Chara Benner > Chara's Quotes

“Just like the myth of the people’s or popular capitalism, which was propagated since the mid1950s in the countries to the west of Berlin Wall, to the east and the north of it, since the same time it was introduced the myth of the people’s or popular socialism. But the suggestion is always the same. Under any “people’s” power—from people’s capitalism to people’s socialism—the greatest illusion suggested to the oppressed classes is that the people are sovereign, i.e., that all the people dominate over themselves. In this respect, even John Kenneth Galbraith makes Marxist conclusions, which even in the Internet epoch have the same power: “Young people are suggested that in a democracy the entire power belongs to the people!” (“The Anatomy of Power”)
Yet, old people know that this is not true!”
― Todor Bombov, Socialism Is Dead! Long Live Socialism!: The Marx Code-Socialism with a Human Face

“
When he got to his feet, the miasma lingered. It came to Shane that he could never remove Jesse from his conscience because he would never be able to forgive himself if he did. Without question, there were some sins that could not be forgiven.”
― Ashby Jones, The Little Bird

“He desperately tried to think of a story to explain his involvement in her sudden appearance, without mentioning the book of magic in his possession.
 ”
― Max Nowaz, The Three Witches and the Master

“Americans have a love affair with weak coffee.’ ‘And you’re a coffee expert, too,’ Gwen said, cutting a thick slice of apple pie.”
― Gary Clemenceau, Banker's Holiday: A Novel of Fiscal Irregularity

“No, the treasure, if that is the word, cannot be seen. It lies beneath this land. The Dewar is looking to things that lie beneath us in the province of Banora.”
― Robert Reid, White Light Red Fire

“Her lips silently formed three words, oh my love.”
― Gabriel F.W. Koch, Steel Blood

“Her name wasn’t Jane. Not legally. But she wore it now like a uniform: plain, practical, invisible.”
― D.L. Maddox, The Dog Walker: The Prequel

“We are humiliated and disillusioned once again by our own countrymen because they attempt to trample on us, which increases our isolation and unimportance.”
― Dorlies von Kaphengst Meissner Rasmussen, Escaping the Russian Onslaught: A Family’s Story of Fleeing the Russian Army after Hitler’s Nazi Regime

“If one does not react to gossip, the informer hushes more quickly.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“Unfortunately, reprisal seemed to be the only language that the Arabs understood, the only thing that might stop them.”
― Leon Uris, Exodus

“I don’t think it would have all got me quite so down if just once in a while—just once in a while—there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn't, it's just a disgusting waste of time! But there never is! You never even hear any hints dropped on a campus that wisdom is supposed to be the goal of knowledge. You hardly ever even hear the word 'wisdom' mentioned!”
― J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

“IT WAS AT THIS POINT that the idea of “shaking the snow globe,” as one neuroscientist described the psychedelic experience, came to seem more attractive to me than frightening, though it was still that too. After more than half a century of its more or less constant companionship, one’s self—this ever-present voice in the head, this ceaselessly commenting, interpreting, labeling, defending I—becomes perhaps a little too familiar. I’m not talking about anything as deep as self-knowledge here. No, just about how, over time, we tend to optimize and conventionalize our responses to whatever life brings. Each of us develops our shorthand ways of slotting and processing everyday experiences and solving problems, and while this is no doubt adaptive—it helps us get the job done with a minimum of fuss—eventually it becomes rote. It dulls us. The muscles of attention atrophy.”
― Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence

“Catholic.”
― Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

“When he wanted, he could radiate charm and sincerity, but I often wonder in these later days if anything about him was as it seemed. I think now he was a man fighting constantly to escape the bars of an invisible cage.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“Software development, like professional sports, has a way of making thirty-year-old men feel decrepit.”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash