The collection includes phrases and quotes from the book “Dandelion Wine”:

  • That's all I think. We are old and frail, but we don’t even want to admit it to ourselves. We have become dangerous to society.
  • That’s the trouble with your generation,” said the grandfather. - I'm ashamed of you, Bill, and also a journalist! You are ready to destroy everything that is good in the world. Just to spend less time, less labor, that’s what you’re trying to achieve.
  • Elmira, if only you stay alive, if only you don’t die... Elmira, can you hear me? Listen! From now on, I will cast magic only for the sake of good deeds. No more black magic, only white magic!
  • Adults and children are two different peoples, which is why they always fight among themselves. Look, they are not at all like us. Look, we are not at all like them. Different peoples - “and they will not understand each other.”
  • Man lives in the present, whether it is a young present or an old present; but he will never see or know otherwise.
  • “You’ll see,” said Mrs. Bentley. And I thought to myself: Lord God, children are children, and old women are old women, and there is an abyss between them. They cannot imagine how a person changes if they have not seen it with their own eyes.
  • Now - up! Run around the block three times, somersault five times, do exercises six times, climb two trees - and quickly from the main mourner you will become the conductor of a cheerful orchestra. Blow!
  • - Darling, you just can’t understand that time does not stand still. You always want to remain the same as you were before, but this is impossible: because today you are no longer the same. Well, why are you saving these old tickets and theater programs? Then you will only be upset looking at them. Better throw them out.
  • So that's it! This means that this is the fate of all people, each person for himself is the only one in the world. One alone, on his own among a great many other people, and always afraid. That's how it is now.
  • And he realized: this is what unexpectedly came to him, and now will remain with him, and will never leave him. I AM ALIVE, he thought. His fingers trembled, turning pink in the light with rapid blood, like scraps of an unknown flag, previously unseen, found for the first time... Whose flag is this? To whom should we swear allegiance now?
  • Again and again they will fly from your lips, like a smile, like an unexpected sunbeam in the darkness.
  • Find friends, scatter enemies! This is the motto of the feather-light magic shoes. Is the world running too fast? Do you want to catch up with him? Do you want to always be the fastest? Then get yourself some magic shoes! Shoes as light as feathers!
  • Rose,” he began, “I need to tell you something,” and he kept shaking and shaking her hand. - What's the matter? - asked Aunt Rose. - Goodbye! - said grandfather.
  • - Lina, what do you say if I try to invent a Happiness Machine?
  • He’s catching up, don’t turn around, don’t look, if you see him, you’ll be scared to death and won’t be able to move. Run Run! She ran across the bridge.
  • “Don’t laugh,” said Leo Aufman. - Why have we used machines so far? Just to make people cry. Whenever it seemed that man and machine were finally getting along with each other - bam! Someone somewhere cheats, adds some extra screw - and now planes are throwing bombs at us and cars are falling off the cliffs into the abyss. Why shouldn't the boy ask for the Happiness Machine? He's absolutely right!
  • ...Have you ever read Shakespeare? There are directions for actors: “Excitement, movement and noise.” This is you. Excitement, movement and noise. Now go home, otherwise I’ll put a bump on your head and order you to turn from side to side all night. Get out of here!
  • ...Do you want to see the real Happiness Machine? It was invented thousands of years ago, and it still works: not always equally well, no, but it still works. And she's here all the time.
  • It seems to me that no matter how pleasant it was for us to meet in these last weeks, we still could not live like this anymore. A thousand gallons of tea and five hundred cookies are enough for one friendship.
  • At first you live, you live, you walk, you do something, but you don’t even notice. And then suddenly you see: yeah, I’m living, walking or breathing - this is truly the first time.
  • A lilac bush is better than orchids. And dandelions too, and thistles. And why? Yes, because they distract a person at least for a short time, take him away from people and the city, make him sweat and return him from heaven to earth. And when you are all here and no one bothers you, at least for a while you are left alone with yourself and begin to think, alone, without outside help. When you're digging in the garden, it's time to get philosophical. Nobody knows about this, no one blames you, no one knows anything, and you become a real philosopher - a kind of Plato among peonies, Socrates who grows his own hemlock. Anyone who drags a bag of manure on his back across his lawn is akin to Atlas, with the globe spinning on his shoulders. Samuel Spaulding, Esq., once said, “When you dig in the earth, dig in your soul.” Turn the blades of this mower, Bill, and may the life-giving stream of the Fountain of Youth water you.
  • - Something happened? - the wife immediately asked.
  • How can I thank Mr. Jonas? - thought Douglas. How can I thank him, how can I repay him for everything he did for me? There is nothing, well, nothing to repay for this. There is no price for this. How to be? How? Maybe we need to repay someone else somehow? Pass gratitude around? Look around, find a person who needs help, and do something good for him. This is probably the only way...
  • ... Take summer in your hand, pour summer into a glass - into the tiniest glass, of course, from which you can only take a single tart sip, bring it to your lips - and instead of a fierce winter, a hot summer will run through your veins...
  • And thoughts are also heavy and slow, falling slowly and rarely one after another, like grains of sand in a lazy hourglass.
  • “Yes,” said a voice inside, “yes, they can, if they just want to, no matter how you kick, no matter how you scream, they will simply crush you with a huge hand, and you will fall silent...” I don’t want to die, Douglas shouted silently. “You’ll have to anyway,” said a voice inside, “whether you like it or not, you’ll have to.”
  • Here, in this abyss in the middle of the black thicket, everything that he would never know or understand suddenly concentrated; everything that lives, nameless, in the impenetrable shadow of the trees, in the suffocating smell of decay...
  • It's good that he decided to live!
  • Eat, drink, sleep, breathe and stop looking at me with eyes like you’re seeing me for the first time.
  • At twenty years old, a woman is much more interested in being heartless and frivolous.
  • John runs away, and he can be heard so loudly, as if he were marking time in one place. Why isn't it removed? And then Douglas realized - it was his own heart beating! Stop! He pressed his hand to his chest. Stop doing that! I don't want to hear this! And then he walked along the lawn among the other statues and did not know whether they too had come to life.
