Remember that there are two things in this life that are never worth crying about: what can be cured and what cannot be cured.

He was outwardly calm but inwardly bleeding to death.

Imagine! It is the real power of a book--not what is on the page, but what happens when a reader takes the pages in, makes it part of himself. That is the definition of literature.

Though a woman tempted man to eat, my dear Longfellow," said Holmes, "you never hear of Eve having to do with his drinking, for he took to that of his own notion.

Shakespeare brings us to know ourselves. Dante, with his dissection of all others, bids us to know one another.

...and luckily I have enough in my head to balance what is wanting in my back.

Books do pretend ...but squeezed in between is even more that is true—without what you may call the lies, the pages would be too light for the truth, you see?