"Never read books you aren't sure about... even supposing that they are very well written from a literary point of view.
"Let me ask you this: would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?"
St. John Bosco
Joseph Wright of Derby painting, c.1760-62
Oh Nancy, where oh where do you get your awesome quotes? I LOOOOVE this one.
ReplyDeleteI get quotes from all over and always mean to include a "footnote citation" and almost always forget. SIGH. I use books that don't have "don't quote" warnings, and there are some online public domain sources. Some of the books I use are old, inherited from my parents-in-law. This quote was, I'm pretty sure, from 'A Dictionary of Quotes From the Saints' compiled by Paul Thigpen, 2001, Charis Press.
DeleteThanks so much, Anabelle
Nancy,
ReplyDeleteWe are blessed to have so many wonderful books to read, why risk reading one that we're not sure about? I love the quote too.
btw, talking of good books, I've ordered a copy of yours. I don't know why it took me so long to do that. I'd better hurry up and read it before your next book is written and published!
PS When I visited yesterday the word 'repent' came up as one of the word verification words!
Yes, there are so many good things to read. I know that at this point I cannot possibly live long enough to read all of the really GOOD volumes I have or could borrow / buy!
DeleteThanks so much, Sue.
That's great advice, Nancy. A while ago, I wanted to read Charles Dickens to the children as I figured he was a genius with words. So, I chose his History of England. We didn't get very far, though. It was so biased against Catholicism that we had to forgo our literary ambitions and settle for the plain, old honest truth, instead:-/
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear that Dickens was so biased against Catholicism. Let's hear it for plain old honest truth :)!!
DeleteAwesome...
ReplyDeleteand so relative to much in our current culture....movies, music, etc...
Will share this with my kids.
Thanks, Nancy!
Thank you, Chris. I, too, thought about much more than books when I saw this quote. Movies, etc.... there are lots of "golden cups" around, aren't there? All shiny and gleaming....
DeleteDon Bosco is a real favorite here. And great advice! I made the mistake of reading The Da Vinci Code a few years ago, thinking that my faith was iron clad, and that I could do the world some good by making clever remarks about it to my friends. I'm sure I earned myself a couple of decades in purgatory over that one! And I suffered with nagging doubts for a good long time. We are responsible for what we put into our brains, and the unwelcome effects!
ReplyDeleteJamie, thank you so much for sharing your experience. I could give so many examples of my own, and I'll bet all of us could. You have nailed why I don't read or watch so many "popular" things anymore.. I got tired of those unwelcome effects!
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