Chenggong Zhang

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Svetlana Alexievich
“Witnesses can be manipulated, too. They’re not robots. They are manipulated by television, newspapers, friends, corporate interests…Who has the real truth? As far as I understand, the truth is something that’s sought out by specially trained experts: judges, scholars, priests. Everyone else is ruled by ambition and emotions. [A pause.] I’ve read your books…You shouldn’t put so much stock in what people say, in human truth…History records the lives of ideas. People don’t write it, time does. Human truth is just a nail that everybody hangs their hats on.”
Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

George Orwell
“Orthodoxy was unconsciousness.”
George Orwell, 1984

Richard P. Feynman
“All the time you're saying to yourself, 'I could do that, but I won't,' — which is just another way of saying that you can't.”
Richard P. Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character

Yuval Noah Harari
“The pursuit of an easier life resulted in much hardship, and not for the last time. It happens to us today. How many young college graduates have taken demanding jobs in high-powered firms, vowing that they will work hard to earn money that will enable them to retire and pursue their real interests when they are thirty-five? But by the time they reach that age, they have large mortgages, children to school, houses in the suburbs that necessitate at least two cars per family, and a sense that life is not worth living without really good wine and expensive holidays abroad. What are they supposed to do, go back to digging up roots? No, they double their efforts and keep slaving away.”
Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Amos Oz
“Maybe they feared that a knowledge of languages would expose me too to the blandishments of Europe, that wonderful, murderous continent.”
Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness

year in books
Benjamin
1,019 books | 84 friends

Sabrina...
1 book | 58 friends

Chris R...
2 books | 82 friends

Sarah J...
6 books | 75 friends

Rahul
162 books | 233 friends

Lisa
1,075 books | 163 friends

Kevin
59 books | 141 friends

Jeff Ch...
73 books | 25 friends

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