  • After all, now, probably for a thousand miles around, we are the only ones left in the open air.
  • Gop la la! Tru la la! Only a fool wants to die! What a difference it is to dance and sing! When the death knell sounds, Sing and dance, bad thoughts - get out! Let the storm howl, Let the earth tremble, Dance and sing, Go la la, go la la!
  • Those who travel for ninety years, ninety-five, a hundred, are the real traveler.
  • If you can’t really sit down, you’ll definitely step on the cat. If you walk across the lawn, you will certainly fall into the well. You've been going downhill all your life, Elmira Alice Brown. Why don't you admit it honestly?
  • You are always asking why and why! - Douglas yelled. - Because that’s why it ends in “y”.
  • The children quarreled and screamed deafeningly at each other, but at the sight of their father they immediately fell silent, as if the appointed hour had struck and death itself had entered the room.
  • ...So I’m leaving while I’m still happy and I’m not yet bored with life.
  • He is only ten years old, and he is looking for a rabbit in every hat. I’ve been telling him for a long time that looking for rabbits in hats is a lost cause, just like looking for a modicum of common sense in the heads of some people (I won’t name who exactly), but he still doesn’t let up.
  • You don't win wars at all, Charlie. Everyone does nothing but lose, and whoever loses last asks for peace. I remember only eternal losses, defeat and bitterness, and the only good thing was when it was all over. The end is, one might say, a win, Charles, but the guns have nothing to do with it. Although, of course, you didn’t want to hear about such victories, right?
  • Life is loneliness. The sudden discovery hit Tom like a crushing blow, and he trembled.
  • What if deep down you really don’t want to live?
  • And if living a full life means dying sooner, so be it: I prefer to die quickly, but first taste more of life.
  • ... they don’t even know what a miracle it is to throw winter off your feet, take off your heavy leather shoes full of snow and rain, and run from morning to night, run barefoot, and then lace up your first brand new tennis shoes this summer, in which are even better to run than barefoot. But the shoes must certainly be new - that’s the whole point.
  • Every year there came a day when he woke up like this and waited for this sound, which meant that now that summer had truly begun.
  • I will unroll the world every morning like a rubber band on a golf ball, and then roll it back in the evening. If you really ask, I’ll show you how it’s done.
  • How nice it is to sit on the veranda on a summer evening; how easy and calm; If only this evening would never end!
  • - You're right, Lina. Men are such a people - they never understand anything. Maybe we will break out of this vicious circle very soon.
  • Summer rain. At first it’s like a light touch. Then stronger, more abundant. He pounded on the sidewalks and roofs, like the keys of a huge piano.
  • Next year will be even longer, and the days will be brighter, and the nights will be longer and darker, and more people will die, and more babies will be born, and I will be in the thick of it all.
  • Maybe the old woman is just trying to convince herself that she too had a past? In the end, what has passed is no more and never will be. Man lives today. Maybe she was once a girl, but now it doesn’t matter. Childhood is over, and it will never come back.
  • - No no! It doesn't matter, and it's right that it doesn't matter. But your Machine insists that this is important! And I'm starting to believe her! It’s okay, Leo, everything will pass, I’ll just cry a little more.
  • Promise me one thing, Doug. Promise that you will always remember me, promise that you will remember my face and everything. Do you promise?
  • “The happiness machine is ready,” Leo Aufman wheezed.
  • Yes, no one cares what adults talk about; all that matters is that the sound of their voices rises and falls over the thin ferns bordering the veranda on three sides; It is important that the city is gradually filled with darkness, as if black water is pouring onto the houses from the sky, and in this darkness lights flicker like scarlet dots, and voices murmur and murmur.
  • ...You can go down to the cellar more often and look straight at the sun until your eyes hurt, and then he will close them and peer into the burning spots, fleeting scars from what he saw, which will still dance inside his warm eyelids, and will begin to put each reflection in its place and every light until he remembers everything, to the end...
  • Death is when a month later he stood near her high chair and suddenly realized that she would never sit there again, would not laugh or cry
  • And now, when Douglas knew, truly knew, that he was alive, that he then walked the earth to see and feel the world, he understood one more thing: he needed a piece of everything he had learned, a piece of this special day - the day of collecting dandelions - also seal and save; and then such a winter day in January will come, when thick snow is falling, and no one has seen the sun for a long time, and maybe this miracle has been forgotten, and it would be good to remember it again - then he will uncork it! After all, this summer will certainly be a summer of unexpected miracles, and you need to save all of them and put them aside somewhere for yourself, so that later, at any hour, when you want, you can tiptoe into the humid darkness and extend your hand...
  • Ragman, he thought, Mr. Jonas, where are you now? Now I thanked you, I paid the debt. I also did a good deed, well, yes, I passed it on...
  • If you need something, get it yourself, he thought. At night we will try to find that treasured path...
  • That's what I knew. People always gossip about a woman, even if she is already ninety-five.
  • Yes, this is better than stuffing things that will never be needed again into the attic. And so, even though it’s winter outside, every now and then for a minute you move into summer; Well, when the bottles are empty, that’s the end of summer - and then there’s nothing to regret, and there’s no sentimental rubbish left around that you’ll stumble over for another forty years. Pure, smokeless, effective - that’s what it is, dandelion wine.
  • You are all alone, understand this once and for all.
  • Dandelion wine. These very words are like summer on the tongue. Dandelion wine - caught and bottled in summer.
  • “What can I describe here,” said Tom. - Briefly and clearly: they all just went crazy there.
  • - Right! - Douglas picked up. - Make a Happiness Machine for us! Everyone laughed.
  • It could mean anything. Tramps. Criminals. Dark. Accident. And most importantly - death!
  • - Volume! - And more quietly: - Tom... Do you think all people know... know that they... are alive?... - It would be good, - Douglas whispered. - It would be good if everyone knew.

