Quotes About Exploration

Reading in another language implies a perpetual state of growth, of possibility. I

My grandfather always says that's what books are for. To travel without moving an inch.

Writing down call numbers with short pencils, searching up and down aisles that would turn dark when the timers on the lights expired. She recalls, visually, certain passages in the books she'd read. Which side of the book, where on the page.

Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth. —NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, "The Custom-House

The unknown words remind me that there's a lot I don't know in this world.

Remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.

Whenever I can, in my study, on the subway, in bed before going to sleep, I immerse myself in Italian. I enter another land, unexplored, murky.

That's what books are for, to travel without moving an inch.

Le parole sconosciute mi ricordano che c'è tanto che non conosco in questo mondo.

Le parole sconosciute rappresentano un abisso vertiginoso, fecondo. Un abisso che contiene tutto ciò che mi sfugge, tutto il possibile.

To Travel without moving an inch.

My grandfather always says that's what books are for," Ashoke said, using the opportunity to open the volume in his hands. "To travel without moving an inch.

That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. (Passed-on by Granddaughter Emily)

Mi aspetta un luogo in cui conta solo l'italiano. Un riparo da cui si sprigiona una nuova realtà.

Le parole sconosciute rappresentano un abisso vertiginoso, fecondo. Un abisso che contiene tutto ciò che mi sfugge, tutto il posibile.

That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.

In the months before coming to Italy, I was looking for another direction for my writing. I wanted a new approach. I didn't know that the language I had studied slowly for many years in America would, finally, give me the direction.

I pack a bag and catch a train from the central station. I stare up at all the destinations one might go, listed on the big board, and I think of all the places I might still visit, and how arbitrary one's own path is.

Studiando una lingua straniera in questo modo, non si può affogare. L'altra lingua è sempre lí per sostenerti, per salvarti. Ma non basta galleggiare senza la possibilità di annegare, di colare a picco. Per conoscere una nuova lingua, per immergersi, si deve lasciare la sponda. Senza salvagente. Senza poter contare sulla terraferma.

Questo libro mi permette di leggerne altri, di aprire la porta di una nuova lingua. Mi accompagna, ancora adesso, quando vado in vacanza, durante i viaggi. È diventato una necessità.

That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. Jhumpa Lahiri

Why do I write? To investigate the mystery of existence. To tolerate myself. To get closer to everything that is outside of me.

There is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful.

A lot of work and money has been spent on astronomy and yet we have not found life. So we are rare, and rare things tend to be fragile and you have to be careful about them