books

Books are the food of youth, the delight of old age; the ornament of prosperity, the refuge and comfort of adversity; a delight at home, and no hindrance abroad; companions by night, in traveling, in the country.

Chuang Tzu or Chuang Chou was a Taoist sage, living sometime before 250 B.C. The book, by the same name, Chuang Tzu, is believed to contain both his own writings and writings by others about him and his teachings. ". . . the Chuang-Tzu is distinguished by its brilliant and original style, with abundant use of satire, paradox, and seemingly nonsensical stories. Chuang-Tzu emphasizes the relativity of all ideas. . . . He puts forward as the solution to the problems of the human condition, freedom in identification with the universal Tao, or principle of Nature." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 4th Edition.

There is a theology to gardening that few of us consider, but to understand this theology means relinquishing much control - our arsenal of books, techniques, tools, chemicals, fertilizers, fancy hybrids, and expectations. Yet, that is exactly what we must do if we are to fully embrace a more spiritual form of gardening. As a part of Nature we must learn to enter our garden as if it were truly sacred, we must learn to enter with humility.

The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.

I like you and your book, ingenious Hone! In whose capacious all-embracing leaves The very marrow of tradition 's shown; And all that history, much that fiction weaves.

She unbent her mind afterwards---over a book.

My only books Were woman's looks,- And folly 's all they 've taught me.

Books which are no books.

There is nothing more wonderful than a book. It may be a message to us from the dead, from human souls we never saw who lived perhaps thousands of miles away. And yet these little sheets of paper speak to us, arouse us, teach us, open hour hearts, and in turn open their hearts to us like brothers. Without books God is silent, justice dormant, philosophy lame.