“Let everything that's been planned come true. Let them believe. And let them have a laugh at their passions. Because what they call passion actually is not some emotional energy, but just the friction between their souls and the outside world. And most important, let them believe in themselves. Let them be helpless like children, because weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing. When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible. When he dies, he is hard and insensitive. When a tree is growing, it's tender and pliant. But when it's dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death's companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.”
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“at the press conference for the film he impressed everyone with his complete sincerity and innocence. he said he had come to see the sea for the first time and marveled at how clean it was. someone told him that, in fact, it wasn't. 'when the world is emptied of human beings' he said, 'it will become so again”
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“You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood, back home to romantic love, back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame, back home to exile, to escape to Europe and some foreign land, back home to lyricism, to singing just for singing's sake, back home to aestheticism, to one's youthful idea of 'the artist' and the all-sufficiency of 'art' and 'beauty' and 'love,' back home to the ivory tower, back home to places in the country, to the cottage in Bermude, away from all the strife and conflict of the world, back home to the father you have lost and have been looking for, back home to someone who can help you, save you, ease the burden for you, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time--back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.”
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“There are perhaps many causes worth dying for, but to me, certainly, there are none worth killing for.”
― Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank Dietrich and Albert Dietrich
― Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank Dietrich and Albert Dietrich
Our Book Club
— 4 members
— last activity Sep 01, 2021 07:27PM
Cassie and Stefanie are starting a book club! We plan to meet at 7 p.m. the third Thursday of the month, with the first meeting planned for Sept. 16 a ...more
français
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— last activity Apr 06, 2022 02:05AM
For those who read French books Pour ceux qui lisent des livres en français
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Français -------- French literature ادبیات فرانسه Literatura de Francia أدب فرنسي Letteratura francese Literatura francuska Literatura francesa Fransı ...more
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— last activity Aug 29, 2017 05:48AM
Latin American literature rose to particular prominence during the second half of the 20th century, largely thanks to the international success of the ...more
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For anyone remotely interested and versed in Russian literature, history and culture. Love Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Akhmatova, Nabokov? ...more
Angela’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Angela’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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