René Rodriguez

“only literature can give you access to a spirit from beyond the grave – a more direct, more complete, deeper access than you’d have in conversation with a friend’.”
― Michel Houellebecq, In the Presence of Schopenhauer

“Anyone can lie. It suffices to say something with the intention to deceive. Faking, however, is an achievement. To fake things you have to take people in, yourself included. The liar can pretend to be shocked when his lies are exposed: but his pretence is part of the lie. The fake really is shocked when he is exposed, since he had created around himself a community of trust, of which he himself was a member.”
― Roger Scruton, Confessions of a Heretic, Revised Edition

“Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“Schopenhauer’s work is a school of morality which instils into the reader the qualities of honesty, serenity and constancy which characterize its author; it is also, according to Nietzsche, a lesson in style (because morality and style are two sides of the same coin):”
― Michel Houellebecq, In the Presence of Schopenhauer