Chapter Fifty Two: From the Ashes

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

-o0o-

Conforme to the Testament of Facts,

We Proclaim:

There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1.

There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infimite

collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger

infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or

between 0 and a million. Some infinities are

bigger than other infinities. A writer we used

to like taught us that. There are days, many of

them, when I resent the size of my unbounded

set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get,

and God, I want more numbers for Augustus

Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot

tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity.

I wouldn't trade it for the world.

You gave me a forever within the numbered

days, and I am grateful.

John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

-o0o-

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show

on the face. And when the person has ugly

thoughts every day, every week, every year,

the face gets uglier and uglier until you can

hardly bear to look at it.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever

be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a

crooked mouth and a double chin, and stick out

teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will

shine out of your face like sunbeams and

you will always look lovely.

Roald Dahl, The Twits

-o0o-

From time to time, I do consider that I might

be mad. Like any self-respecting lunatic,

however, I am always quick to dismiss

any doubts about my sanity.

Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas

-o0o-

Your hair is winter fire

January embers

My heart burns there, too.

Stephen King, It

-o0o-

Shame was an emotion he had abandoned

years earlier. Addicts know no shame.

You disgrace yourself so many times

you become immune to it.

John Grisham, The Testament

-o0o-

A library doesn't need windows, Andrew.

We have books which are windows into worlds

we never even dreamed possible.

Chris Grabenstein, Escape from

Mr. Lemoncello's Library

-o0o-

Deep in the meadow, hidden far away

A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray

Forget your woes and let your troubles lay

And when it's morning again, they'll wash away

Here it's safe, here it's warm

Here the daisies guard you from every harm

Here your dreams are sweet

and tomorrow brings them true

Here is the place where I love you.

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

-o0o-

Be not afraid of greatness.

Some are born great,

some achieve greatness,

and others have greatness

thrust upon them.

William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

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The Chapter is sponsored by Louis Vuitton.