"Once upon a time, a little girl named Laura
lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin in a little house made of logs. Laura lived in the little house with her Pa, her Ma, her
big sister Mary, her baby sister Carrie, and their good old bulldog Jack." ~ (My First Little
House Books: "Winter Days in the Big Woods")
"May God be as good to you as he was to Juan Diego" Mexican
blessing read in ~ "Our Lady of Guadalupe" by Tomie de Paola
"What is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays,
since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are [or were] a little people, about half our
height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary
everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making
a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off." ~ "The Hobbit" by J.R.R.
Tolkien
"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself
transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted
his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could
hardly stay in place and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest
of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes." ~ "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka
"Mother was our teacher. Willie was her best student. She gave him the
love of learning. Then she gave him the microscope. I remember how she cradled the wooden box, like it was newborn.
The microscope inside was old, but Willie didn't care. Fact is, I never saw him grin so big." ~ "My
Brother Loved Snowflakes -- the Story of Wilson A. Bentley, the Snowflake Man" by Mary Bahr
"I could not but reflect with secret pleasure that this beautiful valley
was my own. I was king of all this country and had the right of possession." ~ "Robinson Crusoe"
by Daniel Defoe
It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow. ~ Aesop, The Ant and the
Grasshopper
A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety. ~ Aesop, The
Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
I kept six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and
Who. ~ Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant's Child
Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
~ Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could
not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. ~ Henry
David Thoreau, Walden
