“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others,” Du Bois wrote.
“At times I thought this was the worst misery I had experienced in my life, but it was also a very shallow misery, which at any time could have been relieved completely by a word from him and transformed into idiotic happiness.”
― Conversations with Friends
― Conversations with Friends
“Does he love me? Does he love anyone more than me? Does he love me more than I love him? Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional effect of cutting it short. Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something (love) from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company.”
― The Unbearable Lightness of Being
― The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“I realised my life would be full of mundane physical suffering, and that there was nothing special about it. Suffering wouldn't make me special, and pretending not to suffer wouldn't make me special. Talking about it, or even writing about it, would not transform the suffering into something useful.”
― Conversations with Friends
― Conversations with Friends
“I saw the world I had walked since my birth and I understood how fragile it was, that the reality was a thin layer of icing on a great dark birthday cake writhing with grubs and nightmares and hunger.”
― The Ocean at the End of the Lane
― The Ocean at the End of the Lane
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
― The Brothers Karamazov
Erin’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Erin’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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