Liudmila Soboleva

“Those feelings of contradiction in the moments after my son’s birth never went away. After his delivery, I was both lighter and heavier. <…> When I dropped my babies off at day care in the mornings, I was at once liberated and anguished. More generally—then and now—I’m consumed with an obsessive love for my children interspersed with the frequent desire to escape to a remote island where no one can bother me. If I had to choose one word to describe my experience of motherhood, it would be ambivalent or conflicted.”
― Deena Emera, A Brief History of the Female Body: An Evolutionary Look at How and Why the Female Form Came to Be - Library Edition

“No, you're not free," he said. "The string you're tied to is perhaps no longer than other people's. That's all. You're on a long piece of string, boss; you come and go, and think you're free, but you never cut the string in two. And when people don't cut that string . . ."

"I'll cut it some day!" I said defiantly, because Zorba's words had touched an open wound in me and hurt.

"It's difficult, boss, very difficult. You need a touch of folly to do that; folly, d'you see? You have to risk everything! But you've got such a strong head, it'll always get the better of you. A man's head is like a grocer; it keeps accounts: I've paid so much and earned so much and that means a profit of this much or a loss of that much! The head's a careful little shopkeeper; it never risks all it has, always keeps something in reserve. It never breaks the string. Ah no! It hangs on tight to it, the bastard! If the string slips out of its grasp, the head, poor devil, is lost, finished!
But if a man doesn't break the string, tell me, what flavor is left in life?
The flavor of camomile, weak camomile tea! Nothing like rum - that makes you see life inside out!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Беда, когда человек вдруг примется философствовать — это всегда пахнет белой горячкой.”
― Ярослав Гашек, Похождения бравого солдата Швейка

“Возможно, единственный способ спасти ваш брак — это расторгнуть его.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept