Introduction - every day, read the page for that date.

This is a reproduction, page by page, of a book that was popular in the early twentieth century. This is the 1935 edition. It was a Christmas present from my grandmother to my mother in 1942. My mother gave it to me in April 1958 and I read a page every night until 1966. It guided me through a difficult adolescence and early adulthood, as a bearer of Asperger's syndrome, a condition which wasn't identified and labelled until decades later.

The book has one page for every day of the year. Just read the page for that date, every day. The pieces are quotes from poets, thinkers, ministers of religion, prominent people and literary figures going back from the early twentieth century to classical times. There are quotes from the Christian bible as well as sacred texts from other religions. Women feature more than you would expect, because this book had among its compilers, women who worked for emancipation and voting rights for women in the early twentieth century.

The pieces have been reproduced here exactly as they appeared in the 1935 book. Some of the language might be gender-specific and politically incorrect, and God is referred to often, in the natural way that people did in former days.