For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.
The truth is, everything ultimately comes down to the relationship between the reader and the writer and the characters. Does or does not a character address moral being in a universal and important way? If it does, then it's literature.
A man needs to be polite, not just to me but to everyone. I watch that. How does he treat the waiter? How does he treat the coat-check girl? How does he treat the driver?
Time does not move linearly just because we think it does. And the past does not cease to exist simply because we have moved beyond it.
It seemed to me that the real philosophical breakthroughs of the 20th century were in terms of the understanding of language. What is language? Where does it come from, how does it work, what does it do?
Correction does much, but encouragement does more.
A single bracelet does not jingle.
Death does not blow a trumpet.
Death does not sound a trumpet.
The goose hisses, but does not bite.
Old love does not rust.
Muddied water does not reflect.
The cassock does not make the monk.
A crab does not beget a bird.
Fire does not extinguish fire.
Iron does not clang by itself.
Meat does not eat meat.
Beauty does not season soup.
Wisdom does not come overnight.
Dog does not eat dog.
Geography does not define you - love does.
