English Book Club

The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances. *** I know human nature, my friend, and I tell you that, suddenly confronted with the possibility of being tried for murder, the most innocent person will lose his head and do the most absurd things. "Murder on the Orient Express", Agatha Christie

He was disappointed in it all. He had developed into an alien. As the steam beer had tasted raw, so their companionship seemed raw to him. He was too far removed. Too many thousands of opened books yawned between them and him. He had exiled himself. He had travelled in the vast realm of intellect until he could no longer return home. On the other hand, he was human, and his gregarious need for companionship remained unsatisfied. He had found no new home. *** limited minds can recognize limitatio...

He looked at her the way all women want to be looked at by a man. He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to b...

I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb. And I also know that I’m not blonde. Maybe that’s because of the power of your thoughts: whatever you think you are, you become. You have to speak the thing that you’re feeling, even if it scares you. You have to tell your story. You have to raise your voice. "The Woman in Me" by Britney Spears

The more intelligent you become, the more problems you’ll have. *** There are a lot of people who will give money or materials, but very few who will give time and affection. "Flowers for Algernon", Daniel Keyes

A heart can stop beating for a while, but it doesn’t mean it’s dead. Sometimes it just needs a reason to start again. *** It’s funny, when you’re a child you think time will never go by, but when you hit about twenty, time passes like you’re on the fast train to Memphis. I guess life just slips up on everybody. It sure did on me. «Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe», Fannie Flagg

I’m ALIVE. Thinking about it, noticing it, is new. You do things and don’t watch. Then all of a sudden you look and see what you’re doing and it’s the first time, really. *** I want to feel all there is to feel, he thought. Let me feel tired, now, let me feel tired. I mustn't forget, I'm alive, I know I'm alive, I mustn't forget it tonight or tomorrow or the day after that. "Dandelion Wine", Ray Bradbury

The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better. Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. "1984" ― George Orwell

Brains far superior to money in every way. You may have noticed that if one has money without brains, he cannot use it to his advantage; but if one has brains without money, they will enable him to live comfortably to the end of his days. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", L. Frank Baum

They played at hearts as other children might play at ball; only, as it was really their two hearts that they flung to and fro, they had to be very, very handy to catch them, each time, without hurting them. *** Now I want to live like everybody else. I want to have a wife like everybody else and to take her out on Sundays. I have invented a mask that makes me look like anybody. People will not even turn round in the streets. You will be the happiest of women. And we will sing, all by ourselves,...