“The mistake is to assume that rulers who came to power through institutions cannot change or destroy those very institutions--even when that is exactly what they have announced that they will do. Revolutionaries sometimes do intend to destroy institutions all at once. This was the approach of the Russian Bolsheviks. Sometimes institutions are deprived of vitality and function, turned into a simulacrum of what they once were, so that they gird the new order rather than resisting it.”
― On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
― On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
“You know how the sun rises and sets at a certain time each day? In the same way, all of our lives have a day and night. But it's not set like it is with the sun. Some people walk forever in the sunlight, and some people have to walk through the darkest night their whole lives. When people talk about being afraid, what they're afraid of is that their sun will set. That the light they love will fade.”
― Journey Under the Midnight Sun
― Journey Under the Midnight Sun
“A life lived entirely at the whim of another is no life at all.”
― Children of Time
― Children of Time
“Post-truth is pre-fascism.”
― On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
― On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
“History does not repeat, but it does instruct.”
― On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
― On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Rachel’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Rachel’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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