2026 Reading Challenge

Tel > Tel's Quotes

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  • #1
    Philip Pullman
    “I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away. Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it's because he's ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they're responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I'd want nothing to do with them.”
    ― Philip Pullman
    tags: cruelty, religion
    1100 likes

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  • #2
    Friedrich Nietzsche
    “Man is the cruelest animal.”
    ― Friedrich Nietzsche
    tags: animals, cruelty, evil, man
    2752 likes

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  • #3
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    “People speak sometimes about the "bestial" cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.”
    ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    tags: animals, cruelty, mankind
    2707 likes

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  • #4
    Shannon L. Alder
    “Anger, resentment and jealousy doesn't change the heart of others-- it only changes yours.”
    ― Shannon Alder, 300 Questions to Ask Your Parents Before It's Too Late
    tags: anger, caring-too-much, change, cruelty, damage, depression, dismissing, envy, games, heart, hurting-others, ignoring, jealousy, not-caring, pain, rejecting, resentment, retaliation, revenge, seeking-revenge, self-abuse, self-esteem, self-hatred, self-help, self-worth, sorrow, spiritual-growth, unkindness, vengance
    1246 likes

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  • #5
    Christopher Hitchens
    “We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.”
    ― Christopher Hitchens
    tags: atheism, cruelty, ethics, ethics-in-religion, morality, morality-without-religion, religion, selfishness, stupidity
    759 likes

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  • #6
    Bertrand Russell
    “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”
    ― Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays
    tags: cruelty, fear, superstition
    724 likes

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  • #7
    William Shakespeare
    “I must be cruel only to be kind;
    Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.”
    ― William Shakespeare , Hamlet
    470 likes

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  • #8
    Caroline Kepnes
    “The only thing crueler than a cage so
    small that a bird can’t fly is a cage so
    large that a bird thinks it can fly.”
    ― Caroline Kepnes, You
    tags: cruelty, freedom
    381 likes

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  • #9
    Nalini Singh
    “Emotion without reason lets people walk all over you; reason without emotion is a mask for cruelty.”
    ― Nalini Singh, Archangel's Kiss
    tags: cruelty, knowledge-wisdom, life-lessons, living-life, love, people, reason-emotion
    299 likes

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  • #10
    Tom Hiddleston
    “I think cruelty is just loneliness disguised as bitterness.”
    ― Tom Hiddleston
    tags: cruelty
    262 likes

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  • #11
    N.K. Jemisin
    “We can never be gods, after all--but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”
    ― N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
    tags: cruelty, gods, hubris, humanity
    334 likes

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  • #12
    Marie Lu
    “You cannot harden your heart to the future just because of your past. You cannot use cruelty against yourself to justify cruelty to others.”
    ― Marie Lu, The Midnight Star
    tags: cruelty, future, heart, marie-lu, past, the-midnight-star, the-young-elites
    256 likes

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  • #13
    Carson McCullers
    “But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is a misery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things.”
    ― Carson McCullers, The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories
    tags: childhood, cruelty, heart, love, neglect
    211 likes

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  • #14
    Kelly Link
    “A monster. You and your friends, all of you. Pretty monsters. It's a stage all girls go through. If you're lucky you get through it without doing any permanent damage to yourself or anyone else.”
    ― Kelly Link, Pretty Monsters: Stories
    tags: bullying, cliques, cruelty, heathers, kelly-link, monsters, pretty-monsters, teenage-girls, teenagers, teens
    119 likes

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  • #15
    Rosamund Hodge
    “I coudn't be kind to him after what he'd done, couldn't be cruel after what I had done”
    ― Rosamund Hodge, Cruel Beauty
    tags: cruelty, ignefix, kindness, nix
    109 likes

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  • #16
    Shannon L. Alder
    “Narcissists are consumed with maintaining a shallow false self to others. They're emotionally crippled souls that are addicted to attention. Because of this they use a multitude of games, in order to receive adoration. Sadly, they are the most ungodly of God's creations because they don't show remorse for their actions, take steps to make amends or have empathy for others. They are morally bankrupt.”
    ― Shannon L. Alder
    tags: adoration, assholes, attention, attention-seekers, cruel-men, cruelty, dancing-with-the-devil, fake, fake-men, gaslighting, liars, losers, manipulators, narcissism, narcissists, ungodly, ungodly-men
    105 likes

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  • #17
    Yukio Mishima
    “To see human beings in agony, to see them covered in blood and to hear their death groans, makes people humble. It makes their spirits delicate, bright, peaceful. It's never at such times that we become cruel or bloodthirsty. No, it's on a beautiful spring afternoon like this that people suddenly become cruel. It's at a moment like this, don't you think, while one's vaguely watching the sun as it peeps through the leaves of the trees above a well-mown lawn? Every possible nightmare in the world, every possible nightmare in history, has come into being like this.”
    ― Yukio Mishima, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
    tags: cruelty, mishima
    97 likes



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Tags From Tel’s Quotes

cruelty
religion
animals
evil
man
mankind
anger
caring-too-much
change
damage
depression
dismissing
envy
games
heart
hurting-others
ignoring
jealousy
not-caring
pain
rejecting
resentment
retaliation
revenge
seeking-revenge
self-abuse
self-esteem
self-hatred
self-help
self-worth
sorrow
spiritual-growth
unkindness
vengance
atheism
ethics
ethics-in-religion
morality
morality-without-religion
selfishness
stupidity
fear
superstition
freedom
knowledge-wisdom
life-lessons
living-life
love
people
reason-emotion
gods
hubris
humanity
future
marie-lu
past
the-midnight-star
the-young-elites
childhood
neglect
bullying
cliques
heathers
kelly-link
monsters
pretty-monsters
teenage-girls
teenagers
teens
ignefix
kindness
nix
adoration
assholes
attention
attention-seekers
cruel-men
dancing-with-the-devil
fake
fake-men
gaslighting
liars
losers
manipulators
narcissism
narcissists
ungodly
ungodly-men
mishima