Quotes for Short Stories (Class 11/ first year )

“An aged man is but a paltry thing

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing.” (W.B.Yeats)

“Skepticism is the highest of duties, blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” (Thomas Huxley)

“Hatred comes from the heart; Contempt from the head and neither feeling is quite within our control.” (Schopeauer)

“…All human wisdom was contained in these words: wait and hope!”(The count of Monte Cristo)

“Innate ideas are ideas or functions originating in the mind apart from sense experience. Plato believed that people developed understanding in a previous life but were born into their present life in a condition resembling forgetfulness. According to this theory, all learning is remembering what one once knew explicitly and still somehow knows despite having forgotten it. All people have certain ‘common notions’ that are the roots of science and morality prior to any sense experience. Ideas such as God, the soul are innate, having been planted by God. Non-sensory source of knowledge is divine illumination. Space and time the category of understanding and the pure ideas of the God, the soul and the world, are all derived from the structure of the knower prior to sensation. Morality is not rooted so much in experience as in common forms possessed by everyone anterior to any experience.”

"This beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being...He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is his duration reaches from eternity to eternity; his presence from infinity to infinity; he governs all things and knows all things that are or can be done. We know him only by his most excellent contrivances of things and final causes; we admire him for his perfection; but we reverse and adore him on account of his dominion: for we adore him as his servants; a god without dominion, providence and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature. Blind metaphysical necessity which is certainly the same always and everywhere, could produce no variety of things.  All that diversity of things that we find suited to different times and places could arise from nothing but the ideas and will of a being necessarily existing" Isaac Newton

“Life is generous to those who pursue their destiny.” (His first flight)

“Each and every one should make a beginning in life.” (His first flight)

“A journey of thousand miles starts from a single step.”(His first flight)

“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.” (Overcoat)

“Never be ashamed of who you are” (Overcoat)

“A full stomach means good spirits; an empty one gloom.” (Lingkuan Gorge)

“In spite of great emphasize on a life of action by great men both individuals and nations sometimes forget the ideal of constant action.” (Lingkuan Gorge)

“one should be dedicated to his job” (Lingkuan Gorge)

Floyd Dell: “He believed that the everyday life of the working and middleclass provide subject worthy of serious literature treatment. He valued authenticity and accuracy of detail.”

“Old people are like old trees, uproot them and transplant them to other scenes, they droop and die, no matter how bright the sunshine, or how balmy the breezes.” (The Blanket)

“Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure” (The  Blanket)

“There is sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power” Washington Irving (The Blanket)

“As you sow so shall you reap.”(The Blanket)

“Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every coming together again a foretaste of resurrection.”(The Blanket)

“So our little tears, lead the soul away,

From the paths of virtue, into sin to stray.”Julia A. Carney, Little Things (The Blanket)

“This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.”(The stuffed trout)

“It is the irradiating spark of humor that enlivens his common place subject.” (The stuffed trout)

He ridicules “Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies” (The Stuffed Trout)

“Animals are such agreeable friends- they ask no questions, they pass no criticism” George Elliot (A Snapshot of a Dog)

“It is not the least hard thing to bear when these quit friends go away from us but they carry away with them so many years of our own lives.” (A Snapshot of a Dog)

“The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, he will make a fool of himself too.” (A Snapshot of a Dog)

“Let dog delight to bark and bight,

For God had made them so;

Let bears and lions growl and fight,

For ‘tis their nature too.” (A Snapshot of a Dog)

James Thurber: “His humorous prose is never gay because enthusiasm is dampened by melancholy. His fantastic animals are distorted by malignant fates.”

“Humor is a kind of emotional chaos talked about calmly and quietly in retrospective.” James Thurber

“Children are given good principles but are left to follow them in pride. They are spoiled by their parents, allowed, encouraged, almost taught to be selfish, to care for none beyond their circle, to think meanly of the poor- of their worth compared to their own. In principles they are taught what is right but not in practice.” (The Doll’s House)

“Conscience is the heart of talent” Ambrose Bierce

Anton Chekov: “The grand master of short story. He is known for his realistic blend of comedy and tragedy, for its moral tone, emotional depth of ordinary life. His stories are short, simple yet powerful.”

“Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Make our Earth an Eden,

Like the heaven above.”(The Beggar)

“So our little errors,

Lead the soul away,

From the paths of virtue,

Into sin to stray.” (The Beggar)

“We should move in a realm of light, of natural wisdom, of happy impulse and of inspiration gracefully chronic” (The Beggar)

The Shoes: “The vivid and realistic portrait of life on the Italian Island of Sardinia explores the questions on temptation and sin.”

“Hard work and pain are the best teachers.” (The Shoes)

“the consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse that predicting the future is a very difficult business.” (The Shoes)

“The Shoe’s is evocative of the hard life and emotional conflicts of the people”

He dreams of a future as Ambrose Bierce says: “A period of time where are affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.”

“Prefer loss to the gain of dishonest wealth; the former vexes you for a time; the later will bring you lasting remorse.” Chilo

“All great true things begin ass blasphemies” George Bernard Shaw.(Moxon’s Master)

“Thought is merely sub-vocal speech- overt speech grown very small” (Moxon’s Master)

“Mind does not have the capacity to judge or evaluate, it is your conscious choice.” (Moxon’s Master)

“Animals were once viewed as beings of instinct only, with no powers of volition ( use of one’s will) but today science proves that they act on their volition quite well.” (Moxon’s Master)

“Instinct is inherited unlearned behavior that is typical to every specie.” (Moxon’s Master)

“let us then be up and going,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.” (The Necklace)

“She was incandescent and luminous, radiant with happiness, she’d drawn every eye. Formal, serene and dignified, she projected a charming exuberance. She couldn’t stand still but sway with the music. There is no creature on earth as beautiful as a happy woman.” (The Necklace)

“A few years ago she was surrounded by silks and satins, flashing earrings and stickpins and sipping Champagne in a ballroom blazed with mirrors and lights. In a room where graceful couples circled the waltz, ladies skirts swirling, diamonds flashing beneath the chandeliers and know she was down on her knees, bent over a washboard scrubbing. What a strange world it is.” (The Necklace)

“If every day in the life of a school could be the last day but one, there would be little fault to find with it.” Stephen Leacock (The Last Lesson)

For French this hour was of extreme danger of extinct, splendid hope of prison break, when every virtue of their race was tested and all that they had or were was freely staked. They were forced to placidly lie down in submission before the Germans. In times like these, nations can preserve their freedom by upholding the entrusted cause of their mother language.” (The Last Lesson)

“The new and sacred bonds developed due to the common loss are very strong. The long dark days of trial can be endured by unity, flexibility and unwariness. The enemies malice can be outwitted, outfighted, outlasted and out maneuvered by the key to their prison.” (The last Lesson)