“Useless pursuits and conversations always about the same things absorb the better part of one's time, the better part of one's strength, and in the end there is left a life grovelling and curtailed, worthless and trivial, and there is no escaping or getting away from it—just as though one were in a madhouse or a prison.”
― The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories
― The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
― Guns, Germs, and Steel
― Guns, Germs, and Steel
“and I am attacking a wonderful Greek salad as viciously as any Turk who’s just spent several weeks in London, where the food tastes like a desperately ambitious experiment.”
― How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship
― How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship
“Which of us is the madman?" he thought with vexation. "I, who try not to disturb my fellow-passengers in any way, or this egoist who thinks that he is cleverer and more interesting than anyone here, and so will leave no one in peace?”
― 7 best short stories by Anton Chekhov
― 7 best short stories by Anton Chekhov
“You know, of course," the doctor went on quietly and deliberately, "that everything in this world is insignificant and uninteresting except the higher spiritual manifestations of the human mind. Intellect draws a sharp line between the animals and man, suggests the divinity of the latter, and to some extent even takes the place of the immortality which does not exist. Consequently the intellect is the only possible source of enjoyment. We see and hear of no trace of intellect about us, so we are deprived of enjoyment. We have books, it is true, but that is not at all the same as living talk and converse. If you will allow me to make a not quite apt comparison: books are the printed score, while talk is the singing.”
― 7 best short stories by Anton Chekhov
― 7 best short stories by Anton Chekhov
baris’s 2025 Year in Books
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