/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.4583255]

ITT: Lines/Paragraphs form books that changed your life.

“It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe.
To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that I was happy still. For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration.”

[Anonymous No.4583264]

"O God most glorious, called by many a name,
Nature’s great King, through endless years the same;
Omnipotence, who by thy just decree
Controllest all, hail, Zeus, for unto thee
Behooves thy creatures in all lands to call.
We are thy children, we alone, of all
On earth’s broad ways that wander to and fro,
Bearing thine image wheresoe’er we go.
Wherefore with songs of praise thy power I will forth show.
Lo! yonder heaven, that round the earth is wheeled,
Follows thy guidance, still to thee doth yield
Glad homage; thine unconquerable hand
Such flaming minister, the levin-brand,
Wieldeth, a sword two-edged, whose deathless might
Pulsates through all that Nature brings to light;
Vehicle of the universal Word, that flows
Through all, and in the light celestial glows
Of stars both great and small. O King of Kings
Through ceaseless ages, God, whose purpose brings
To birth, whate’er on land or in the sea
Is wrought, or in high heaven’s immensity;
Save what the sinner works infatuate.
Nay, but thou knowest to make crooked straight:
Chaos to thee is order: in thine eyes
The unloved is lovely, who did’st harmonize
Things evil with things good, that there should be
One Word through all things everlastingly.
One Word—whose voice alas! the wicked spurn;
Insatiate for the good their spirits yearn:
Yet seeing see not, neither hearing hear
God’s universal law, which those revere,

(1/2)

[Anonymous No.4583267]

>>4583264
By reason guided, happiness who win.
The rest, unreasoning, diverse shapes of sin
Self-prompted follow: for an idle name
Vainly they wrestle in the lists of fame:
Others inordinately Riches woo,
Or dissolute, the joys of flesh pursue.
Now here, now there they wander, fruitless still,
For ever seeking good and finding ill.
Zeus the all-bountiful, whom darkness shrouds,
Whose lightning lightens in the thunder clouds;
Thy children save from error’s deadly sway:
Turn thou the darkness from their souls away:
Vouchsafe that unto knowledge they attain;
For thou by knowledge art made strong to reign
O’er all, and all things rulest righteously.
So by thee honoured, we will honour thee,
Praising thy works continually with songs,
As mortals should; nor higher meed belongs
E’en to the gods, than justly to adore
The universal law for evermore."
-Hymn to Zeus, by Cleanthes
(2/2)

[Anonymous No.4583291]

>>4583255
The Stranger

11/10 OP

Fantastic work of Lit

[Anonymous No.4583306]

>>4583255

"Sing to me of the man, muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again of course, once he had plundered the hallow heights of Troy"

[Anonymous No.4583307]

>>4583306
>The book never changed by life as much OP but I can always remember this opening

[Anonymous No.4583310]

As my Scotch, spared the water, blondly sloshes
About its tumbler, and gay manic flame
Is snapping in the fireplace, I grow youthful:
I realize that calendars aren’t truthful
And that for all of my grand unsuccesses
External causes are to blame.
And if at present somewhat destitute,
plan to alter, prove myself more able,
And suavely stroll into the coming years
As into rooms with thick rugs, chandeliers,
And colorfully pyramided fruit
On linened lengths of table.

At times I fear the future won’t reward
My failures with sufficient compensation,
But dump me, aging, in a garret room
Appointed with twilit, slant-ceilinged gloom
And a lone bulb depending from a cord
Suggestive of self-strangulation.

Then, too, I have bad dreams, in one of which
A cowled, scythe-bearing figure beckons me.
Dark plains glow at his back: it seems I’ve died,
And my soul, weighed and judged, has qualified
For an extended, hyper-sultry hitch
Down in eternity.

Such fears and dreams, however, always pass.
And gazing from my window at the dark,
My drink in hand, I’m jauntily unbowed.
The sky’s tiered, windy galleries stream with cloud,
And higher still, the dazed stars thickly mass
In their long Ptolemaic arc.

What constellated powers, unkind or kind,
Sway me, what far preposterous ghosts of air?
Whoever they are, whatever our connection,
I toast them (toasting also my reflection),
Not minding that the words which come to mind
Make the toast less toast than prayer:

Here’s to the next year, to the best year yet;
To mixed joys, to my harum-scarum prime;
To auguries reliable and specious;
To times to come, such times being precious,
If only for the reason that they get
Shorter all the time.

[Anonymous No.4583321]

Its how I met my wife

[Anonymous No.4583322]

"Tis all a Checkerboard of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays."

[Anonymous No.4583333]

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

[Anonymous No.4583388]

OP here.Thread seems to be going pretty well, so I'll contribute again:

"To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour."

William Blake

[Anonymous No.4583416]

>>4583310
cliched imagery, pretentious wank

[Anonymous No.4583449]

I am Jack's Raging Bile Duct.

[Anonymous No.4583456]

Did Camus ever act, at all?

He would've been perfect for film noir.

[Anonymous No.4583461]

>>4583255
>For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration

What does he mean by this, if I may ask?

[Anonymous No.4583571]

"Only as a warrior can one survive the path of knowledge," he said. "Because the art of a warrior is to balance the terror of being a man with the wonder of being a man."

