Shekhar

“We are sealed in our own little melancholy atmospheres, like planets, and revolving around the sun, our common but distant desire.”
― Jack Kerouac, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters

“However much the theory of political realism may have been misunderstood and misinterpreted, there is no gainsaying its distinctive intellectual and moral attitude to matters political.
Intellectually, the political realist maintains the autonomy of the political sphere, as the economist, the lawyer, the moralist maintain theirs. He thinks in terms of interest defined as power, as the economist thinks in terms of interest defined as wealth; the lawyer, of the conformity of action with legal rules; the moralist, of the conformity of action with moral principles. The economist asks: "How does this policy affect the wealth of society, or a segment of it?" The lawyer asks: "Is this policy in accord with the rules of law?" The moralist asks: "Is this policy in accord with moral principles?" And the political realist asks: "How does this policy affect the power of the nation?”
― Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations

“A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.”
― Albert Camus

“An entire life spent reading would have fulfilled my every desire; I already knew that at the age of seven. The texture of the world is painful, inadequate; unalterable, or so it seems to me. Really, I believe that an entire life spent reading would have suited me best.”
― Michel Houellebecq, Whatever