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July 21 - July 23, 2025
It looked like your average ginger tabby—a rather large, plump cat with an orange-and-yellow-striped coat. This particular cat had distinctive stripe markings running from the top of its head down its back and tail—typical of a tabby—but its belly and legs were pure white.
“The name’s Tiger. Tiger the Tabby.”
This world throws all kinds of obstacles at us; we are forced to endure so much that is absurd. Our best weapon
for fighting all the pain and trouble in the world isn’t logic or violence. It’s humor.”
No matter how rich and wonderful it all looks on the outside, when you take off the lid and look inside there’s nothing but a jumble of borrowed junk. It’s the worst kind of ignorance.”
The world is full of books, you agree? It’s impossible to count the number of books that have been, and are still being, written.
To find the time to read the same books over again—well, it’s just inconceivable.”
Books have tremendous power. But take care. It’s the book that holds the power, not you.”
“It’s not true that the more you read, the more you see of the world. No matter how much knowledge you cram into your head, unless you think with your own mind, walk with your own feet, the knowledge you acquire will never be anything more than empty and borrowed.”
“Books can’t live your life for you. The reader who forgets to walk on his own two feet is like an old encyclopedia, his head stuffed with out-of-date
of-date information. Unless someone else opens it up, it’s nothing but a useless antique.”
“It’s all very well to read a book, but when you’ve finished, it’s time to set foot in the world.”
“There are so many books in the world, but we humans are so busy that we can never find the time to read them all.
“Reading isn’t only for pleasure or entertainment. Sometimes you need to examine the same lines deeply, read the same sentences over again. Sometimes you sit there, head in hands, only progressing at a painstakingly slow pace. And the result of all this hard work and careful study is that suddenly you’re there and your field of vision expands. It’s like finding a great view at the end of a long climbing trail.”
“That’s out of my paws. Cats are, by nature, creatures of will.
No matter how sad, how painful, how nonsensical a thing might happen, time refused to stand still and wait for him.
“Being able to express shallow words of sympathy in a sweet voice doesn’t make someone a caring, compassionate soul. What’s important is the ability to have empathy for another human being—to be able to feel their pain, to walk alongside them in their suffering.”
we’re all so occupied with ourselves that we stop thinking about others. When a person loses their own heart, they can’t feel another’s pain. They lie, they hurt others, use weaker people as stepping-stones to get ahead—they stop feeling anything.
“A book that sits on a shelf is nothing but a bundle of paper. Unless it is opened, a book possessing great power or an epic story is mere
scraps of paper. But a book that has been cherished and loved, filled with human thoughts, has been endowed with a soul.”
The cat’s eyes gleamed. Noble, confident to the point of arrogance, and yet beautiful. An amazing cat.
“Books have souls,” repeated the cat softly. “A cherished book will always have a soul. It will come to its reader’s aid in times of crisis.”
“Books can give us knowledge, wisdom, values, a view of the world, and so much more. The joy of learning something you didn’t know before, and seeing things in a whole new way is exciting. But somehow I believed they gave us something more important than that.”
“Books teach us how to care about others.”
“Books are filled with human thoughts and feelings. People suffering, people who are sad or happy, laughing with joy. By reading their words and their stories, by experiencing them together, we learn about the hearts and minds of other people besides ourselves. Thanks to books, it’s possible to learn not only about the people around us every day, but people living in totally different worlds.”
“Don’t hurt anyone. Never bully people weaker than yourself. Help out those in need. Some would say that these rules are obvious. But the truth is, the obvious is no longer obvious in today’s world. What’s
worse is that some people even ask why. They don’t understand why they shouldn’t hurt other people. It’s not a simple thing to explain. It’s not logical. But if they read books they will understand. It’s far more important than using logic to explain something. Human beings don’t live alone, and a book is a way to show them that.”
Empathy—that’s the power of books.”