Theme of the issue: statements, sayings, jokes, aphorisms, statuses, phrases and quotes from the book “Dandelion Wine”. The story by Ray Bradbury, published in 1957, sequel - “Farewell Summer.”

When a person is seventeen, he knows everything. If he is twenty-seven and still knows everything, then he is still seventeen.

I want to feel everything I can, he thought. “I want to be tired, I want to be very tired.” You cannot forget today, tomorrow, or after.

If you don’t try something for a long time, you will inevitably forget how it happens.

She sat down next to him on the swing, in only a nightgown, not thin, like a seventeen-year-old girl who is not yet loved, and not fat, like a fifty-year-old woman who is no longer loved, but folded and strong, exactly as she should be - This is what women are like at any age if they are loved.

I have always believed that true love is determined by the spirit, although the body sometimes refuses to believe it.

He didn't even know there was such silence. Boundless, breathless silence. Why did the crickets go silent? From what? What is the reason for this? They had never been silent before. Never.

Kindness and intelligence are properties of old age. At twenty years old, a woman is much more interested in being heartless and frivolous.

Bread and ham in the forest is not like at home. The taste is completely different, right? It’s sharper, or something... It gives off a crumpled, resinous feel. And what an appetite!

Kindness and intelligence are properties of old age. At twenty years old, a woman is much more interested in being heartless and frivolous.

You just need to get a good night's sleep, or cry for ten minutes, or eat a whole pint of chocolate ice cream, or even all this together - you can't think of a better cure.

– The first thing you learn in life is that you are a fool. The last thing you find out is that you are still the same fool.

Small joys are much more important than big ones.

Never let anyone cover the roof if it doesn't give him pleasure.

June dawns, July afternoons, August evenings - everything has passed, ended, gone forever and remains only in memory. Now there is a long autumn, a white winter, a cool green spring ahead, and during this time we need to think about the past summer and take stock. And if he [Douglas] forgets something, well, there is dandelion wine in the cellar, each bottle has a number written on it, and in them are all the days of summer, every single one.

