“I'm not afraid to compete. It's just the opposite. Don't you see that? I'm afraid I will compete — that's what scares me. That's why I quit the Theatre Department. Just because I'm so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else's values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn't make it right. I'm ashamed of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I'm sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash.”
― Franny and Zooey
― Franny and Zooey
“Attention is a moral act: it creates, brings aspects of things into being, but in doing so makes others recede. What a thing is depends on who is attending to it, and in what way. The fact that a place is special to some because of its great peace and beauty may, by that very fact, make it for another a resource to exploit, in such a way that its peace and beauty are destroyed. Attention has consequences.”
― The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
― The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
“Do silly things. Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life.”
― The Portable Chekhov
― The Portable Chekhov
“There is no right life in the wrong one.”
― Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life
― Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life
David’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at David’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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