Favorite Passages
Some passages stay with us
long after the book is closed—
words we return to for clarity, comfort, wonder, or recognition.
Featured Passage
Belonging to Yourself
But Akka , if you ever have to face the kind of trial that I did , do not respond in a predictable manner . Do not allow the situation to force you into mundaneness , into nastiness. Do not let it burn you up in anger , hatred. Save yourself . Assert your right over yourself . Give up your power over others. Then you will belong to yourself. You will belong to yourself. It is not easy to remain ourselves – trust me , Akka Assume authority . Give up power . Then you will belong to yourself. Then you’ll be yourself. We must remain ourselves.
The Liberation of Sita
Read the passagePages I Return To
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Her Way, Her Own
A Passage from
The Liberation of Sita
Read the passageHer path , her way , was hers alone .
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People Are People
A Passage from
To Kill a Mocking Bird
Read the passageNaw , Jem , I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.
Jem turned around and punched his pillow . When he settled back his face was cloudy . He was going into one of his declines, and I grew wary. His brows came together; his mouth became a thin line. His face was silent for a while.
“ that’s what I thought , too ,” he said at last, “when I was your age. If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other ? Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley stayed shut up in the house all this time .. it’s because he wants to stay inside” -
Strength in Stillness
A Passage from
To Kill A Mockingbird
Read the passageYou just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ’em get your goat. Try fightin’ with your head for a change.
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The Longing for Repetition
A Passage from
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Read the passageAnd therein lies the whole of man’s plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition.
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The Gravity of Being
A Passage from
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Read the passageThe heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man’s body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life’s most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become. Conversely, the absolute absence of burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant. What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?
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Surrendering the Self
A Passage from
The Liberation of Sita
Read the passageYour courage, your self-confidence… you have surrendered everything to others. What have you saved for yourself? What is ‘I’, sister? Who am I?