Sometimes the words you hear in a dream are even more important, you listen to them better, they penetrate deeper into your very soul.

Time is a strange thing, and life is even more amazing. Somehow the wheels or cogs turned wrong, and human lives became intertwined too sooner or too late.

No matter how hard you try to remain the same, you will still only be who you are now, today.

Men are such a people - they never understand anything.

They chat incessantly all evening, and no one will remember what the next day.

Dandelion wine – caught and bottled in summer.

If you need something, get it yourself

Persuasion, conversations, like warm rain knocking on the roof.

I like to cry. As soon as you cry well, it immediately seems as if it’s morning again and a new day begins.

Take summer in your hand, pour summer into a glass - into the tiniest glass, of course, from which you can take a single tart sip; bring it to your lips - and instead of a fierce winter, a hot summer will run through your veins

you can get everything you need if you really need it.

He was not one of those for whom a sleepless night is torment; on the contrary, when he could not sleep, he lay and indulged in thoughts to his heart's content: how does the giant clockwork mechanism of the universe work? Is this gigantic clock running out of power, or will it still have many, many millennia to count? Who knows! But on endless nights, listening to the darkness, he either decided that the end was near, or that this was just the beginning...

The medicine of another time, the balm of the sun's rays and a lazy August afternoon, the barely audible sound of the wheels of an ice cream cart rolling down the cobblestone streets, the rustle of silver fireworks that scatter high in the sky, and the rustle of cut grass gushing out like a fountain from under the moving mower. through the meadows, through the ant kingdom - all this, everything - in one glass!

Take summer in your hand, pour summer into a glass - into the tiniest glass, of course, from which you can only take a single tart sip, bring it to your lips - and instead of a fierce winter, a hot summer will run through your veins...

What is unnecessary trash for one person is an unaffordable luxury for another.

The morning was quiet, the city, shrouded in darkness, lay peacefully in bed.

Darling, you just can’t understand that time doesn’t stand still. You always want to remain the same as you were before, but this is impossible: because today you are no longer the same. Well, why are you saving these old tickets and theater programs? Then you will only be upset looking at them. Better throw them out.

Quotes from the book - “Dandelion Wine”

Most young men are scared to death if they see that a woman has any thoughts in her head.

You are ready to destroy everything that is good in the world. Just to spend less time, less labor, that’s what you’re trying to achieve.

You just need to get a good night's sleep, or cry for ten minutes, or eat a whole pint of chocolate ice cream, or even all this together - you can't think of a better cure.

First with quiet sadness, then with lively pleasure and finally with calm approval, he watched how all the cogs and wheels of his home moved, cling to each other, stop, and again confidently and smoothly turn.

The main shocks and turns of life - what are they? – he thought now, pedaling his bicycle. You are born, you grow, you grow old, you die. Birth does not depend on you. But maturity, old age, death - maybe something can be done about it?

Summer came, and the wind was summer - the warm breath of the world, unhurried and lazy. You just have to get up, lean out the window, and you will immediately understand: here it begins, real freedom and life, here it is, the first morning of summer.

You just have to get up, lean out the window, and you will immediately understand: here it begins, real freedom and life, here it is, the first morning of summer.

There is such a common, hackneyed phrase - kinship of souls; So, you and I are kindred spirits.

These very words are like summer on the tongue. Dandelion wine – caught and bottled in summer.

Dandelion wine. These very words are like summer on the tongue. Dandelion wine - caught and bottled in summer.

Douglas stood, swaying slightly, and his burden - the entire forest dripping with sap - was pulling on his hands. “I want to feel everything I can,” he thought. – I want to be tired, I want to be very tired. You can’t forget today, tomorrow, or after.”

The first thing you learn in life is that you are a fool. The last thing you find out is that you're still the same fool

And then, let's be honest: how long can you watch the sunset? And who wants the sunset to last forever? And who needs eternal warmth? Who needs a timeless scent? After all, you get used to all this and simply stop noticing. It’s good to admire the sunset for a minute, or two. And then you want something else. That's just how humans are made, Leo. How could you forget about this?

So that's it! This means that this is the fate of all people: each person for himself is the only one in the world. One and only, on his own among a great many other people, and always afraid. That's how it is now. Well, if you scream, you start calling for help - who cares?

That's why we love sunset because it only happens once a day.

Life is loneliness. The sudden discovery hit Tom like a crushing blow, and he trembled. Mom is also lonely. At this moment she has nothing to hope for either in the sanctity of marriage, or in the protection of a loving family, or in the Constitution of the United States, or in the police; she has no one to turn to except her own heart, and in her heart she will find only irresistible disgust and fear. At this moment, everyone faces their own, only their own task, and everyone must solve it themselves. You are all alone, understand this once and for all.

So you can grow up and still not become strong? So, becoming an adult is no consolation at all? So there is no refuge in life? Is there no stronghold strong enough to withstand the oncoming horrors of the night?

Best quotes from the book “Dandelion Wine”:

Now little things seem boring to you, but maybe you just don’t know their value yet, don’t know how to find taste in them.

Before you know it, the first morning of summer turns into the first morning of autumn.

Each person for himself is the only one in the world. One and only, on his own among a great many other people, and always afraid.

When you walk, you have time to look around and notice the smallest beauty.

If a woman is smart and beautiful, then men begin to fear her.

“- It was in February: it was snowing, and I set up the boxes,” Tom chuckled, “I caught one bigger snowflake and - time!” - he slammed it, quickly ran home and stuck it in the refrigerator!

“Like the huge pupil of a gigantic eye, which had also just opened and was peering in amazement, the whole world was staring at it.”

“Dandelion wine - summer caught and bottled.”

“And now, when Douglas knew, truly knew, that he was alive, that he then walked the earth to see and feel the world, he understood one more thing: he needed a piece of everything that he had learned, a piece of this special day - the day picking dandelions - also seal and save..."

“... this summer will certainly be a summer of unexpected miracles, and you need to save all of them and put them aside somewhere for yourself, so that later, at any hour, when you want, you can tiptoe into the humid darkness and... extend your hand.”

“...do you want to look at the two most important things - how man lives and how nature lives?...”

“From year to year, man steals something from nature, and nature again takes its toll, and the city never truly, completely wins, it is always in silent danger; he armed himself with a mower and a hoe, huge scissors, he trims bushes and sprays poison on harmful insects and caterpillars, he stubbornly floats forward as long as civilization tells him to, but at any moment every house will be overwhelmed by green waves and buried forever, and someday from the face of the earth the last man will disappear and his mowers and garden shovels, corroded by rust, will crumble to dust.”

“She was one of those women in whose hands you always see a broom, or a dusty rag, or a washcloth, or a ladle... Her restless hands never got tired - all day long they quenched someone’s pain, smoothed something out, something... sometimes they held it, planted seeds in the black soil, sometimes covered apples baked in dough, sometimes a roast, sometimes children scattered about in their sleep. She lowered the curtains, extinguished the candles, turned the switches and... grew old.”

“I wanted something else...” muttered the great-grandmother, looking around. - I wanted something... Oh, yes! “She silently walked around the whole house, without any noise or commotion, went up three flights of stairs, entered her room, lay down under the cool white sheets and began to die.”

“When in a cinema hall you see the same show for the umpteenth time, the best thing is to quietly get up from your chair and go straight to the exit, and you shouldn’t look back, and you shouldn’t regret anything. So I’m leaving while I’m still happy and I’m not yet bored with life.”

“This is an hour of great achievements, if the opportunity arises...”

“Never let anyone cover the roof if it doesn’t give him pleasure. When April comes, look around and ask: “Who wants to fix the roof?” And if someone is happy and smiles, that’s what you need.”

“The main thing is not the me who lies here now, like a mummy moving her tongue, but the one who sits on the edge of the bed and looks at me, and the one who is now downstairs preparing dinner, and the one who is tinkering with the car in the garage or reading book in the library. All these are particles of me, they are the most important. And today I’m not dying at all. No one ever dies if he has children and grandchildren. »

“... the slain sentries cannot rise from sleep...”

“After all, if you run, time definitely runs with you.”

"- I'm alive. ... But what's the point? »

“But on endless nights, listening to the darkness, he either decided that the end was near, or that this was just the beginning...”

“So that's it! This means that this is the fate of all people, each person for himself is the only one in the world. One and only, on his own among a great many other people, and always afraid. That's how it is now. Well, if you scream, if you start calling for help, who cares?”

“...small joys are much more important than large ones.”

“Now little things seem boring to you, but maybe you just don’t know their value yet, don’t know how to find taste in them? »

“...everyone has their own, only their own task, and everyone must solve it themselves. You are all alone, understand this once and for all. »

“There are a million such towns in the world. And each is just as dark, just as lonely, each is just as detached from everything, each has its own horrors and its own secrets. The piercing, mournful sounds of the violin are the music of these towns without light, but with many shadows. And what an immense, exorbitant loneliness! ... Life in these towns at night turns into chilling horror: the mind, family, children, happiness are threatened from all sides by a monster whose name is Death.”

“It’s good to admire the sunset for a minute, or two. And then you want something else. This is how man is made. ... That’s why we love sunsets because they only happen once a day.”

