BookFeed

Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato and Milton is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men, but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this.

…and some days, the ones I never dared to think.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance (1841). Public domain, quoted exactly.

Every page here is real. Keep the lines that know you.

Find yours or go straight to the feed

A page at a time, from books worth finding.

  • Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto A Daughter of the Samurai

    A father keeps his child's broken toys in a priceless lacquer box.

    I stood still, my heart beating quickly; then I turned away, feeling as if I had taken an unbidden glance into the heart of a stranger. In that moment came the realization that there was another claim on my baby as tender and as strong as my own, and with a throb of remorse my heart turned toward my husband with a strange new feeling.
  • Emily Dickinson Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete

    Two strangers lying side by side find they gave their lives to one cause.

    I died for beauty, but was scarceAdjusted in the tomb,When one who died for truth was lainIn an adjoining room.He questioned softly why I failed?"For beauty," I replied."And I for truth, -- the two are one;We brethren are," he said.And so, as kinsmen met a night,We talked between the rooms,Until the moss had reached our lips,And covered up our names.
  • George W. Bush Decision Points

    When the market stops following the rules, who is truly responsible for the collapse?

    I was furious the situation had reached this point. A relatively small group of people—many on Wall Street, some not—had gambled that the housing market would keep booming forever. It didn’t. In a normal environment, the free market would render its judgment and they could fail.

What you keep becomes a map of you.

Your first page is waiting.

Find yours