About The Commonplace Book

What's New on The Commonplace Book

Also, please do not quote yourself for a commonplace!

• Lovecraft on the nature of reality
• on man's best friend
• Percy on possibilities
• Gandhi on cultures
• LeGuin on writing
• A Pirsig sampler

Previous Submissions

• Blake on the world in a grain of sand
• Lincoln on bigotry in the USA
• Pirsig on hurrying
• Pirsig on meaning
• Pirsig on romanticism
• Pirsig on institutions
• Rand on achievement
• Robbins on marriage
• Thompson on drugs
• Winterson on the scapula
• The Commonplace Book on Writers and Writing
• Rand on why we have laws
• Gene Wolfe on sanity
• Hasek on strong language
• O'Brien on vulgarity
• Delany on (un)sanity
• Vallee on artificial intelligence (or, what the Commonplace Book means...)
• Wittgenstein on novelty (or, if you prefer, on literature reviews ;)
• Confucius on clarity of expression
• Grass on knowing
• Hart and Sachs on the function of a lawyer
• Borges on the moment of dying
• Sandburg on happiness
• Machiavelli on innovation
• Robert Fulghum on life's ups and downs
• Milosz on meaning
• Dillard on why we read
• Jack London on the searching soul
• Wilde on Balzac
• Steinbeck on Gopher
• Michener on how a writer must protect himself
• Roscoe Pound on professionalism
• Hunter Thompson on deadlines
• Babbage
• Brooks on programming
• Brooks--The Mythical Man Month
• Edison on genius
• Edmund Burke on change
• From OUT OF AFRICA by Isak Dinesen
• Glegg, THE DESIGN OF DESIGN
• Goethe on commitment
• Goethe on duty
• Jefferson on religious diversity
• Lao Tzu's three treasures
• Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
• Michener on writer's block
• Michener on writing
• Realistic national objectives?
• Steinbeck on discontent
• Thoreau on the artist of Kouroo
• Thucydides on change
• Thucydides on heroism
• Thucydides on openness
• Thucydides on strength

The Commonplace Book

There was a time when commonplace books were a popular way for civilized men and women to record striking passages they found in their reading. Who can forget the electrifying effect that some thoughts have on us when we encounter them for the first time ? The commonplace book is a way of memorializing those striking passages so that one can return to them for renewed inspiration.

The idea of this experimental Commonplace Book home page is to test the concept of an edited Internet Commonplace Book built by and available to a wide variety of users.

Submissions are encouraged; that is the comparative advantage of putting the project online. Please submit striking passages (no more than a few paragraphs long) via e-mail to ibic@sunsite.unc.edu, with the word "Commonplace" in the subject line. Please include your name & e-mail address, as well as the proper attribution of the quoted passage and its exact location in the work cited.

Ultimate responsibility for selection of passages cited remains with the editor.

BTW, a forms version of this process will be implemented in the fairly near future.