

“I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.”
― Zorba the Greek
― Zorba the Greek

“I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.”
― Zorba the Greek
― Zorba the Greek

“He said that those who have endured some misfortune will always be set apart but that it is just that misfortune which is their gift and which is their strength.”
― All The Pretty Horses
― All The Pretty Horses

“She said that her grandmother was skeptical of many things in this world and of none more than men. She said that in every trade save war men of talent and vigor prosper. In war they die. Her grandmother spoke to her often of men and she spoke with great earnestness and she said that rash men were a great temptation to women and this was simply a misfortune like others and there was little that could be done to remedy it. She said that to be a woman was to live a life of difficulty and heartbreak and those who said otherwise simply had no wish to face the facts. And she said that since this was so nor could it be altered one was better to follow one’s heart in joy and in misery than simply to seek comfort for there was none. To seek it was only to welcome in the misery and to know little else. She said that these were things all women knew yet seldom spoke of. Lastly she said that if women were drawn to rash men it was only that in their secret hearts they knew that a man who would not kill for them was of no use at all.”
― The Crossing
― The Crossing

“Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!â€� I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?â€� And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.â€� I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.â€�
Which of us was right, boss?”
― Zorba the Greek
Which of us was right, boss?”
― Zorba the Greek
Matthew’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Matthew’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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