Some more quotes from some other books

"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte:

"What were the use of my creation if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning; my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty stranger. I would not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees - my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath - a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff-he's always, always in my mind - not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself - but as my own being-"
This, said by a lady, married to a man named Linton, talking of her childhood love, Heathcliff - two people thrown together and away from all else in the initial days of their conscious life.

"Scarlet Pimpernal" by Baroness Emmuska Orczy":

"He seemed to worship me with a curious intensity of concentrated passion, which went straight to my heart. I had never loved any one before and I was four-and-twenty then - so I naturally thought it was not in my nature to love. But it has always seemed to me that it MUST be HEAVENLY to be loved blindly, passionately, wholly... worshipped, in fact - and the very fact that he was slow and stupid was an attraction for me, as I thought he would love me all the more. A clever man would naturally have other interests, an ambitious man other hopes... I thought that a fool would worship me, and think of nothing else. And I was ready to respond, to allow myself to be worshipped, and give infinite tenderness in return... "
This, said by a lady justifying why she married a man she thought to be a fool.

Quotes from "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens

Hereforth, I quote a few sentences from some of the books that I have read that have impressed me a great deal. Make no mistake for I am no literary critic, I just enjoy a wide range of books in my own simple way.

"A picture is worth a thousand words" it is said but creating a picture in one's mind with those thousand words seems to me to be no easy task. Hence, I savour it when done and the quotes that I speak of are some such.

Today's book of interest: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens

"A man of a strong resolution and a set purpose; a man not desirable to be met, rushing down a narrow pass with a gulf on either side, for nothing would turn the man."
This, describing a man of great will and determination.

"The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful. It was not the faintness of physical weakness. Its deplorable peculiarity was that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last and feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago. So entirely had it lost the life and resonance of the human voice, that it affected the senses like a once beautiful colour faded away into a poor weak stain. So sunken and suppressed it was, that it was like a voice underground. So expressive it was, of a hopeless and lost creature, that a famished traveller, wearied out by lonely wandering in a wilderness, would have remembered home and friends in such a tone before lying down to die."
This, describing a prisoner shut in solitary confinement for years together - a prisoner convicted of crimes he had never commited, a prisoner who was once a honourable man earning his honest bread, a prisoner separated from his wife he had loved so dearly and a daughter unborn.

Anger – A tempting opportunity to destroy self

I know I am not perfection personified and am not sure I want to get there either but there is one weakness in me which has affected me more than all others put together and that, I want to get rid of – Anger. It has not pushed me to doom so far, the sole reason being that the people who really matter have been forgiving and accommodating of me. Every time I strayed the wrong way, they have had the heart to give me “just one more chance”. It frightens me to sit back and think just how soon these chances would exhaust and how far have I pushed their tolerance.

Time and again, I get hold of one of these soul-cleansing articles or books, hoping to purge my soul but as happens with most such articles, the words and their intent are completely lost on me. I read them cover-to-cover and store every word in my mind but don’t really process any of it, not until one fine day when a bolt from the sky strikes me and every thing I have ever read or been told comes back to me and starts making a whole lot of sense. One such bolt struck me a few days back as I sat by the window in my office bus on my way home. My mind was wandering back and forth all over my memory lane recalling several incidents where in I had lost complete control of myself and let anger take over me. I was shocked as I realized that I had exposed my weaknesses to perfect strangers and was shamelessly expecting them to sympathize with me. I had emerged none the winner, just an empty, bitter and helpless feeling in my heart. It happened far too often and I was tired. I needed a way out of this agony - agony it is for a self-respecting person to feel helpless. I closed my eyes, imagined myself avenging all those who had apparently wronged me but the same helpless feeling threatened me. Then the bolt and all the words of advice I was ever given came back to me in a gush, processed and full of meaning – “Do not let anger overwhelm you. Tame it and use it to your purpose.”

I analyzed all those incidents in this new light. I put myself in the “wrong-doers’” place and realized that he/she never saw what I was seeing. They had a whole new outlook and if I thought mine was right, it was my duty to reason out and show them why. Instead, I had screamed at them, insulted them and hurt their self-respect and in the process, made them close their minds to me. I had forgotten that the other person had as much self-respect as me and would be as protective of it as I was of mine. I wouldn’t care for a person who insults me, why should another? There is also another aspect – the “wrong-doers” are part of a situation. Avenging one person or another cannot solve the problem because there would be yet another to take his/her place. I must equip myself against the situations. The knowledge of progressive steps towards the goal drives out the helpless feeling, if not success itself and to keep myself progressing, all I need to do is recall my anger. Currently, anger has stopped playing “fire” in my life and has taken the role of “fuel”.

It hasn’t been too long since this learning but it is there for now and I wish it stays with me for long.