574 ratings (3.66 avg)
120 reviews
more photos (1)

Patrick Sprunger

Patrick’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (0)
currently-reading‎ (0)
read‎ (584)
did-not-finish‎ (0)
fiction‎ (289)
favorites‎ (89)
general-nonfiction‎ (89)

american-history‎ (82)
other‎ (54)
read-in-2012‎ (52)
read-in-2015‎ (52)
read-in-2013‎ (51)
read-in-2014‎ (51)
read-in-2010‎ (50)

read-in-2011‎ (50)
read-in-2017‎ (34)
policy-socioliogy-economics‎ (33)
world-history‎ (32)
religion‎ (29)
read-in-2016‎ (25)
read-in-2018‎ (18)

comics‎ (16)
read-in-2026‎ (13)
read-in-2022‎ (11)
read-in-2020‎ (8)
art‎ (7)
first-reads‎ (6)
read-in-2019‎ (1)

Stats | More…

“There's nothing like martyrdom for bringing people together. It's an exalted feeling to be persecuted for righteousness' sake. As Christ remarks, theirs is the kingdom of heaven . . . Without Rome's inspired persecution, Christianity would have been just another cult from the East. But Rome fed us to the lions, and made saints of us. People want to be saints, if it can be done without dieting."

Peter at once retaliated with his own pointed observation. "It's a nice theory, but I don't notice that you ever put yourself in jeopardy of arrest. You don't lie down in front of the police cars. You don't handcuff yourself to the clinic's front door. Is martyrdom a privilege reserved for the laity these days?"

"The Bishop hasn't required such a sacrifice of me yet."

"And you just follow orders?"

"That's how hierarchy works . . ."

”
― Thomas M. Disch, The Priest

0 likes

“This they tell, and whether it happened so or not I do not know; but if you think about it, you can see that it is true.”
― Black Elk, Black Elk Lives: Conversations with the Black Elk Family

0 likes

“Then, in far less time than it takes to tell - - The blip is gone - - But the wonderment begins - -”
― Stan Lee, Marvel Masterworks: The Silver Surfer, Vol. 1

1 likes

“Were there opinion polls in hell? Probably! And probably one hundred percent of the damned were of the opinion that they should be in heaven, and the results of the polls were published every morning in hell's own newspaper and broadcast on TV, and there were protest rallies organized by demons, and long processions of the damned wailing and singing "We Shall Overcome.”
― Thomas M. Disch, The Priest

0 likes

“The dilemmas of little princes are often grave. They should be dwelt on now and then for an example to poor struggling commoners, of the slings and arrows assailing fortune's most favoured men, that we may preach contentment to the wretch who cannot muster wherewithal to marry a wife, or has done it and trots the streets, pack-laden, to maintain the dame and troops of children painfully reared to fill subordinate stations. According to our reading, a moral is always welcome in a moral country, and especially so when silly envy is to be chastised by it, the restless craving for change rebuked.”
― George Meredith

0 likes

More of Patrick’s quotes…