Wolfe leaned back and surveyed him. “One test of intelligence,” he said patiently, “is the ability to welcome a singularity when the need arises, without excessive strain. Strict rules are universal. We all have a rule not to go on the
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“Even the very system of bishoprics galled the devout adherents of the old, saintly Celtic church, that had no worldly trappings, courted no thrones, but rather withdrew from the world into the blessed solitude of thought and prayer.”
― A Morbid Taste for Bones
― A Morbid Taste for Bones
“He understood terrible purposes. They drove against all odds. They were their own necessity. Paul felt that he had been infected with terrible purpose. He did not know yet what the terrible purpose was.”
― Dune
― Dune
“And he had a couple of Bibles in need of customized repair, and those were an easy fifty dollars apiece – just brace the page against a piece of plywood in a frame and scorch out the verses the customers found intolerable, with a wood-burning stylus; a plain old razor wouldn’t have the authority that hot iron did. And then of course drench the defaced book in holy water to validate the edited text. Matthew 19:5-6 and Mark 10:7-12 were bits he was often asked to burn out, since they condemned re-marriage after divorce, but he also got a lot of requests to lose Matthew 25:41 through 46, with Jesus’s promise of Hell to stingy people. And he offered a special deal to eradicate all thirty or so mentions of adultery. Some of these customized Bibles ended up after a few years with hardly any weight besides the binding.”
― The Bible Repairman and Other Stories
― The Bible Repairman and Other Stories
“Though a profound student of Clausewitz, Foch did not, like Clausewitz’s German successors, believe in a foolproof schedule of battle worked out in advance. Rather he taught the necessity of perpetual adaptability and improvisation to fit circumstances. “Regulations,” he would say, “are all very well for drill but in the hour of danger they are no more use.… You have to learn to think.” To think meant to give room for freedom of initiative, for the imponderable to win over the material, for will to demonstrate its power over circumstance.”
― The Guns of August
― The Guns of August
“In Bannon’s evaluation, Trump was Archie Bunker, but a really focused Archie Bunker.”
― Fear: Trump in the White House
― Fear: Trump in the White House
Deep State Radio Book Group
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This is a group for Deep State Radio Nerds and all who are interested in and inquisitive about the world and how it works. We will read fiction and no ...more
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Bookshelf
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Books mentioned on beloved podcast KEN AND ROBIN TALK ABOUT STUFF since July 2021
Fred’s 2025 Year in Books
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