Books are the carriers of civilization.
Without books, history is silent,
literature dumb, science crippled,
thought and speculation at a standstill.
I think that there is nothing, not even crime,
more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay,
to life itself than this incessant business.
~Henry David Thoreau


It is a fine thing to establish one's own religion in one's heart,
not to second-hand ideals.
Life will seem to you, later,
not a lesser, but a greater thing.
~D.H. Lawrence


You're alive. Do something.
The directive in life,
the moral imperative was so uncomplicated.
It could be expressed in single words,
not complete sentences.
It sounded like this:
Look. Listen. Choose. Act.
~Barbara Hall