1、Pride and Prejudice VolumeⅠ chapter1
It is a truth universally acknowledgedthat a single man inpossession of a good fortune,must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a manmay be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so wellfixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he isconsidered as the rightful property of some one or other of theirdaughters.
‘My dear Mr. Bennet,’ said his lady to him one day, ‘have youheard that Netherfield Park is let at last?’
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
‘But it is,’ returned she; ‘for Mrs. Long has just been here, andshe told me all about it.’
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
‘Do not you want to know who has taken it?’ cried his wifeimpatiently.
‘You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.’
This was invitation enough.
‘Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfieldis taken by a young man of large fortune from the north ofEngland; that he came down on Monday to seethe place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed withMr. Morris immediatelyand some of his servants are to be in the house by theend of next week.”
2、Pride and Prejudice VolumeⅢ chapter17
“My dear Lizzy, where can you have been walking to?”was a question which Elizabeth received from Janeas soon as she entered their room,and from all theothers when they sat down to table. She had only to say in reply,that they had wandered about, till she was beyond her ownknowledge. She colored as she spoke; but neither that, nor anything else, awakened a suspicion of the truth.
The evening passed quietly, unmarked
talked by and anything laughed, extraordinary.The acknowledged lovers
theunacknowledged were silent. Darcy was not of a disposition inwhich happiness overflows in mirth; and Elizabeth, agitated andconfused, rather knew that she was happy, than felt herself to beso; for, besides the immediate embarrassment, there were otherevils before her. She anticipated what would be felt in the familywhen her situation became known; she was aware that no oneliked him but Jane; and even feared that with the others it was adislike which not all his fortune and consequence might do away.
3、The little prince discovers a garden of roses
"Good morning," he said.He was standing beforea garden, all abloomwithroses.
"Good morning," said theroses.
The little prince gazed atthem. They all looked like hisflower."Who are you?" hedemanded, thunderstruck.
"We are roses," the roses said.
And he was overcome with sadness. His flower had told him that she was the onlyone of her kind in all the universe. And here were five thousand of them, all alike, in onesingle garden!
"She would be very much annoyed," he said to himself, "if she should see that... shewould cough most dreadfully, and she would pretend that she was dying, to avoid beinglaughed at. And I should be obliged to pretend that I was nursing her back to lifeforif Idid not do that, to humble myself also, she would really allow herself to die..."
Then he went on with hisreflections: "I thought that Iwas rich, with a flower thatwas unique in all the world;and all I had was a commonrose.
A common rose, andthree volcanoes that come upto my kneesandone ofthem perhaps extinct forever...that doesn’t make me a verygreat prince..."
And he lay down in the grass and cried.
4、The little prince consoles the narrator
"All men have the stars," he answered, "but they are not the same things for differentpeople. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no morethan little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. For mybusinessman they were wealth. But all these stars are silent. You, youalone, willhavethe stars as no one else has them"
"What are you trying to say?"
"In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it willbe as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night... you, onlyyou, willhave stars that can laugh!"
And he laughed again.
"And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows), you will be contentthat you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me.And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure... and your friends willbe properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky! Then you will sayto them, ‘Yes, the stars always make me laugh!’ And they will think you are crazy. It will bea very shabby trick that I shall have played on you..."
5、Three Days to See
All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time tolive. Sometimes it was as long as a year; sometimes as short as twenty-four hours, but always wewere interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to spend his last days or his lasthours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphereof activities is strictly delimited.
Such stories set up thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances.What associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings? What happiness shouldwe find in reviewing the past, what regrets?
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should dietomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each daywith a gentleness, a vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretchesbefore us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come.
6、Youth
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing appetite for what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart, there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, courage and power from man and from the infinite, so long as you are young.
When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may die young at 80.
7、A reason, season, or lifetime
People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need youhave expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. Sometimes they die. What we must realize is that our need has been met, their work is done, and now it is time to move on.
When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy, but only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.