ู†ุฐูƒุฑู‡ุง ุฅู„ุง ุจุตูŠุบุฉ ุงู„ู…ุจุงู„ุบุฉ ููŠู…ุง ุงุดุชู…ู„ุช ุนู„ูŠู‡ ู…ู† ุทูŠุจุงุช ูˆู…ู† ุขูุงุช // ููŠ ุฒู…ู† ุงู„ุซูˆุฑุฉ ุงู„ูุฑู†ุณูŠุฉ
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities (Bantam Classics))
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I should like to ask you: -- Does your childhood seem far off? Do the days when you sat at your mother's knee, seem days of very long ago?" Responding to his softened manner, Mr. Lorry answered: "Twenty years back, yes; at this time of my life, no. For, as I draw closer and closer to the end, I travel in the circle, nearer and nearer to the beginning. It seems to be one of the kind smoothings and preparings of the way. My heart is touched now, by many remembrances that had long fallen asleep, of my pretty young mother (and I so old!), and by many associations of the days when what we call the World was not so real with me, and my faults were not confirmed with me.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Juryman, the Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument, before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making explanation for itself and wearing it out.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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There was once, in the country of Alifbay, a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name. It stood by a mournful sea full of glumfish, which were so miserable to eat that they made people belch with melancholy even though the skies were blue... And in the depths of the city, beyond an old zone of ruined buildings that look like broken hearts, there lived a happy young fellow by name of Haroun, the only child of the storyteller Rashid Khalifa, whose cheerfulness was famous throughout that unhappy metropolis, and whose never-ending stream of tall, and winding tales had earned him not one but two nicknames. To his admirers he was Rashid the Ocean of Notions, as stuffed with cheery stories as the sea was full of glumfish; but to his jealous rivals he was the Shah of Blah.
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Salman Rushdie (Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Khalifa Brothers, #1))
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No. I hear you say the word, as if I sat in the room beside you. I see you, bent over the tome in your hand with a frown on your face and a curse on your lips, as if I were puddled in the shadow at your feet. The realization that there are no more pages is sinking in now. I hear it. I see it. No, you say again. What of Mia and Jonnen? Of Scaeva? Mercurio and Ashlinn and Tric? The secrets of the darkin? The Crown of the Moon? I promised ruins in her wake. Pale light glittering on waters that drank a city of bridges and bones. All these questions unanswered, and yet the book is at its end? No, you say. It cannot end like that. Fear not, little mortal. The song is not yet sung. This is but the calm before the crescendo. This tale is only two of three. Birth. And life. And death. So patience, gentlefriends. Patience. Close your eyes. Take my hand. And walk with me.
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Jay Kristoff (Godsgrave (The Nevernight Chronicle, #2))
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...The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes. The hands of the man who sawed the wood, left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby, was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a nightcap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-leesโ€”BLOOD.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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The night wore out, and, as he stood upon the bridge listening to the water as it splashed the river-walls of the Island of Paris, where the picturesque confusion of houses and cathedral shone bright in the light of the moon, the day came coldly, looking like a dead face out of the sky. Then, the night, with the moon and the stars, turned pale and died, and for a little while it seemed as if Creation were delivered over to Death's dominion. But, the glorious sun, rising, seemed to strike those words, that burden of the night, straight and warm to his heart in its long bright rays. And looking along them, with reverently shaded eyes, a bridge of light appeared to span the air between him and the sun, while the river sparkled under it.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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They said of him, about the city that night, that it was the peacefullest man's face ever beheld there. Many added that he looked sublime and prophetic. One of the most remarkable sufferers by the same axe---a woman---had asked at the foot of the same scaffold, not long before, to be allowed to write down the thoughts that were inspiring her. If he had given an utterance to his, and they were prophetic, they would have been these: "I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Juryman, the Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument, before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out. "I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more. I see Her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see her father, aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to all men in his healing office, and at peace. I see the good old man, so long their friend, in ten years' time enriching them with all he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward. "I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both. "I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, foremost of just judges and honoured men, brining a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place---then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day's disfigurement---and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and faltering voice. "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
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Buried how long?โ€ The answer was always the same: โ€œAlmost eighteen years.โ€ You had abandoned all hope of being dug out?โ€ Long ago.โ€ You know that you are recalled to life?โ€ They tell me so.โ€ I hope that you care to live?โ€ I canโ€™t say.โ€ Shall I show her to you? Will you come and see her?โ€ The answers to this question were various and contradictory. Sometimes the broken reply was, โ€œWait! It would kill me if I saw her too soon.โ€ Sometimes it was given in a tender rain of tears, and then it was, โ€œTake me to her.โ€ Sometimes it was staring and bewildered, and then it was, โ€œI donโ€™t know her. I donโ€™t understand.โ€ After such imaginary discourse, the passenger in his fancy would dig, and dig, dig โ€“ to dig this wretched creature out. Got out at last, with earth hanging about his face and hair, he would suddenly fall away to dust. The passenger would then start to himself, and lower the window, to get the reality of mist and rain on his cheek. Yet even when his eyes were opened on the mist and rain, on the moving patch of light from the lamps, and the hedge of the roadside retreating by jerks, the night shadows outside the coach would fall into the train of night shadows within. Out of the midst in them, a ghostly face would rise, and he would accost it again. Buried how long?โ€ Almost eighteen years.โ€ I hope you care to live?โ€ I canโ€™t say.โ€ Dig โ€“ dig โ€“ dig โ€“ until an impatient movement from one of the two passengers would admonish him to pull up the window, draw his arm securely through the leather strap, and speculate on the two slumbering life forms, until his mind lost hold of them, and they again slid away into the bank and the grave. Buried how long?โ€ Almost eighteen years.โ€ You had abandoned all hope of being dug out?โ€ Long ago.โ€ The words were still in his hearing just as spoken โ€“ distinctly in his hearing as ever spoken words had been in his life โ€“ when the weary passenger started to the consciousness of daylight, and found that the shadows of night were gone.
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Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)