“It’s always the case that history is a tale told by the victors. But the triumph of the scientific worldview has been so complete that we’ve lost more than the losing side’s version of history. We’ve lost the idea that a view different from ours is even possible. Today we take for granted that originality is a word of praise. New strikes us as nearly synonymous with improved. But for nearly all of human history, a new idea was a dangerous idea.”
― The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World
― The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World
“Strange, isn’t it? To have dedicated one’s life to a certain venture, neglecting other aspects of one’s life, only to have that venture, in the end, amount to nothing at all, the products of one’s labors utterly forgotten?”
― Lincoln in the Bardo
― Lincoln in the Bardo
“Do you know that it can be a sin to give birth? I’d never heard those words before. Katya”
― Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
― Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
“Provisional Definition 2: a bullshit job is a form of employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence”
― Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
― Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
“What I mean to say is, we had been considerable. Had been loved. Not lonely, not lost, not freakish, but wise, each in his or her own way. Our departures caused pain. Those who had loved us sat upon their beds, heads in hand; lowered their faces to tabletops, making animal noises. We had been loved, I say, and remembering us, even many years later, people would smile, briefly gladdened at the memory.”
― Lincoln in the Bardo
― Lincoln in the Bardo
Roland’s 2025 Year in Books
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