April 19, 2012

Book quote of the day

"There is a wonderful line in a book by J.M. Barie - and no, it's not Peter Pan, and I'm not going to ask you to clap if you believe in faries..."

Here everyone laughed again.

"But in another book by J.M. Barie called The Little White Bird...he writes..." He started flipping through a small book on the podium until he found the page he was looking for, and then he put on his reading glasses. "'Shall we make a new rule of life...always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?'"

Here Mr. Tushman looked up at the audience. "Kinder than is necessary," he repeated. "What a marvelous line, isn't it? Kinder than is necessary. Because it's not enough to be kind. One should be kinder than needed. Why I love that line, that concept, is that it reminds me that we carry with us, as human beings, not just the capacity to be kind, but the very choice of kindness.

~ from the novel "Wonder" by R.J. Palacio

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