538 books
—
1,884 voters
“End the habit of despising things that are not within your power, and apply your aversion to things that are within your power.”
― The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life
― The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life
“Engineering or Technology is the making of things that did not previously exist, whereas science is the discovering of things that have long existed.”
―
―
“Too many writers write for the wrong reasons.
They want to get famous or they want to get rich or they want to get laid by the girls with bluebells in their hair...
When everything works best, it's not because you chose writing, but because writing chose you. It's when you're mad with it. When it's stuffed in your ears, nostrils, under your finger nails.
It's when there's no hope but that.”
―
They want to get famous or they want to get rich or they want to get laid by the girls with bluebells in their hair...
When everything works best, it's not because you chose writing, but because writing chose you. It's when you're mad with it. When it's stuffed in your ears, nostrils, under your finger nails.
It's when there's no hope but that.”
―
“It’s deeply poignant that we should expend so much effort on trying to look strong before the world when, all the while, it’s really only ever the revelation of the somewhat embarrassing, sad, melancholy, and anxious bits of us that renders us endearing to others and transforms strangers into friends.”
― The School of Life: An Emotional Education
― The School of Life: An Emotional Education
“Paradoxically, it is friendship that often offers us the real route to the pleasures that Romanticism associates with love. That this sounds surprising is only a reflection of how underdeveloped our day-to-day vision of friendship has become. We associate it with a casual acquaintance we see only once in a while to exchange inconsequential and shallow banter. But real friendship is something altogether more profound and worthy of exultation. It is an arena in which two people can get a sense of each other’s vulnerabilities, appreciate each other’s follies without recrimination, reassure each other as to their value and greet the sorrows and tragedies of existence with wit and warmth. Culturally and collectively, we have made a momentous mistake which has left us both lonelier and more disappointed than we ever needed to be. In a better world, our most serious goal would be not to locate one special lover with whom to replace all other humans but to put our intelligence and energy into identifying and nurturing a circle of true friends. At the end of an evening, we would learn to say to certain prospective companions, with an embarrassed smile as we invited them inside – knowing that this would come across as a properly painful rejection – ‘I’m so sorry, couldn’t we just be … lovers?”
― The School of Life: An Emotional Education
― The School of Life: An Emotional Education
asih’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at asih’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by asih
Lists liked by asih




































