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Quotes From Here And There

Albert Einstein
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.
Dylan Thomas
I fell in love – that is the only expression I can think of – at once, and am still at the mercy of words, though sometimes now, knowing a little of their behavior very well, I think I can influence them slightly and have even learned to beat them now and then, which they appear to enjoy.
Eddie Cantor
It takes twenty years to become an overnight success.
Edward Abbey
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
e e cummings
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
Eyler Coates
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually produce a masterpiece. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Without music, life would be a mistake.
Gustave Flaubert
The one way of tolerating existence is to lose oneself in literature as in a perpetual orgy.
Going to the Opera is like making love; we get bored but we come back.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If I love you, what business is it of yours?
John Steinbeck
Only through imitation do we develop toward originality.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind.
Leonard Cohen
Ring the bells that still can ring;
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything;
That's how the light gets in.
Montaigne
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
Paul Sweeney
You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.
Peter Altenberg
I never dreamed of being Shakespeare or Goethe, and I never expected to hold the great mirror of truth up before the world; I dreamed only of being a little pocket mirror, the sort that a woman can carry in her purse; one that reflects small blemishes, and some great beauties, when held close enough to the heart.
Robert Frost
In three words, I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money.
Satchel Paige
Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.
Thomas Mann
A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
V S Naipaul
The writer has only to listen very carefully and with a clear heart to what people say to him, and ask the next question, and the next.

My Personal Library


On Music, GRE-TOEFL, And Other Sundry Things

Tuesday, July 5, 2011 by Abhinav Maurya

I find that I am increasingly obsessed with Indian (Semi-)Classical and spend hours listening to beautiful, brilliant songs. Perhaps, my only true wish currently is to learn some of this amazing musical legacy. And in a hypothetical exchange of fortunes, I would readily trade everything I have for mastery of this most beautiful of artistic forms. Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan once said, "If, in every home, one child was taught Hindustani classical music, this country would never have been partitioned." Of all generalizations in the world, I believe this to be most likely true.

On June 29, I gave the GRE - an exceptionally inane test that claims to gauge preparation for graduate studies. Quantitative was a cakewalk as expected. I lost a few points in verbal to some boring RCs. Finally ended up with Q:800 and V:680 Enjoyed writing essays after a really long time. I have planned to give this exam for some time now. Glad to have finally finished it off. Don't tell me new year's resolutions don't work!

I had a research section in the end in which I wrote an argument essay. Perhaps, the ETS wants to move the essays to the end of the test eventually, and wants to obtain statistical estimates of whether the scores in essays change if the section is moved to the end of the exam. Though the GRE is a fairly mundane test, the assiduity in maintaining the score norms of the standardized test is commendable, unlike in India where it is quite difficult to find policy decisions backed by hard statistics, especially in education.

I have recently shifted residence to the highest floor of Hostel 14, IIT Bombay, along with eight of my friends. My new accommodation has a nice view of the Powai Lake and the Hiranandani skyline. It's a nice place to spend the next one year.

Adiós!

Update (03/08/2011): Gave the TOEFL on 23 July. Scores came in today, almost a week before they were expected. With a decent score of 114, I can now tick off another of my new year's resolutions! Finally at the beginning of the end of apping...

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