The Power of Dickens
1 December, 2008
My new library card combined with the lack of television has reinvented classic forms of amusement. The selection available to me is making it easier to make a dent in the reading list that never seems to stop growing. There are many great books out there with so many great thoughts that it is nice to have a building where I can go and pick them up for free. My latest endeavor finds me back to my favorite author, Charles Dickens, the man who is slowly becoming my muse. This time the book is “A Christmas Carol.” Nothing could be more fitting for the season than a book on giving and joy, but the books delves deeper into human nature that Donald Duck ever did in the disney remake. Inspired by Dickens’ thoughts, I wanted to share his brilliance with my ever-dwindling number of readers.
“I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard. I girded it on my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.” ~The Ghost of Jacob Marley
“Man, if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered what the surplus is, and where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child. Oh God, to hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust.” ~The Ghost of Christmas Present
“There are some upon this earth of yours who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that and charge their doing on themselves, not us.” ~Ghost of Christmas Present
