Delirious Disquisitions

“Well - watching the contortions of the damned is supposed to be a favorite sport of the angels; but I believe even they don’t think people happier in hell.”
― Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

“It sounds more conspicuous; and that can hardly be what she wishes," said Mrs. Archer distantly.
"Why not?" broke in her son, growing suddenly argumentative. "Why shouldn't she be conspicuous if she chooses? Why should she slink about as if it were she who had disgraced herself? She's 'poor Ellen' certainly, because she had the bad luck to make a wretched marriage; but I don't see that that's a reason for hiding her head as if she were the culprit.”
― Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

“A fiendish love... an unearthly love... those who feel such a love are numbed to their very souls by this mysterious pleasure while they struggle with endless frustration, censured by the pangs of conscience of their boundless crime”
― Junji Ito, Venus in the Blind Spot

“Violence shows them how much we’re willing to give up,’ said Griffin. ‘Violence is the only language they understand, because their system of extraction is inherently violent. Violence shocks the system. And the system cannot survive the shock. You have no idea what you’re capable of, truly. You can’t imagine how the world might shift unless you pull the trigger.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel