Why I Read; Ain't This an Amazing Passage?

Every now and then I read something that just knocks me over. I am currently reading David Copperfield. It is an amazing book. This Dickens guy sure seems to be able to capture just what old time England was like, almost like he was living back then. It is a wonderful book.

I came across this passage yesterday and just thought, wow. Here it is:

"The man who reviews his own life, as I do mine, in going on here from page to page, had need to have been a good man indeed, if he would be spared the sharp consciousness of many talents neglected, many opportunities wasted, many erratic and perverted feelings constantly at war within his breast, and defeating him. I do not hold one natural gift, I dare say, that I have not abused. My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest. I have never believed it possible that any natural or improved ability can claim immunity from the companionship of the steady, plain, hard-working qualities,and hope to gain its end. There is no such thing as such fulfilment on this earth. Some happy talent, and some fortunate opportunity, may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount, but the rounds of the ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness. Never to put one hand to anything on which I could not throw my whole self; and never to affect depreciation of our work, whatever it was; I find, now, to have been my golden rules."


Doesn't that just scream to you? Doesn't that just make you want to work harder to achieve your goals? Doesn't it make you want to read this book?

I tell you, nobody does plot like Dickens, Nobody grips you like Dickens. Nothing would impress your English teacher more than volunteering to read Dickens and do a book report on say Great Expectations, Or Tale of Two Cities or David Copperfield.