“So, now I shall talk every night. To myself. To the moon. I shall walk, as I did tonight, jealous of my loneliness, in the blue-silver of the cold moon, shining brilliantly on the drifts of fresh-fallen snow, with the myriad sparkles. I talk to myself and look at the dark trees, blessedly neutral. So much easier than facing people, than having to look happy, invulnerable, clever. With masks down, I walk, talking to the moon, to the neutral impersonal force that does not hear, but merely accepts my being. And does not smite me down.”
― The Journals of Sylvia Plath
― The Journals of Sylvia Plath
“No doubt there are some who, when confronted with a line of mathematical symbols, however simply presented, can only see the face of a stern parent or teacher who tried to force into them a non-comprehending parrot-like apparent competence--a duty and a duty alone--and no hint of magic or beauty of the subject might be allowed to come through.”
― The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
― The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
“Being praised essentially means that one is receiving judgment from another person as 'good.' And the measure of what is good or bad about that act is that person's yardstick. If receiving praise is what one is after, one will have no choice but to adapt to that person's yardstick and put the brakes on one's own freedom.”
― The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness
― The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness
“PHILOSOPHER: To quote Adler again: ‘The important thing is not what one is born with, but what use one makes of that equipment.”
― The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness
― The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness
“Such wounds to the heart will probably never heal. But we cannot simply sit and stare at our wounds forever.”
― 1Q84
― 1Q84
Katya’s 2025 Year in Books
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