Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than for July 22, 2024
Transcript:
What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object, made from a tree with flexible parts, on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person. PUBLIC LIBRARY CHECKOUT Maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. LAO TZU Tao Te Ching THEODORE ROOSEVELT An Autobiography MARCUS ARELIUS Meditations SHAKESPEARE’S Comedies, Histories & Tragedies HELEN KELLER The Story Of My Life Across the millenia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head. Directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions. Binding together people who never knew each other. Citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic. - Carl Sagan
Julius Marold Premium Member 2 months ago
Beautiful and so true. Thank you Carl.
DawnQuinn1 2 months ago
Books take me places I might otherwise never visit. Places that might exist only in the mind of the author.
Bruce1253 2 months ago
Yet with the wisdom of ages available to us, THIS is how we choose to live our life as a society?. . . . Sigh
Durak Premium Member 2 months ago
The greatest gift you can give a child is the love of reading.
thight1944 2 months ago
My mother gave me that, and my older brother left his book collection. I grew up on Sherlock Holmes, among others
fuzzbucket Premium Member 2 months ago
Where’s a ‘like’ button when you need it?
markkahler52 2 months ago
Writing AND drawing!!
LAFITZGERALD 2 months ago
Bingo – hence my AHAD-influenced deafness (sigh)!!
Teto85 Premium Member 2 months ago
And Carl was one of those magic makers.
Rocky Premium Member 2 months ago
Exactly!
Scoutmaster77 2 months ago
Carl Sagan is one of my heroes.
ferddo 2 months ago
Explains why book banning is bad policy…
Robert Maxell Premium Member 2 months ago
Thank you, Gavin Aung Than, for being like that candle. You know… “How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world”.
FreyjaRN Premium Member 2 months ago
So true. I’ve read since I was two. I still love it. When Mom wanted me to be quiet, she gave me a book. It worked.
Taracinablue 2 months ago
I just checked, and all of these are available on Project Gutenberg, a website of public domain books =)
Bruce1253 2 months ago
One of my favorites is “I seem to be a Verb.” – Buckminster Fuller
Bruce1253 2 months ago
“Do you believe in magic in a young girl’s heart?
How the music can free her, whenever it starts
And it’s magic, if the music is groovy
It makes you feel happy like an old-time movie
I’ll tell you about the magic, and it’ll free your soul
But it’s like trying to tell a stranger ‘bout rock and roll. . ." – The Lovin’ Spoonful
LAFITZGERALD 2 months ago
Right you are!!