“Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but, above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.”
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“It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season - like all the other seasons - is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them, and that's the end of this particular story.”
― The Lump of Coal
― The Lump of Coal
“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains ... an unuprooted small corner of evil.
Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.”
― The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.”
― The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
“Your life is a vapor. You’re here for two seconds. What do you want your life to be at the end, when you’re on your deathbed? Do you want it to be, “Oh, I got to satisfy all those urges and got the things I wanted”?
It’s so sad to me because you’re literally giving up your birthright for a single meal. Do you understand what you are doing?”
― A Change of Affection: A Gay Man's Incredible Story of Redemption
It’s so sad to me because you’re literally giving up your birthright for a single meal. Do you understand what you are doing?”
― A Change of Affection: A Gay Man's Incredible Story of Redemption
Alyssa’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Alyssa’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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