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“It’s like the Federal Reserve,” Alex had said, “except secret and with people who are smart.”
“A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.
This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national, and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat. 2.10.”
― The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national, and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat. 2.10.”
― The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
“The burning conviction that we have a holy duty toward others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft. What looks like giving a hand is often a holding on for dear life. Take away our holy duties and you leave our lives puny and meaningless. There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.”
― The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
― The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
“I don't think that you have any insight whatsoever into your capacity for good until you have some well-developed insight into your capacity for evil.”
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“Anyone who is willing to end a relationship because of a reasoned difference of opinion is not worthy of your friendship.”
― The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
― The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
“However, the freedom the masses crave is not freedom of self-expression and self-realization, but freedom from the intolerable burden of an autonomous existence. They want freedom from “the fearful burden of free choice,”19 freedom from the arduous responsibility of realizing their ineffectual selves and shouldering the blame for the blemished product. They do not want freedom of conscience, but faith—blind, authoritarian faith. They sweep away the old order not to create a society of free and independent men, but to establish uniformity, individual anonymity and a new structure of perfect unity. It”
― The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
― The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
John’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at John’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
284 books
|
25 friends
1,058 books
|
41 friends
0 books
|
24 friends
26 books
|
5 friends
18 books
|
15 friends
0 books
|
2 friends
1 book
|
14 friends
58 books
|
49 friends
More friends…
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