“There is consent in a smile, while a laugh is often a refusal.”
― The Man Who Laughs
― The Man Who Laughs
“The Bible is the best illustration of the literature of power, for it always concerns itself with life, it touches it at all points. And this is the test of any piece of literature—its universal appeal to human nature. When I consider the narrow limitations of the Pilgrim households, the absence of luxury, the presence of danger and hardship, the harsh laws—only less severe than the contemporary laws of England and Virginia—the weary drudgery, the few pleasures, the curb upon the expression of emotion and of tenderness, the ascetic repression of worldly thought, the absence of poetry in the routine occupations and conditions, I can feel what the Bible must have been to them.”
― The Relation of Literature to Life
― The Relation of Literature to Life
“if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.”
― Walden
― Walden
“However, the production and distribution of commodities is entirely unorganized so that everybody must live in fear of being eliminated from the economic cycle, in this way suffering for the want of everything. Furthermore, people living in different countries kill each other at irregular time intervals, so that also for this reason any one who thinks about the future must live in fear and terror.”
― Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
― Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“My childhood began, as everybody's childhood begins, with prejudices. Man finds prejudices beside his cradle, puts them from him a little in the course of his career, and often, alas! takes to them again in his old age.”
― The Memoirs of Victor Hugo
― The Memoirs of Victor Hugo
Satya’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Satya’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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