Remember that time when you were little and cute and innocent? Yeah, me neither. But in my childhood, I did a lot of reading. (Ha, surprise, bet you didn’t see that coming.) So for Top Ten Tuesday, I thought it’d be fun to drown in a little nostalgia and dig up the top 10 quotes from books I read during my childhood, the sort that have leeched on and dug in deep, coming along for the ride into my adulthood. Or as much an adulthood as I have. (I mean, we’re all really just kids at heart, right?)

Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt was favorite book quotes.

1. The Sea Wolf

At once he [Wolf Larsen] became an enigma. One side or the other of his nature was perfectly comprehensible; but both sides together were bewildering.

So, who thinks it’s a great idea to give a 12-year-old a book about horrible people, violence, and adult themes? My grandmother does! To her credit, I don’t think she actually read the book. She just had it sitting on her shelf and threw it at me when I was bugging her too much, and I devoured it. I was in love with Wolf Larsen, which is problematic because he’s a horrible human, and even I knew it at that time, but what can I say? I find horrible humans attractive. But what I remember most (and what I was at once attracted to) was the depth of his character, and that’s why I still adore Wolf Larsen.

2. The Dark Is Rising Sequence

On the day of the dead, when the year too dies,
Must the youngest open the oldest hills
Through the door of the birds, where the breeze breaks.
There fire shall fly from the raven boy,
And the silver eyes that see the wind,
And the light shall have the harp of gold.

By the pleasant lake the Sleepers lie,
On Cadfan’s Way where the kestrels call;
Though grim from the Grey King shadows fall,
Yet singing the golden harp shall guide
To break their sleep and bid them ride.

When light from the lost land shall return,
Six Sleepers shall ride, six Signs shall burn,
And where the midsummer tree grows tall
By Pendragon’s sword the Dark shall fall.

This poem is forever burned into my head. I loved this series so much, and the poems in particular, that I memorized them, of course. Which my mother thought was amusing and would ask me to randomly recite them. Even now. Just last month, she had me recite it for my sister. I don’t know why, because she could go read the darn thing herself since they have my copy, but you know what? I DID IT ANYWAY. I’m not sure what that says about me, but I’m afraid I will be stuck with this poem for the rest of my life.

3. Le Petit Prince

“People have stars, but they aren’t the same. For travelers, the stars are guides. For other people, they’re nothing but tiny lights. And for still others, for scholars, they’re problems. For my businessman, they were gold. But all those stars are silent stars. You, though, you’ll have stars like nobody else.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you look up at the sky at night, since I’ll be living on one fo them, since I’ll be laughing on one of them, for you it’ll be as if all the stars are laughing. You’ll have stars that can laugh! And when you’re consoled (everyone eventually is consoled), you’ll be glad you’ve known me. You’ll always be my friend. You’ll feel like laughing with me. And you’ll open your window sometimes just for the fun of it … And your friends will be amazed to see you laughing while you’re looking up at the sky. Then you’ll tell them, ‘Yes, it’s the stars; they always make me laugh!’ And they’ll think you’re crazy. It’ll be a nasty trick I played on you … And it’ll be as if I had given you, instead of stars, a lot of tiny bells that know how to laugh …”

So, I read this in French, and I would highly recommend anyone who can to read it in its original language. So many things are lost in translation, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery is fantastic with wordplay and depth of meaning, and I loved it from the moment I read it. Actually, it’s still my favorite book, even though I cry every single time at the end. (WHO SAID IT WAS OK FOR THE CUTE CHILDREN’S BOOK TO GIVE ME SUCH FEELS?)

4. Lord of the Rings

ENT:
When Winter comes, the winter wild that hill and wood shall slay;
When trees shall fall and starless night devour the sunless day;
When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain
I’ll look for thee, and call to thee; I’ll come to thee again!

ENTWIFE:
When Winter comes, and singing ends; when darkness falls at last;
When broken is the barren bough, and light and labour past;
I’ll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet again:
Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain!

