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292,337 voters
This idea of being inside the wall, as distinct from what is beyond and therefore outside one’s control, is at the core of Viking-Age concepts of settlement and order. It is an insight into their way of thinking.
“Fortunately, Ieyasu had with him Honda Tadakatsu, who intimidated the local rustics with his naginata. This weapon was named Tonbokiri or Dragonfly Cutter because legend had it that the blade was so razor sharp that one day, when a dragonfly had alighted on its edge, it had been instantly sliced in two. It was the creation of the famed swordsmith Fujiwara Masazane and would become one of the Tenka san so (天下三槍), the three legendary spears of Japan.102”
― Sengoku Jidai. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu: Three Unifiers of Japan
― Sengoku Jidai. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu: Three Unifiers of Japan
“But looking back through history, there are a lot more men who thought they were Alexander the Great than men who actually were.”
― Nemesis Games
― Nemesis Games
“Elvi had the sudden, powerful and disjointed memory of an art exhibit she’d seen as a girl. There had been a high-resolution image of a bicycle in a ditch outside the ruins of Glasgow. The aftermath of disaster in a single image, as compressed and eloquent as a poem.”
― Cibola Burn
― Cibola Burn
“Akechi was also extremely self-conscious of his growing baldness and Nobunaga exacerbated this too by taking Akechi’s head under his arm and pretending to drum on his bald pate, much to the amusement of the other Oda vassals present.”
― Sengoku Jidai. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu: Three Unifiers of Japan
― Sengoku Jidai. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu: Three Unifiers of Japan
“You say both your sects are Christian, both venerate Jesus the Christ? Isn’t the essence of his teaching “to love one another”?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Then how can you be enemies?’ ‘Their faith – their version of Christianity is a false interpretation of the Scriptures.’ ‘Ah! At last we’re getting somewhere. So you’re at war through a difference of opinion about what is God or not God?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘That’s a very stupid reason to go to war.’ Blackthorne said, ‘I agree.’ He looked at the priest. ‘I agree with all my heart.”
― Shogun
― Shogun
Aidan’s 2025 Year in Books
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21 books
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191 books
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2,475 books
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43 books
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188 books
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74 books
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