I love kids books and I read a lot of them since I have three little ones. I also like quotes and I love the story of Gilgamesh. I have a previous post from this summer that is from another translation of Gilgamesh with lessons learned as well and a summary of the story.
You can read that here: http://atozmomm.com/2010/05/25/lessons-from-gilgamesh/
All quotes are from “Gilgamesh the Hero” by Geraldine McCaughrean.
“Why live if not to make a mark on this world? To blaze a trail through it! To do deeds worthy of remembrance! Do or die!”
“The trouble with you, madam, is that you start by kissing and end by cursing.”
“It was unbearable, and yet it had to be borne.”
“Do or die.”
“Grab the day and run with it.”
You need “someone who can weather you even when you’re sour as a lemon.”
“It’s the quality of life that matters, not how long it drags on…”
“I’ve had time to learn the important things are few. A wife, contentment, memories, peace.”
“Bread is like the life of man: sweet smelling and softly tender at first, harder with age–a hard outer crust to defend a man against life’s knocks, then little by little more and more brittle until at last, decay.”
“The gods never meant you to live forever, so why spoil the life they did give you? Is the rainbow any less beautiful because it’s short-lived? Or because you can’t grasp hold of it? Perhaps it is beautiful expressly because of that.”
“He walked through darkness and so glimpsed the light.”