The number of Americans who considered themselves shy increased from 40 percent in the 1970s to 50 percent in the 1990s, probably because we measured ourselves against ever higher standards of fearless self-presentation.
“All the achievements of the Putin era so far – the economic growth, the increase in incomes, the riches of the billionaires that had turned Moscow into a gleaming metropolis where sleek foreign cars filled the streets and cosy cafés opened on street corners – boiled down to the sharp increase in the oil price during the Putin years, they agree.”
― Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West
― Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West
“The day arrived when he stood to take the oath, at which point the chief justice ordered him to take off his turban. Gandhi saw his true limitations then. He knew that resistance would be justified, but believed in picking his battles, so he took off his headgear. His friends were upset. They said he was weak, that he should have stood up for his beliefs. But Gandhi felt that he had learned “to appreciate the beauty of compromise.”
― Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
― Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
“When you start considering things not as obligations but as opportunities, you start taking advantage of them rather than trying to avoid them.”
― 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think
― 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think
“What qualities you admire most in other people. (This is what you most like about yourself.)”
― 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think
― 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think
“Pugachev claimed that he was trying to bring an end to the era when the oligarchs of the Yeltsin years believed they controlled the Kremlin by giving ‘donations’ to Kremlin officials – not realising, perhaps, that essentially he was doing exactly the same.”
― Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West
― Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West
Adam’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Adam’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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