Quotes from the World for June 12th

Opinions are not to be learned by rote, like the letters of an alphabet, or the words of a dictionary. They are conclusions to be formed, and formed by each individual in the sacred and free citadel of the mind, and there enshrined beyond the arm of law to reach, or force to shake; ay! and beyond the right of impertinent curiosity to violate, or presumptuous arrogance to threaten.

Frances Wright
Frances Wright (1795–1852), Scottish author and speaker; relocated to America. Course of Popular Lectures, lecture 6 (1829).

Quotes from the World for June 11th

Good writing is always a breaking of the soil, clearing away prejudices, pulling up of sour weeds of crooked thinking, stripping the turf so as to get at what is fertile beneath. It would be amusing to carry the simile further. Those bulbs that flower in the sand and wither! The gay fiction annual that has to be planted again every year! Those experimental plants from Russia, France, and Greenwich Village that are always getting winter killed—confound ’em!—is it worth while planting them again? The stocky perennial that keeps coming up and coming up—so easy to grow and so ugly. Scarlet sage that gives a touch of fiery sin to the edge of the suburbanite’s concrete walk! And then the good flowers—as honest as they are beautiful! The well-ordered gar den! The climbing rose that escapes and is the most beautiful of all!

Henry Seidel Canby
Henry Seidel Canby (1878–1961), U.S. author, editor. “Cultivate Your Garden,” Definitions: Second Series, Harcourt (1924).

2 more down

So I’m using the Omaha Public Library’s audio book software.

I’ve finished Jackie Collins Confessions of a Wild Child & Kerrelyn Sparks The Undead Next Door.

2 book finished in the last two days.

When using the audio format, you can borrow a book for 14 days.