BOTH:
Together we will take the road that leads into the West,
And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.

Okay, I don’t know what this nonsense is/was, but it destroyed my childhood. WHAT KIND OF MONSTER DOESN’T GIVE THE ENTS AND ENTWIVES A HAPPY ENDING? The first time I read this, it broke my heart. I just wanted the tree-creatures to find each other in the end, okay? Is that too much to ask?

5. Atlas Shrugged

“If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders – What would you tell him?”

“I…don’t know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?”

“To shrug.”

So, either you loved or hated this, pretty much. Or that was the case in my class when we had to read it. I loved it. Probably not for the reasons other people do, because I’m special, darn it. It was always this scene in particular that stuck with me, that meant so much at the time. The image of a bruised and bloodied Atlas giving his all to hold everyone up, at his own expense. It was something I could relate to at that time in my life. And after reading this book, you know what I did? I shrugged. And I’ve lived a much happier life not trying to carry everyone else around.

6. Animorphs

I was an Andalite, all alone, far, far from home. Far from my own people. Except that sometimes your own people are not just the ones who look like you. Sometimes the people who are your own can be very different from you.

Full disclosure, I was SO SURE that Ax would appear one day and I would marry him. Never mind the fact that he wasn’t exactly human. We would work through it, because  that’s what you do when you’re in love, darn it! I mean, he never showed up, and I ended up settling for a man who’s about as socially awkward and understands just as little about humans, but unfortunately, my husband’s all lame and not an alien. Still, there was so much that was good about these books that it was really hard picking just one quote. I should re-read these. *glances at heaping TBR pile* Eventually.

7. The Social Contract

What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses. If we are to avoid mistake in weighing one against the other, we must clearly distinguish natural liberty, which is bounded only by the strength of the individual, from civil liberty, which is limited by the general will; and possession, which is merely the effect of force or the right of the first occupier, from property, which can be founded only on a positive title.

Did your eyes glaze over? I can’t remember who gave this to me, but I’m pretty sure they hated me and wanted me to die from boredom. But just to spite them, I read it and loved it and still have my copy, because I found it fascinating. It was actually my first exposure to any sort of actual philosophy. I loved (and still do) the idea that humans inherently give up freedom just by virtue of having a society. I mean, I can’t go out and sacrifice whomever I like to the Muses to ensure a plentiful writing this month, can I? Not even if I blame it on a dragon.

8. Night

“In the beginning there was faith – which is childish; trust – which is vain; and illusion – which is dangerous.”

DID YOU KNOW THERE ARE SEQUELS TO THIS? Because I did not, until I just happened to look it up on Goodreads, and OMG I’M SO EXCITED. Nothing like having your heart ripped out and stomped on by a herd of stampeding buffalo. I mean, I could explain why this book was so important, but … I feel like you probably already get it.

9. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Storyteller’s Creed:
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.
That myth is more potent than history.
That dreams are more powerful than facts.
That hope always triumphs over experience.
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.

This is the SECOND book on this list that my grandmother threw at me in a desperate attempt to get me to leave her alone for two seconds. So say what you want about her, the old woman had good taste. I don’t know what’s happened to it in the meantime, because our book tastes diverged over a decade ago, but this book taught me everything I needed to know that I had been too hyper to learn in kindergarten. Actually, I went on a buying spree and now own most of Robert Fulghum’s books, and he’s a fantastic author. Choosing a quote from this is a crapshoot. It’s one big, long important quote, and everyone should read it.

10. The Collected Poems (Langston Hughes)

I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like

the same things other folks like who are other races.

So will my page be colored that I write?

Being me, it will not be white.

But it will be

a part of you, instructor.

You are white—

yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.

That’s American.

Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.

Nor do I often want to be a part of you.

But we are, that’s true!

As I learn from you,

I guess you learn from me—

although you’re older—and white—

and somewhat more free.