Csilla

“It was at this period that Drogo realised how far apart men are whatever their affection for each other, that if you suffer the pain is yours and yours alone, no one else can take upon himself the least part of it; that if you suffer it does not mean that others feel pain even though their love is great: hence the loneliness of life.”
― Dino Buzzati, The Tartar Steppe

“Who can say if the thoughts you have in your mind as you read these words are the same thoughts I had in my mind as I typed them? We are different, you and I, and the qualia of our consciousnesses are as divergent as two stars at the ends of the universe.

And yet, whatever has been lost in translation in the long journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilization to your mind, I think you do understand me, and you think you do understand me. Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly and imperfectly.

Does that thought not make the universe seem just a bit kinder, a bit brighter, a bit warmer and more human?

We live for such miracles.”
― Ken Liu, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

“A két legnépszerűbb elmélet egyike szerint minden vallás valamiféle igazolás, a másik szerint inkább ópium; a kettő nem mindig hozható összhangba. A gazdagok inkább igazolásra, a szegények inkább kábítószerre vágynak. A hit "audiovizuális" elemei a lelki megnyugvás eléréséhez éppoly nélkülözhetetlenek, mint a társadalmi rend elidegenítéséhez.”
― Ernest Gellner, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and Its Rivals

“Már régen tökélyre vitte azt a képességet, hogy csak azt lássa, akit látni akar, ami létfontosságú készség, ha az ember a világnak nem áldozata, hanem ura akar lenni.”
― Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence