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18,686 voters
“But the past is the biggest country of all, and there's a reason one gives in to the desire to set stories in the past: almost everything good seems located in the past, perhaps that's an illusion, but I feel nostalgic for every era before I was born; and one is freer of modern inhibitions, perhaps because one bears no responsibility for the past, sometimes I feel simply ashamed of the time in which I live.”
― In America
― In America
“Δυο εχθροί, ένας απ'έξω, ένας από μέσα. Πουθενά γλυτωμός άλλος από τη μαγκουφιά της ερημιάς στα γερατειά. Κήρυξαν σε διωγμό τον έρωτα, την πράξη την ερωτική, γιατί νομίζετε; Για να κεντρίσουν τη ζήτηση, να σε βασανίσουν σοφά με τη στέρηση, να σε κατασπαράξουν με τον πόθο. Ψυχολογικός καταναγκασμός! Υψηλή τέχνη!... Προσέξατε τα κορίτσια σας, το νου σας μην παραστρατήσουν! Διδάξετε τους καλά το εμπόριο, είναι πράξη ανώτερης ηθικής. Και πέστε τους πως είναι αίσχος να πουλάνε το κορμί τους. Την ψυχή τους, αυτήν, μπορούνε να την πουλάνε λεύτερα. Ο σκοπός είναι "ιερός"!”
― Η μενεξεδένια πολιτεία
― Η μενεξεδένια πολιτεία
“Είτανε μιά από τις εξαντλητικές εκείνες, τις υπεράνθρωπες νίκες, που αν δεν τις έτρωγε η αφάνεια της καθημερινής ζωής, αν είτανε δυνατό να γίνουν με κάθε τους λεπτομέρεια γνωστές, θα κινούσαν το θαυμασμό. Έτσι, συχνά, για τα μέτρια αποτελέσματα, χρειάζεται να χυθεί ο αιματερός ιδρώτας, όταν οι μεγάλες πράξεις γίνονται με μια χειρονομία απλή.”
― Η μενεξεδένια πολιτεία
― Η μενεξεδένια πολιτεία
“Once ‘free’ in the streets, what then? Fear and panic could destroy the city as much as plague itself. Many of the doctors fled, along with the rich and powerful; quacks preyed on the poor with their neverfail miracle drugs. Churches and conventicles and synagogues were empty. Neighbours informed against each other. People lied to each other – and to themselves. (It’s just a headache. Just a little bruise. I’ll feel better if I go for a walk.) Worse – there were stories of infected people deliberately concealing their telltale ‘tokens’ and going out into the streets trying to infect others.”
― A Journal of the Plague Year
― A Journal of the Plague Year
“Women made such swell friends. Awfully swell. In the first place, you had to be in love with a woman to have a basis of friendship. I had been having Brett for a friend. I had not been thinking about her side of it. I had been getting something for nothing. That only delayed the presentation of the bill. The bill always came. That was one of the swell things you could count on.
I thought I had paid for everything. Not like the woman pays and pays and pays. No idea of retribution or punishment. Just exchange of values. You gave up something and got something else. Or you worked for something. You paid some way for everything that was any good. I paid my way into enough things that I liked, so that I had a good time. Either you paid by learning about them, or by experience, or by taking chances, or by money. Enjoying living was learning to get your money’s worth. The world was a good place to buy in. It seemed like a fine philosophy. In five years, I though, it will seem just as silly as all the other fine philosophies I’ve had.”
― The Sun Also Rises
I thought I had paid for everything. Not like the woman pays and pays and pays. No idea of retribution or punishment. Just exchange of values. You gave up something and got something else. Or you worked for something. You paid some way for everything that was any good. I paid my way into enough things that I liked, so that I had a good time. Either you paid by learning about them, or by experience, or by taking chances, or by money. Enjoying living was learning to get your money’s worth. The world was a good place to buy in. It seemed like a fine philosophy. In five years, I though, it will seem just as silly as all the other fine philosophies I’ve had.”
― The Sun Also Rises
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