It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen

Right after the first exam- Individual and Society (which went quite well considering the questions were ridiculously easy (and since only I (Yes! The others found it a lil 'weird' and lengthy (WTF!)) found it easy, I'm sure I've screwed it up.)), I was excited (and ruffled and jittery and twitchy... get the picture?) about the next one- Environmental Issues in India (or EII, as it's better known). Since we didn't have any classes in the third term, we had not done a single case study (and there are nine!). I decided to not take things lightly and asked a friend of mine (who happens to be younger than me and yet my senior in college) to help me out. This helpful soul (I'm not being sarcastic!) came to the college and I spent the day studying EII. 

(Check the parenthesis)

What did I learn?

Take a look-

(Click on the pictures for a larger version)

 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. 

- Dickens

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.

Now hast thou but [two bare years] to live,

And then thou must be damned perpetually.

Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,

That time may cease, and midnight never come.

And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. -Shakespeare

 Adda: Our little heaven. They say that Heaven is like TV... a perfect little world, that doesn't really need you.

If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.

 

Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly far higher than if aimed at an object on a level with yourself.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

 Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it. -Thoureau

You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.

There's nothing that keeps its youth,

So far as I know, but a tree and truth.

Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.

Go often to the house of thy friend; for weeds soon choke up the unused path.

Those whom we support hold us up in life.

False friendship, like the ivy, decays and ruins the walls it embraces; but true friendship gives new life and animation to the object it supports. - Richard Burton

If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees. - Khali Gibran

To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold. -Archibald MacLeish

Thank heavens the sun has gone in, and I don't have to go out and enjoy it.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. - Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Tis education forms the common mind; 

Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined. 

- Alexander Pope

 For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. -Edwin Teale

It is not much for its beauty that makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. - R.L. Stevenson

 Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes.

 The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone.

It is not growing like a tree in bulk doth make man better be; 

Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 

To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere, 

A lily of a day is fairer in May 

Although it fall and die that night, 

It was the plant of flower and light, 

In small proportions we just beauties see; 

And in short measures, life may perfect be. 

The Critics' Advocate: Gates to heaven, anyone?

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go. - Shakespeare

 The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits. - Chesterton

From the persistence of noise comes the insistence of rage. From the emergence of tone comes the divergence of thought. From the enlightenment of music comes the wisdom of... silence. - Visions of Gregorian Chants

Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!

One need not be a chamber to be haunted; One need not be a house; The brain has corridors surpassing Material place. - Emily Dickinson

God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all.

That's what college is for - getting as many bad decisions as possible out of the way before you're forced into the real world. I keep a checklist of 'em on the wall in my room.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

And you think I would waste such a good day trying to study wretched EII? Naah!! Impossible.

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Author's note: I just wasted some two hours  searching for good quotes and uploading these pictures. If you don't leave a comment... I'll haunt you forever with a dagger in my hand chanting "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen". 

Have fun.

Cheers!