6 Quotes by John Edward Williams

I sit treogfyrretyvende år lærte Stoner, hvad andre havde lært før ham, da de var meget yngre; at den, man elsker til at begynde med, ikke er den samme som den, man elsker til sidst, og at kærligheden ikke er et mål, men en proces, hvori et menneske forsøger at lære en anden at kende.

In his forty-third year William Stoner learned what others, much younger, had learned before him: that the person one loves at first is not the person one loves at last, and that love is not an end but a process through which one person attempts to know another.

Sometimes, immersed in his books, there would come to him the awareness of all that he did not know, of all that he had not read; and the serenity for which he labored was shattered as he realized the little time he had in life to read so much, to learn what he had to know.

You must remember what you are and what you have chosen to become, and the significance of what you are doing. There are wars and defeats and victories of the human race that are not military and that are not recorded in the annals of history. Remember that while you’re trying to decide what to do.

In the University library he wandered through the stacks, among the thousands of books, inhaling the musty odor of leather, cloth, and drying page as if it were an exotic incense.

To read without joy is stupid.