“It is not as if farming brought a great improvement in living standards either. A typical hunter-gatherer enjoyed a more varied diet and consumed more protein and calories than settled people, and took in five times as much viatmin C as the average person today.”
― At Home: A Short History of Private Life
― At Home: A Short History of Private Life
“But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that he may be the object of God's love precisely because of his shortcomings, can begin to be sincere. His sincerity is based on confidence, not in his own illusions about himself, but in the endless, unfailing mercy of God.”
― No Man Is an Island
― No Man Is an Island
“Our Christian destiny is, in fact, a great one: but we cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great. For our own idea of greatness is illusory, and if we pay too much attention to it we will be lured out of the peace and stability of the being God gave us, and seek to live in a myth we have created for ourselves. And when we are truly ourselves we lose most of the futile self-consciousness that keeps us constantly comparing ourselves with others in order to see how big we are.”
― No Man Is an Island
― No Man Is an Island
“The real reason why so few men believe in God is that they have ceased to believe that even a God can love them.”
― No Man Is an Island
― No Man Is an Island
“...and it occurred to me, with the forcefulness of a thought experienced in 360 degrees, that that's really what history mostly is: masses of people doing ordinary things.”
― At Home: A Short History of Private Life
― At Home: A Short History of Private Life
Melanthe’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Melanthe’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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