[Anonymous No.4583574]

>>4583571
>Don Juan

my nigga

[Anonymous No.4583578]

>>4583574
I almost cried when I finished reading Journey to Ixtlan.

[Anonymous No.4583588]

>>4583321
She didn't respond because Chloe is two syllables, not three, you fucking moron

[Anonymous No.4583617]

"Brothers, love is a teacher, but a hard one to obtain: learning to love is hard and we pay dearly for it."

Brothers Karamazov. That book and Les Miserables both had a strong moral impact on me.

[Anonymous No.4583620]

>>4583310

Did the author of that poem do something to you? You're going to start dragging his work into everything and make people dislike him simply by association.

[Anonymous No.4583623]

>>4583578
I just started that one now, great stuff.

I liked how Genaro and Don Juan clowned the hell out of Carlos in the second book too.

[Anonymous No.4583628]

-Too deep for me, Stevie

From Portrait of the Artist. Now I must live life without sides. Truly a difficult task

[Anonymous No.4583631]

>>4583461
Read the book

[Anonymous No.4583635]

Prowling about at night was one of the Steppenwolf's favorite tendencies. The morning was a wretched time of day for him. He feared it and it never brought him any good. On no morning of his life had he ever been in good spirits nor done any good before midday, nor ever had a happy idea, nor devised any pleasure for himself or others. By degrees during the afternoon he warmed and became alive, and only towards evening, on his good days, was he productive, active and, sometimes, aglow with joy. With this was bound up his need for loneliness and independence. There was never a man with a deeper and more passionate craving for independence than he. In his youth when he was poor and had difficulty in earning his bread, he preferred to go hungry and in torn clothes rather than endanger his narrow limit of independence. He never sold himself for money or an easy life or to women or to those in power; and had thrown away a hundred times what in the world's eyes was his advantage and happiness in order to safeguard his liberty. No prospect was more hateful and distasteful to him than that he should have to go to an office and conform to daily and yearly routine and obey others. He hated all kinds of offices, governmental or commercial, as he hated death, and his worst nightmare was confinement in barracks. He contrived, often at great sacrifice, to avoid all such predicaments. It was here that his strength and his virtue rested. On this point he could neither be bent nor bribed. Here his character was firm and indeflectable. Only, through this virtue, he was bound the closer to his destiny of suffering. It happened to him as it does to all; what he strove for with the deepest and most stubborn instinct of his being fell to his lot, but more than is good for men. In the beginning his dream and his happiness, in the end it was his bitter fate. The man of power is ruined by power, the man of money by money, the submissive man by subservience, the pleasure seeker by pleasure. He achieved his aim. He was ever more independent. He took orders from no man and ordered his ways to suit no man. Independently and alone, he decided what to do and to leave undone. For every strong man attains to that which a genuine impulse bids him seek. But in the midst of the freedom he had attained Harry suddenly became aware that his freedom was a death and that he stood alone. The world in an uncanny fashion left him in peace. Other men concerned him no longer. He was not even concerned about himself. He began to suffocate slowly in the more and more rarefied atmosphere of remoteness and solitude. For now it was his wish no longer, nor his aim, to be alone and independent, but rather his lot and his sentence. The magic wish had been fulfilled and could not be cancelled, and it was no good now to open his arms with longing and goodwill to welcome the bonds of society. People left him alone now.

[Anonymous No.4583645]

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness..."

"Every life is many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, gains, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love. But always meeting ourselves."

"With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he understood that he also was an illusion, that someone else was dreaming him."

"Я вас любил, Любовь ещё быт может..."

[Anonymous No.4583657]

>>4583623
There's more clowning of poor Carlos in Tales of Power. The first four books I think are the best, the other... not so much, mainly because of how Castaneda starts talking about kind of new age stuff.

[Anonymous No.4583750]

>>4583631
I did. I never really thought about that last line, but now that I'm sitting here looking at it, I don't get it.

[Anonymous No.4583762]

>>4583628
The paragraph before that was my favorite in the book. I also loved dat reply.
I loved that book.

[Anonymous No.4583779]

>>4583657
So I heard, I'm only reading them for Don Juan to be honest. From what I hear Carlos deviated way too much from his teachings and just failed at the end of the day.

[Anonymous No.4583802]

>>4583779
Well, that's implying Don Juan even existed. I personally think that he did, but that much of the teachings were taken by Castaneda from other sources. One wonders how come don Juan's teachings are so similar to Heidegger's philosophy and Zen buddhism.

[Anonymous No.4583834]

>the stranger
>good
it was banal as fuck, what are you plebs talking about?

[Anonymous No.4583953]

>>4583802
Meh, I don't like to think this-thought and that-thought are the product and trademark of any one person. There's only one Truth, some just happen to be more in-tune with it than others.

[Anonymous No.4583959]

>>4583762
The book is so fucking good. I can't even think of one singular favorite passage, though I guess the last few pages, when it goes full journal mode, were among the greatest things I have ever read.

[Anonymous No.4584058]

>>4583959
>when it goes full journal mode, were among the greatest things I have ever read
how come?