“In the end, what has passed is no more and never will be. Man lives today. She may have once been a girl, but it doesn't matter anymore. Childhood is over, and it will never come back.”

“All this no longer belongs to you. It belonged to that other you, and it was so long ago.”

“Darling, you just can’t understand that time does not stand still. You always want to remain the same as you were before, but this is impossible: because today you are no longer the same. Well, why are you saving these old tickets and theater programs? Then you will only be upset looking at them. Better throw them out. »

“No matter how hard you try to remain the same, you will still only be who you are now, today. Time hypnotizes people. At nine years old, it seems to a person that he has always been nine and will always be nine. At thirty, he is confident that he has remained on this beautiful edge of maturity all his life. And when he turns seventy, he is always and forever seventy. Man lives in the present, whether it is a young present or an old present; but he will never see or know otherwise.”

“Be what you are, put an end to what you were... Taking care of any old stuff is just trying to deceive yourself. ...You take care of the cocoons from which the butterfly has already flown... Old corsets that you will never fit into again. Why save them? It is impossible to prove that you were once young. Photos? No, they're lying. After all, you are no longer the same as in the photographs. »

“You need to take everything out of the chests and throw away any rubbish, let the junk dealer take it. All this is no longer mine. Nothing can be preserved forever."

“You don’t win a war at all. Everyone does nothing but lose, and whoever loses last asks for peace. I remember only eternal losses, defeat and bitterness, and the only good thing was when it was all over. This is the end - this is, one might say, a win..."

“There is only one way to delay time at least a little: you have to look at everything around you, but do nothing yourself! In this way, you can stretch the day into three days. It’s clear: just watch and don’t do anything yourself.”

“The feet are in tennis shoes, which have now calmed down, as if he were shod in silence.”

“And if living life to the fullest means dying sooner, so be it: I prefer to die quickly, but first taste more of life.”

“...most young people are scared to death if they see that a woman has any thoughts in her head. You’ve probably met more than once very smart women who very successfully hid their intelligence from you.”

“Kindness and intelligence are properties of old age. At twenty, it’s much more interesting for a woman to be heartless and frivolous.”

“As soon as you cry well, it immediately seems as if it’s morning again and a new day begins. ... You’ll cry to your heart’s content, and then everything will be fine.”

“On days like today, I feel like... I'll be alone.”

“Some people start to feel sad too early... There seems to be no reason, but they are apparently like that from birth. They take everything very seriously, and they get tired quickly, and tears are close to them, and they remember every misfortune for a long time, so they begin to be sad from a very young age. I know, I’m like that myself. »

“Parents sometimes forget how they themselves were children”

“...you can get everything you need if you really need it. »

“... what for one is unnecessary rubbish, for another is an unaffordable luxury. »

“When the death knell sounds, sing and dance, bad thoughts - get out! Let the storm howl, the earth tremble, dance and sing, tremble-la-la, gop-la-la."

“The best thing is to quietly get up from your chair and go straight to the exit, and you don’t have to look back, and you don’t have to regret anything.”

“Time is a strange thing, but life is even more wonderful.”

“The morning was quiet, the city, shrouded in darkness, lay peacefully in bed.

Summer came, and the wind was summer - the warm breath of the world, unhurried and lazy. You just have to get up, lean out the window, and you will immediately understand: here it begins, real freedom and life, here it is, the first morning of summer.”

“Take summer in your hand, pour summer into a glass - into the tiniest glass, of course, from which you can take a single tart sip; bring it to your lips - and instead of a fierce winter, a hot summer will run through your veins..."

“If you need something, get it yourself...”

“The main shocks and turns of life - what are they? - he thought now, pedaling his bicycle. You are born, you grow, you grow old, you die. Birth does not depend on you. But maturity, old age, death - maybe something can be done about it?

“When a person is seventeen, he knows everything. If he is twenty-seven and still knows everything, then he is still seventeen.”

“Do you think all people know... know that they are... alive?”

“It’s good for old people after all - they always look as if they know everything in the world. But this is just a pretense and a mask, like any other pretense and any other mask. When we old people are alone, we wink at each other and smile: they say, how do you like my mask, my pretense, my confidence? Isn't life a game? And I’m not a bad player?”

“- I would like to see Istanbul, Port Said, Nairobi, Budapest. To write a book. Smoking a lot. Fall off a cliff, but get caught in a tree halfway. I want to be shot three times at midnight in a dark alley somewhere in Morocco. I want to love a beautiful woman."

“When a person is seventeen, he knows everything. If he is twenty-seven and still knows everything, then he is still seventeen.

“The first thing you learn in life is that you are a fool. The last thing you find out is that you are still the same fool.”

