“We fear death, we shudder at life's instability, we grieve to see the flowers wilt again and again, and the leaves fall, and in our hearts we know that we, too, are transitory and will soon disappear. When artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something last longer than we do.”
― Narcissus and Goldmund
― Narcissus and Goldmund
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
― Man's Search for Meaning
― Man's Search for Meaning
“We forgot about Buddha. We forgot about God. We developed a coldness inside us that still has not thawed. I fear my soul has died. We stopped writing home to our mothers. We lost weight and grew thin. We stopped bleeding. We stopped dreaming. We stopped wanting.”
― The Buddha in the Attic
― The Buddha in the Attic
“..ama her zaman varlıklıların, belli bir yere kök salmış yaşayanların karşısında onların baş düşmanı olarak yer alır, çünkü bu kişiler göçebelerden nefret eder, onu horlar, ondan korkarlar, çünkü göçebe bazı tatsız şeyleri anımsatır kendilerine, tüm varoluşun gelip geçiciliğini, tüm yaşamın sürekli dağılıp döküldüğünü, çevremizdeki evreni baştan başa dolduran buzsu ölümlerin amansızlığını anımsatır.”
― Narcissus and Goldmund
― Narcissus and Goldmund
“Overnight, our neighbors began to look at us differently. Maybe it was the little girl down the road who no longer waved to us from her farmhouse window. Or the longtime customers who suddenly disappeared from our restaurants and stores. Or our mistress, Mrs. Trimble, who pulled us aside one morning as we were mopping her kitchen and whispered into our ear, "Did you know that the war was coming?" Club ladies began boycotting our fruit stands because they were afraid our produce might be tainted with arsenic. Insurance companies canceled our insurance. Banks froze our bank accounts. Milkmen stopped delivering milk to our doors. "Company orders," one tearful milkman explained. Children took one look at us and ran away like frightened deer. Little old ladies clutched their purses and froze up on the sidewalk at the sight of our husbands and shouted out, "They're here!" And even though our husbands had warned us--They're afraid--still, we were unprepared. Suddenly, to find ourselves the enemy.”
― The Buddha in the Attic
― The Buddha in the Attic
Elif’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Elif’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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