The old man heard
A crying against his knee and looked down at the eyes
Of his hound-bitch; he said, "You are wrong, Snap-
per. It is no harm. We shall have less distraction
now.
Death and departure are not evil things. I tell you sadly,
every person that leaves
A place, improves it: the mourners at every funeral know
that
In their shamed hearts: and when the sociable races of
man and dog are done with, what a shining wonder
This world will be."

- Robinson Jeffers, from "The Double Axe, Part II: The Inhumanist" (1948).

Picture: Illustration by Ksawery Kozminski from "Tales & Legends From Poland" by Julie Laguirande-Duval (1929).

Alex Oriental Experience - Die Gunst Der Stunde.

Fleeting are the times of love; enduring the hoppings of the little serf whose gaze you ennoble.

The long weariness of enslavements, and of muffled struggles and feebleness. Its wretched paltry irony is without a smile; a modicum of pity for the eternal captive, the one doomed to ill-chosen downfalls.

After the crisis and the calm, in the momentary silence, listen in all serenity to its voices, the voices of your time gone by.

- Gustave Kahn (Voice in the Park from Les Palais Nomades, 1887).

Picture: "The Hesitant Betrothed" by Auguste Toulmouche (1866).

Even if not interested in the reading course the quotes atop each page form the finest collection of book related quotes I have ever come across.

Guide To Daily Reading by Asa Don Dickinson.

From, "What Shall I Eat? The Housewife’s Manual" by Miss E. Neill, (1892)

Priorities straight.

Erwin Schulhoff - Sonata Erotica (1919).

"He raises himself slightly; the face disperses. The surface of the water, as before, is dappled and the vision has returned. But Narcissus tells himself that to kiss it is impossible, he does not need to desire an image; a gesture to possess it, will tear it. He is alone. What to do? Contemplate.
Religious and grave, he now recovers his calm serenity: he remains - a symbol that grows - and brooding over the semblance of the World, vaguely feels the transient generations of humanity re-absorbed into him."

- André Gide (The Tractate Narcissus [The Theory of Symbols], 1891)

Picture: 1903 print of "Narcissus" by J. K. Le Blon.

Yasuaki Shimizu - Kakashi.

"do I write intelligable I am genneraly understood tho I do not use that awkward squad of pointings called commas colons semicolons etc and for the very reason that altho they are drilled hourly daily and weekly by every boarding school Miss who pretends to gossip in correspondence… Those who have made grammar up into a system and cut it into classes and orders as the student does the animal or vegetable creation may be a fine recreation for schools but it becomes of no use towards making any one so far acquainted with it as to find it useful—it will only serve to puzzle and mislead to awe and intimidate instead of aiding and encouraging him therefore it pays nothing for the study"

- John Clare (quoted in Jeffrey Robinson’s "Romantic Presences").

Picture: Page from Timothy Dexter's "A Pickle for the Knowing Ones; or Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress" (1848). Dexter's book contained no punctuation, and when people complained about the lack he added an extra page of punctuation marks and instructed readers to “peper and solt it as they plese”.