Nicholas Heyd

“A man who had a love affair was considered wicked but romantic; a woman who did the same was a whore.”
― Ken Follett, A Dangerous Fortune

“Když jsou hodní lidé, které máme rádi, je v tom stejně vždycky očekávání a naděje na opětovanou lásku. Ale cizí lidi tím nic nezískají, jen ve světě narůstá celkové množství lásky. A za tuhle lásku jsem vděčná.”
― Robert Fulghum

“People who see themselves as “good” are much more likely to do “evil” things. This is because believing you are the “good guy” allows you to define your actions as good because you are the one doing them. This is why many successful cultures frame humans as intrinsically wretched. It can seem harsh to raise a child to believe deeply in their own wretchedness, but doing so helps them remember to always second-guess themselves by remembering their lesser, selfishly motivated instincts. Instincts that run counter to your morality and values have every bit as much access to your intelligence as “the better angels” of your consciousness and will use your own knowledge and wit to justify their whims. You can’t outreason your worst impulses without stacking the deck in your favor. Coming from a culture that anticipates bad impulses and steels you against them can do that. That said, cultures will no doubt develop different, less harsh mechanisms for achieving the same outcome.”
― Simone Collins, The Pragmatist’s Guide to Crafting Religion: A playbook for sculpting cultures that overcome demographic collapse & facilitate long-term human flourishing

“She had something that is gone from the world, from the female world. A sweetness without sentimentality, a limpidity without naivety. She was so easy to hurt, to tease. And when she teased, it was like a caress.”
― John Fowles, The Magus