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Parker said, “If you open that door, I’ll kill you and everybody the other side of it. I said the men’s room.” Dockery’s hand hesitated, an inch from the knob. His shoulders were tensed to reject the bullet, but in the end he leaned back
...more
“No one society and no one age of it realises all the values of civilisation. Not all of these values may be compatible with each other: what is at least as certain is that in realising some we lose the appreciation of others.”
―
―
“Every particular society, when it is narrow and unified, is estranged from the all-encompassing society. Every patriot is harsh to foreigners. They arc only men. They arc nothing in his eyes - This is a drawback, inevitable but not compelling. The essential thing is to be good to the people with whom one lives. Abroad, the Spartan was ambitious, avaricious. iniquitous. But disinterestedness, equity, and concord reigned within his walls. Distrust those cosmopolitans who go to great length in their books to discover duties they do not deign to fulfill around them. A philosopher loves the Tartars so as to be spared having to love his neighbors.”
― Emile, or On Education
― Emile, or On Education
“There are many modern biographies and histories, full of carefully authenticated fact, which afflict the reader with a weight of indigestion. The author has no right to his facts, no ownership in them. They have flitted through his mind on a calm five minutes'
passage from the notebook to the immortality of the printed page. But no man can hope to make much impression on a reader with facts which he has not thought it worth his own while to remember. Every considerable book, in literature or science, is an engine whereby, mind operates on mind. It is an ignorant
worship of Science which treats it as residing in books, and reduces the mind to a mechanism of transfer. The measure of an author's power would be best found in the book which he should sit down to write the day after his
library was burnt to the ground.”
― Six Essays on Johnson
passage from the notebook to the immortality of the printed page. But no man can hope to make much impression on a reader with facts which he has not thought it worth his own while to remember. Every considerable book, in literature or science, is an engine whereby, mind operates on mind. It is an ignorant
worship of Science which treats it as residing in books, and reduces the mind to a mechanism of transfer. The measure of an author's power would be best found in the book which he should sit down to write the day after his
library was burnt to the ground.”
― Six Essays on Johnson
“The past is another country, but the Seventies is another planet.”
― Mark Steyn's Passing Parade
― Mark Steyn's Passing Parade
“If men are forbid to speak their minds seriously on certain subjects, they will do it ironically. If they are forbid to speak at all upon such subjects, or if they find it really dangerous to do so, they will then redouble their disguise, involve themselves in mysteriousness, and talk so as hardly to be understood, or at least not plainly interpreted, by those who are disposed
to do them a mischief And thus raillery is brought more in fashion, and runs into an extreme. 'Tis the persecuting spirit has raised the bantering one ; and want of liberty may account for want of a true politeness, and for the corruption or wrong use of pleasantry and humour.
If in this respect we strain the just measure of what we call urbanity, and are apt sometimes to take a buffooning rustic air, we may thank the ridiculous solemnity and sour humour of our pedagogues ; or rather, they may thank themselves, if they in particular meet with the heaviest of this kind of treatment. For it will naturally fall heaviest where the constraint has been the severest. The greater the weight is,
the bitterer will be the satire. The higher the slavery, the more exquisite the buffoonery.”
― Essai Sur l'Usage de la Raillerie Et de l'Enjoument, Dans Les Conversations Qui Roulent: Sur Les Matières Les Plus Importantes (Philosophie)
to do them a mischief And thus raillery is brought more in fashion, and runs into an extreme. 'Tis the persecuting spirit has raised the bantering one ; and want of liberty may account for want of a true politeness, and for the corruption or wrong use of pleasantry and humour.
If in this respect we strain the just measure of what we call urbanity, and are apt sometimes to take a buffooning rustic air, we may thank the ridiculous solemnity and sour humour of our pedagogues ; or rather, they may thank themselves, if they in particular meet with the heaviest of this kind of treatment. For it will naturally fall heaviest where the constraint has been the severest. The greater the weight is,
the bitterer will be the satire. The higher the slavery, the more exquisite the buffoonery.”
― Essai Sur l'Usage de la Raillerie Et de l'Enjoument, Dans Les Conversations Qui Roulent: Sur Les Matières Les Plus Importantes (Philosophie)
Book Forum Refugees
— 76 members
— last activity Feb 17, 2026 09:49PM
For eclectic readers and collectors not bound by genre or era. We cover a wide range of book-related topics (and a few not book-related), and welcome ...more
Classics and the Western Canon
— 4966 members
— last activity Jun 21, 2026 06:10PM
This is a group to read and discuss those books generally referred to as “the classics” or “the Western canon.” Books which have shaped Western though ...more
Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels
— 562 members
— last activity Jun 13, 2026 11:09AM
The Guardian put together an excellent list entitled '1000 Novels Everyone Must Read', and this group will read books each month from a selection of t ...more
Pulp Fiction
— 1937 members
— last activity 10 hours, 31 min ago
Hard Boiled detective novels, noir, and great crime novels (old and new)
The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910
— 3798 members
— last activity 20 hours, 5 min ago
This is a group for discerning readers looking to discover, explore, and critically discuss some of the World’s literature, with a primary emphasis on ...more
Christopher’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Christopher’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
2,268 books
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90 friends
493 books
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79 friends
2,096 books
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58 friends
4,295 books
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131 friends
855 books
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3,086 friends
1,903 books
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4,171 friends
854 books
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165 friends
9,656 books
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1,752 friends
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