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“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.”
― The Cost of Living
― The Cost of Living
“Follow the wandering, the distraction, find out why the mind has wandered; pursue it, go into it fully. When the distraction is completely understood, then that particular distraction is gone. When another comes, pursue it also.”
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“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
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“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
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“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
― The Bell Jar
― The Bell Jar
It All Sounds Greek To Me
— 2893 members
— last activity 14 hours, 32 min ago
For all Goodreads members who are interested in greek literature or in greek language. For all the Greek members who are keen on greek literature or w ...more
Discovering Russian Literature
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— last activity Mar 02, 2026 04:52PM
Whether you are a newbie or an expert or simply love Russian literature... Welcome! This is a friendly group where you can share your thoughts an ...more
Turkish Books in GoodReads.com
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— last activity May 04, 2026 02:19PM
Bu sitenin amacı; her türlü Türk Edebiyatı ile ilgili kitapları goodreads.com sitesine eklemek ve Türk Edebiyatı'nın zenginliğini dünyanın her yerinde ...more
The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910
— 3788 members
— last activity 12 hours, 10 min ago
This is a group for discerning readers looking to discover, explore, and critically discuss some of the World’s literature, with a primary emphasis on ...more
Sacred Texts Book Club
— 17 members
— last activity Jul 10, 2012 01:46AM
Religion has been a driving force throughout the history of civilization. This is a book club for anybody who is interested in learning more about wor ...more
Zelda’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Zelda’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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