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—“Bhagavad Gita.”

It loved to happen. —Marcus Aurelius.

O snail

Climb Mount Fuji,

But slowly, slowly! —Issa.

Concerning the Gods, there are those who deny the very existence of the Godhead; others say that it exists, but neither bestirs nor concerns itself nor has forethought for anything. A third party attribute to it existence and forethought, but only for great and heavenly matters, not for anything that is on earth. A fourth party admit things on earth as well as in heaven, but only in general, and not with respect to each individual. A fifth, of whom were Ulysses and Socrates, are those that cry: —

“I move not without Thy knowledge!”

—Epictetus.

The love interest and climax would come when a man and a lady, both strangers, got to talking together on the train going back east.

“Well,” said Mrs. Croot, for it was she, “what did you think of the Canyon?”

“Some cave,” replied her escort.

“What a funny way to put it!” replied Mrs. Croot. “And now play me something.”

—Ring Lardner (“How to Write Short Stories”).

God instructs the heart, not by ideas but by pains and contradictions. —De Caussade.

“Papa!” shrieked Kitty, and shut his mouth with her hands.

“Well, I won’t . . .” he said. “I’m very, very pleased. . . . Oh, what a fool I am. . . .”

He embraced Kitty, kissed her face, her hand, her face again, and made the sign of the cross over her.

And there came over Levin a new feeling of love for this man, till then so little known to him, when he saw how slowly and tenderly Kitty kissed his muscular hand.

—“Anna Karenina.”

“Sir, we ought to teach the people that they are doing wrong in worshipping the images and pictures in the temple.”

Ramakrishna: “That’s the way with you Calcutta people: you want to teach and preach. You want to give millions when you are beggars yourselves. . . . Do you think God does not know that he is being worshipped in the images and pictures? If a worshipper should make a mistake, do you not think God will know his intent?”

—“The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.”

“Don’t you want to join us?” I was recently asked by an acquaintance when he ran across me alone after midnight in a coffeehouse that was already almost deserted. “No, I don’t,” I said.

—Kafka.

The happiness of being with people.

—Kakfa.

St. Francis de Sales’ prayer: “Yes, Father! Yes, and always, Yes!”

Zui-Gan called out to himself every day, “Master.”

Then he answered himself, “Yes, sir.”

And then he added, “Become sober.”