Wednesday, May 18, 2011

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens has it all.

Love, gore, intrigue, revenge, retribution, sacrifice, redemption

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

While absorbed in the story line, yet I was able to mine four or five jewels of wisdom as I read.

"Detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low." Wow. What an observation on class envy.

"Then that glorious vision of doing good which is so often the sanguine mirage of so many good minds, rose before him." Yes, be not weary in well-doing.

"'Whatever is is right' an aphorism that would be final as it is lazy, did it not include the troublesome consequence that nothing that ever was, was wrong." Sure gives the lie to that old saw.

These grains of truth are the result of, again quoting Dickens, "the winnowing of many bushels of words..." Quite literally.

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