113 books
—
88 voters
Speedboat
by
The same person used to write “tepid” and “arguable” all over the margins of what our obituary writers wrote. I now think “tepid” and “arguable” several times a day.
“The poor cannot always reach those whom they want to love, and they can hardly ever escape from those whom they love no longer. We rich can. Imagine the tragedy last June, if Helen and Paul Wilcox had been poor people, and couldn't invoke railways and motor-cars to part them." "That's more like Socialism," said Mrs. Munt suspiciously. "Call it what you like. I call it going through life with one's hand spread open on the table. I'm tired of these rich people who pretend to be poor, and think it shows a nice mind to ignore the piles of money that keep their feet above the waves. I stand each year upon six hundred pounds, and Helen upon the same, and Tibby will stand upon eight, and as fast as our pounds crumble away into the sea they are renewed--from the sea, yes, from the sea. And all our thoughts are the thoughts of six-hundred-pounders, and all our speeches; and because we don't want to steal umbrellas ourselves, we forget that below the sea people do want to steal them and do steal them sometimes, and that what's a joke up here is down there reality.”
― Howards End, The Longest Journey, A Room with a View, Where Angels Fear to Tread and The Machine Stops
― Howards End, The Longest Journey, A Room with a View, Where Angels Fear to Tread and The Machine Stops
“Each generation lives in the absolute: it behaves as if it had reached the apex if not the end of history.”
― The Trouble With Being Born
― The Trouble With Being Born
“Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.”
― Thinking, Fast and Slow
― Thinking, Fast and Slow
“These kids don't have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don't have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that.”
―
―
“As we are a doomed race, chained to a sinking ship, as the whole thing is a bad joke, let us, at any rate, do our part; mitigate the suffering of our fellow-prisoners; decorate the dungeon with flowers and air-cushions; be as decent as we possibly can.”
― Mrs. Dalloway
― Mrs. Dalloway
Short Story lovers
— 411 members
— last activity Oct 13, 2024 01:51PM
For people who especially love short stories, and don't care who knows it! ...more
Carol’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Carol’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Carol
Lists liked by Carol

























