The Fridge Idea

A silly idea to introduce a little culture into our apartment by posting literary quotes or odd bits of poetry on our apartment refrigerator has turned into an outreach effort to enlighten and stimulated the minds of our friends and the casual passersby. Each roommate will submit a weekly quote or image from literature, history, art, cinema, etc. You are invited to explore our weekly entries and to vote on the entry that will adorn our fridge for the next week. Perhaps you may begin by considering the cultural, historical, or artistic significance of each entry; what do you think we should “digest” this week. The selection criteria should remain quite elastic and be driven by you. Really, we just hope that on occasion we might inspire you to revisit a book you’ve set aside, memorize a bit of verse, rent a movie you haven’t seen, or stroll through a museum gallery. Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Weekly Entries for Week of March 23-29, 2009


Entry 1

We are not here on this earth for long, we commit many bad deeds, and we say much that we should not. Therefore, let us all take advantage of any opportunity of social interaction to say a kind word to one another.

Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Karamazov Brothers

Entry 2

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

John Donne (1572-1631), Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII

Commentary from the submitter: "No man is an island" is such a profound statement. No man can limit the extent of his impact on mankind. Nor can a man remove himself from his loved ones and family completely. This man will remember who he is and hear that the bell tolls for him to come home.

Entry 3

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Leo Tolstoy – Anna Karenina

Entry 4

A person without a sense of humour is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble in the road.

Henry Ward Beecher
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3 comments:

  1. johnnyMarch 17, 2009 at 11:55 PM

    #2 definitely triumphs this week in greatest quantity of famous one-liners in a single quote. and props for finding one that inspired a hemingway novel.

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  2. JessMarch 18, 2009 at 9:45 AM

    You guys make this truly hard. I think I am going to put the number in a hat and draw one out. No I think I will do iny meeny minney mo (spell???). Though Brother's Karamozov speaks to me since I have been reading it for the last year and have probably not made it to that quote yet.

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  3. k nelleMarch 21, 2009 at 12:47 AM

    I really like # 2 but it's really long. So then it's a toss up. Can you tell which one I vote for, because I don't think I'll tell you...

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