“For a long time, my hidden shame had made me push everyone away. I'd rejected them before they could reject me. I ran away from close relationships even with the people who loved me. I was a blind man fallen into the ocean.”
― Notes of a Crocodile
― Notes of a Crocodile
“Perhaps he is a fool or a coward but almost everybody is one or the other and most people are both.”
― Giovanni’s Room
― Giovanni’s Room
“Because it is dangerous to ignore the existence of the irrational. The more cultivated a person is, the more intelligent, the more repressed, then the more he needs some method of channeling the primitive impulses he's worked so hard to subdue. Otherwise those powerful old forces will mass and strengthen until they are violent enough to break free, more violent for the delay, often strong enough to sweep the will away entirely.”
― The Secret History
― The Secret History
“The best conversations are with yourself. At least there's no risk of a misunderstanding.”
― Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
― Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
“First of all, they came to take the gypsies
and I was happy because they pilfered.
Then they came to take the Jews and I said nothing,
because they were unpleasant to me.
Then they came to take homosexuals,
and I was relieved, because they were annoying me.
Then they came to take the Communists,
and I said nothing because I was not a Communist.
One day they came to take me,
and there was nobody left to protest.
Bertold Brecht, inspired by Emil Gustav Friedrich Martin Niemöller”
―
and I was happy because they pilfered.
Then they came to take the Jews and I said nothing,
because they were unpleasant to me.
Then they came to take homosexuals,
and I was relieved, because they were annoying me.
Then they came to take the Communists,
and I said nothing because I was not a Communist.
One day they came to take me,
and there was nobody left to protest.
Bertold Brecht, inspired by Emil Gustav Friedrich Martin Niemöller”
―
#ClassicsCommunity 2021 Reading Challenge
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— last activity Aug 20, 2025 03:13PM
In 2021, I'm hosting a year-long readathon where I - and hopefully you! - will be reading as many classics as possible. The #ClassicsCommunity is an ...more
Maria’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Maria’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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