“So you can grow up and still not become strong? So, becoming an adult is no consolation at all? So there is no refuge in life? Is there no stronghold strong enough to stand against the approaching horrors of the night?”

“There are such people - they need to know everything: how the world works, how this is and how this is... such a person will think and fall from the trapeze in the circus or suffocate, because he was impatient to understand how the muscles are in his throat are working."

“Is this what happiness is? - she asked incredulously. “Which button should I press so that I become glad and happy, satisfied with everything and very grateful?”

“Like the huge pupil of a gigantic eye, which had also just opened and was looking in amazement, the whole world was staring at it. And he realized: this is what unexpectedly came to him, and now will remain with him, and will never leave him.

I AM ALIVE, he thought.”

“Antelopes,” Sanderson repeated. - Gazelles...

He bent down and picked up Douglas's discarded winter boots from the floor, heavy with forgotten rains and long-melted snow. Then he stepped into the shadows, away from the blinding rays of the sun, and slowly, walking softly and easily, headed back towards civilization...”

“Adults and children are two different peoples, that’s why they always fight among themselves. Look, they are not at all like us. Look, we are not at all like them. Different nations - “and they will not understand each other.”

“There are five billion trees in the world, and under every tree lies a shadow...”

“And in your mature years, when your heartbeats count into the billions, when you lie in bed at night and only your anxious spirit wanders the earth, this machine will quench your anxiety, and a person will be able to doze peacefully together with the fallen leaves, as boys fall asleep in the fall, stretched out on a pile of fragrant dry hay and serenely merging with the resting world..."

“So that's it! This means that this is the fate of all people, each person for himself is the only one in the world. One and only, on his own among a great many other people, and always afraid.”

“Life is loneliness. The sudden discovery hit Tom like a crushing blow, and he trembled.

“The great silence of dew-soaked forests and valleys, and rolling hills like surf, where dogs, raising their muzzles, howl at the moon, all gathered, flocked, pulled together into one point, and in the very heart of the silence they were - Mom and Tom.”

“There are only two things I know for sure, Doug,” he whispered.

One is that it is terribly dark at night.

What about the other one?

If Mr. Aufman ever really builds the Happiness Machine, it still won’t cope with the ravine.”

“What should it be like, this Machine of Happiness?” Leo thought. “Maybe it should fit in your pocket? Or should it carry you in your pocket?”

“This won’t help,” said Mr. Bentley, sipping his tea. - No matter how hard you try to remain the same, you will still only be the way you are now, today.<...>Man always lives in the present, whether it is a young present or an old present; but he will never see or know otherwise.”

"Photos? No, they're lying. After all, you are no longer the same as in the photographs.”

“How old are you, Mrs. Bentley?

Seventy two.

How old were you fifty years ago?

Seventy two.

And you were never young and never wore ribbons and dresses like this?

Never.

What is your name?

Mrs Bentley."

“Wars are never won, Charlie. Everyone does nothing but lose, and whoever loses last asks for peace. I remember only eternal losses, defeat and bitterness, and the only good thing was when it was all over. The end is, one might say, a win, Charles, but the guns have nothing to do with it.”

“Whatever you say, a bus is not a tram! It doesn’t make that much noise, it doesn’t have rails, it doesn’t have wires, it doesn’t throw sparks, and it doesn’t cover the rails with sand, and it’s not the same color, and it doesn’t have a bell, and it doesn’t lower the step!”

“- Transport schoolchildren on buses! - Charlie snorted contemptuously, walking to the side of the sidewalk. - There’s no way you’ll be late for school. He will come for you right to your porch. You won’t be late for anything in life now! It’s creepy, Doug, just think about it!”

“Dandelion Wine” (quotes from the book follow) is a work by Ray Bradbury that has already become a classic. With him you will plunge into the wonderful world of a twelve-year-old boy and spend with him one and only summer, which will never be repeated, however, like any other summer, day, hour or minute. After all, every new dawn is an event, and it doesn’t matter what it is, joyful or sad, wonderful or full of anxiety and disappointment, the main thing is that with it you breathe life deeply, truly feel alive.

“Dandelion wine”: quotes about summer

It's summer 1928. The main character is a twelve-year-old boy, Douglas Spalding, who lives in the small sleepy town of Greentown, which literally means “green city.” And it’s not for nothing that it was given such a name, because there is so much light and lush greenery around that it seems that there is “neither a long autumn, nor a white winter, nor a cool green spring” ahead, no, and never will be...

But Douglas, albeit unconsciously, by touch, guesses that sooner or later the end will come to “June dawns, and July afternoons, and August evenings.” They will remain only in memory, and they need to be thought about and summed up. What if something is forgotten? It doesn’t matter, there is always a bottle of dandelion wine in the cellar, and there is a date on it, so not a single day of summer will slip away.

