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“I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.”
― Self-Reliance and Other Essays
― Self-Reliance and Other Essays
“Reading the very best writers—let us say Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Tolstoy—is not going to make us better citizens. Art is perfectly useless, according to the sublime Oscar Wilde, who was right about everything. He also told us that all bad poetry is sincere. Had I the power to do so, I would command that these words be engraved above every gate at every university, so that each student might ponder the splendor of the insight.”
― The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages
― The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages
“Hector Berlioz’s witty comment, “Time is the great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all of its students.”
― The Path of Least Resistance
― The Path of Least Resistance
“Efforts to divert the conversation into channels of a more general significance and interest end invariably in failure, the conversation petering out miserably in monosyllabic interjections”
― Mi Contra Fa
― Mi Contra Fa
“When I was very young and in the cave of Trophonius I forgot to laugh. Then, when I got older, when I opened my eyes and saw the real world, I began to laugh and I haven’t stopped since. I saw that the meaning of life was to get a livelihood, that the goal of life was to be a High Court judge, that the bright joy of love was to marry a well-off girl, that the blessing of friendship was to help each other out of a financial tight spot, that wisdom was what the majority said it was, that passion was to give a speech, that courage was to risk being fined 10 rix-dollars, that cordiality was to say ‘You’re welcome’ after a meal, and that the fear of God was to go to communion once a year. That’s what I saw. And I laughed.”
― Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
― Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
Karl’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Karl’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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