a little pinch of salt.

Here are some texts extracted from books of famous authors. It really amazes me that people living in the 15th or 16th century can write so well and yet many writers of today keep turning out books that are just rubbish. I am no author myself but oh how I wish there were an overflowing abundance of books like these, in this day and age. Enjoy!

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Nothing that I more cherish and admire
Than honest zeal and true religious fire.
So there is nothing that I find more base
Than specious piety's dishonest face.

-Tartuffe by Moliere

...I believe nothing of the sort. I find that everything goes wrong in
our world; that nobody knows his place in society or his
duty, what he's doing or what he ought to be doing, and that outside
of mealtimes...the rest of the day is spent in useless
quarrels...-it's one unending warfare.

-Candide by Voltaire

IDLE READER: thou mayest believe me without any oath that I would
this book, as it is the child of my brain, were the fairest, gayest,
and cleverest that could be imagined. But I could not counteract
Nature's law that everything shall beget its like; and what, then,
could this sterile, illtilled wit of mine beget but the story of a
dry, shrivelled, whimsical offspring, full of thoughts of all sorts
and such as never came into any other imagination- just what might
be begotten in a prison, where every misery is lodged and every
doleful sound makes its dwelling? Tranquillity, a cheerful retreat,
pleasant fields, bright skies, murmuring brooks, peace of mind,
these are the things that go far to make even the most barren muses
fertile, and bring into the world births that fill it with wonder
and delight.

-Don Quixote By Cervantes

Ineffable providence has thus set before us two goals to aim at: i.e. happiness in this life, which consists in the exercise of our own powers and is figured in the earthly paradise; and happiness in the eternal life, which consists in the enjoyment of the vision of God (to which our own powers cannot raise us except with the help of God's light) and which is signified by the heavenly paradise. Now these two kinds of happiness must be reached by different means, as representing different ends. For we attain the first through the teachings of philosophy, provided that we follow them putting into practice the moral and intellectual virtues; whereas we attain the second through spiritual teachings which transcend human reason, provided that we follow them putting into practice the theological virtues, i.e. faith, hope, and charity. These ends and the means to attain them have been shown to us on the one hand by human reason, which has been entirely revealed to us by the philosophers, and on the other by the Holy Spirit . . .

- The Monarchia by Alighieri