This blog intends to present the readers some of the famous passages from English literature including poetry, fiction, essays, history, philosophy and other areas that I have come across in my reading at various points of time in my literary life.
"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 directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."
There, my blessing with you! And see that you write these few precepts In your memory. Give your thoughts to yourself, And don’t act without thinking. Be friendly, but by no means vulgar. Those friends you have, and their friendship tested, Anchor them to your soul with hoops of steel, But don’t spend your money on entertaining Each newly acquired, unproven friend. Beware Of getting into a quarrel, but, once you are in, Fight so that the man you fight with may beware of you. Listen to what every man says, but speak to few. Take each man's opinion, but reserve your judgment. Buy as costly clothes as can pay for, But not made fancy, rich, and certainly not gaudy. For the clothes often tell what kind of man you are, And the ones in France of the best rank and station Are most choosy and generous in that regard. Neither a borrower nor a lender be. For a loan often loses both the loan and the friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of the economy. This above all, to your own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, You cannot then be false to any man. Goodbye. My blessing instill these things in you!
