Hamlet

You can learn alot from the old masters of words: Dickens, Poe, Emerson, C.S. Lewis, etc... But, I personally must say that I really enjoyed this short excerpt from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hamlet has just been "analyzed" by Guildenstern, who used to be a friend, but is now a spy against Hamlet. Hamlet knows this though, and is upset because Guildenstern seems to think that he knows Hamlet better than Hamlet knows himself. Just when Hamlet can't take it anymore, these musicians walk by with recorders. Hamlet asks for one and then answers Guildenstern as follows.
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Hamlet:
I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?

Guildenstern:
My lord, I cannot.

Hamlet:
I pray you.

Guildenstern:
Believe me, I cannot.

Hamlet:
I do beseech you.

Guildenstern:
I know, no touch of it, my lord.

Hamlet:
'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your
finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will
discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.

Guildenstern:
But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony; I
have not the skill.

Hamlet:
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You
would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would
pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my
lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music,
excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it
speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a
pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me,
you cannot play upon me.
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I've felt like that before. I've had people give me advice and say what I need to do or not do, and I don't like it one bit. I'm the only person who knows me. If someone wants to know how to "play" me, they need to get to know me. But I'm not the kind of person that lets too many people get that close. There are a few, I must admit, and I don't know where I'd be without them. Seriously though, there is no better defense to hide yourself behind than the defense of listening. If you listen instead of talking, you reveal nothing and learn everything. But, listening by itself is inaction, and will lead no where unless you do something about what you glean. If you hide well, it is true that you will not be found, but you will not find anything other than what is already with you in your hiding place.
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And now, some quotes from CS Lewis which I have had up before-





"The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it."

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

"Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained."

"If you are really a product of a materialistic universe, how is it that you don't feel at home there?"

"This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people."