Yes, this is a sunny summer like never before - the last time of his carefree childhood. Autumn is ahead, leading by the hand into the inevitable world of adults. That’s why you have to hurry to live, breathe in the aromas of this magical time, run with friends, fool around with your brother, get into incredible adventures, ask endless questions to adults and watch, watch their strange life. We continue reading the novel “Dandelion Wine.” Quotes from the work will help convey the atmosphere of a hot summer.

Other inhabitants

And there was someone to watch, yet Douglas is not the only resident. Hot summer days and the whole of Greentown live with him. True, each in his own way. For example, grandfather could not get enough of his wonderful mower. Every time he cut fresh grass, he lamented that the New Year should not be celebrated on the first of January. This holiday needs to be moved to the summer. As soon as the grass on the lawn is ripe for haymaking, that means the very day has come, marking the beginning. Instead of shouts of “Hurray!”, fireworks and fanfare, a solemn symphony of mowers should sound. Instead of confetti and streamers - a handful of freshly cut grass.

But not everything and everyone in Greentown was so wonderful. There was also room for disappointment, tears, impossible quarrels, and sadness. In addition, when the sun set, it became one of millions of similar towns, and it was just as dark and lonely. Night life was scary. She released her monster, whose name is death... A mysterious and terrible Murderer roamed the streets. His target was young girls who were in no hurry to return home on quiet, warm summer evenings.

A sip of summer

But still, it was summer. And it, unlike the fierce winter wind, does not divide, does not separate people, does not disperse them - each to their own home, but unites, calls to enjoy “real freedom and life”, and to absorb “the warm breath of the world, unhurried and lazy " And it also brought together, if not all, then many on the day of collecting dandelions. It was an extraordinary tradition to “catch and bottle summer” - dandelion wine. Quotes from the book will definitely convey the tart taste of the golden drink.

We cannot collect the sun's rays, put them tightly in a jar and immediately close the lid so as not to scatter in all directions. “Idle August afternoons, the subtle clicking of the wheels of an ice cream cart, the rustle of cut grass, the ant kingdom humming under your feet” - nothing lasts forever, and even memory can fail. It's like dandelion wine! Its soft shimmer is “like flowers opening at dawn.” And even if on a cold winter day there is a thin layer of dust on the bottle, the “sun of this June” will still look through it. And if you look through it on a January day, then instantly “the snow will melt, and the grass will appear, and the birds will sing in the trees, and even the flowers and grass will flutter in the wind.” And the “cold leaden sky” will definitely turn blue.

Age of soul and body

Another striking feature of the book Dandelion Wine (quotes follow) is that it is not intended for a specific age. Both teenage children, essentially the same age as the main character, and people of the older generation will be able to learn equally a lot from the work of Ray Bradbury. It is not for nothing that there is so much discussion in it about age, about what childhood, youth and old age are, and whether numbers mean so much.

For example, older people honestly say that life is much easier for old people, “after all, they always look as if they know about everything in the world.” But is this really so? No, more like a pretense and a mask. And when they are alone, they certainly wink at each other and smile: how do you like my confidence, my acting, because I’m a good actor? And the author is also sure that time is a kind of hypnosis. When a person is nine, it seems to him that the number nine has always been, is and will be. At thirty, we are sure that life will never cross this “beautiful line of maturity.” Seventy is seen as something that will always and forever be. Yes, we all live only in the present, and it doesn’t matter how young or old it is. We will never see or know otherwise.

About life

The book “Dandelion Wine” is replete with the author’s thoughts about life, about the meaning of existence. He puts them both in the mouths of boys and in the mouths of adults. At the same time, it is impossible to say that the former are naive, and the latter have every word of wisdom. The truth is available to everyone, it has no age markings. For example, Douglas tells Tom that his main concern is how God runs the world. To which the latter confidently replies that it’s not worth it, because “he’s still trying.”

Or here’s another quote from Bradbury (“Dandelion Wine”): Doug was riding his bike one day, pedaling diligently and thinking about “what are the main shocks in life, where are they, the important turns.” “Every person is first born, gradually grows, eventually begins to grow old and finally dies. Being born does not depend on us. But isn’t it possible to somehow influence maturity, old age and death?”

And finally, for true fans of the work “Dandelion Wine” - quotes in English about life: “So if trolleys and runabouts and friends and near friends can go away for a while or go away forever, or rust, or fall apart or die, and if people can be murdered, and if someone like great-grandma, who was going to live forever can die... if all of this is true... then... I, Douglas Spaulding, some day, must..."; “.. I have always believed that true love defines the spirit, although the body sometimes refuses to believe it.”