Mark Van Kirk

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Franz Kafka
“If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it? Good God, we also would be happy if we had no books and such books that make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. What we must have are those books that come on us like ill fortune, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.
What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than we love ourselves, that make us feel as though we had been banished to the woods, far from any human presence, like a suicide. A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.”
Franz Kafka

Reinhold Niebuhr
“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.

Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.

No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.”
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History

year in books
Ellie M...
1,250 books | 32 friends

Liv Murphy
633 books | 15 friends

Anne Dunn
377 books | 22 friends

Nikki I...
265 books | 30 friends

Erin Ward
428 books | 27 friends

Adelaid...
258 books | 20 friends

Becca V...
222 books | 33 friends

Emily F...
28 books | 10 friends

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