Talie

“He was obsessed with the fear of making a mistake. Sometimes he was convinced it was impossible to do anything else, and that if anyone got anything right it was purely by chance.”
― Ismail Kadare, The Palace of Dreams

“What was atrocious was the fact that, like every other building in the new towns, they were dumped almost at random; the leakage of escaping gas scented the so-called gas-house districts, and not surprisingly these districts frequently became among the most degraded sections of the city. Towering above the town, polluting its air, the gas tanks symbolized the dominance of 'practical' interests over life-needs.”
― Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects

“For in the nocturnal realm of sleep are to be found both the light and the darkness of humanity, its honey and its poison, its greatness and its vulnerability.”
― Ismail Kadare, The Palace of Dreams

“Presently the recruiting sergeant was not able to use the children of this regime even as cannon fodder: the Boer War and the First World War, did perhaps as much as any other factor to promote better housing there.”
― Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects