“In 1976, Stephen King published a short story, “I Know What You Need,” about the courting of a young woman. Her suitor was a young man who could read her mind but did not tell her so. He simply appeared with what she wanted at the moment, beginning with strawberry ice cream for a study break. Step by step he changed her life, making her dependent upon him by giving her what she thought she wanted at a certain moment, before she herself had a chance to reflect. Her best friend realized that something disconcerting was happening, investigated, and learned the truth: “That is not love,” she warned. “That’s rape.” The internet is a bit like this. It knows much about us, but interacts with us without revealing that this is so. It makes us unfree by arousing our worst tribal impulses and placing them at the service of unseen others.”
― The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America
― The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America
“If abortion is murder then blowjobs are cannibalism.”
― Inside The Mind of an Introvert: Comics, Deep Thoughts and Quotable Quotes
― Inside The Mind of an Introvert: Comics, Deep Thoughts and Quotable Quotes
“You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case.”
― On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
― On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
“Enlightenment comes to even the dimmest. It begins around the eyes, and it spreads outward from there- a sight that might tempt one to lie down under the harrow oneself.”
― In the Penal Colony
― In the Penal Colony
“If I should say that he is a victim of injustice, then I would be asking by implication for sympathy; and if one insists upon looking at this boy as a victim of injustice, he will be swamped by a feeling of guilt so strong as to be indistinguishable from hate. Of all things, men do not like to feel that they are guilty of wrong, and if you make them feel guilt, they will try desperately to justify it on any grounds; but, failing that, and seeing no immediate solution that will set things right without too much cost to their lives and property, they will kill that which evoked in them, the condemning sense of guilt. And this is true of all men- whether they be white or black -it is a peculiar and powerful, but common need.”
― Native Son
― Native Son
Alice’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Alice’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Alice
Lists liked by Alice



























