We work hard and play hard not because we are more industrious or more playful than our ancestors but because we dare not stop lest in the stillness we are overwhelmed by the sound of our own anxieties and fears.
“Nobody can stay in the garden of Eden," Jacques said. And then: "I wonder why.”
― Giovanni’s Room
― Giovanni’s Room
“You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home. People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one's heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
― The Brothers Karamazov
“Fathers and teachers, I ponder, "What is hell?" I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
― The Brothers Karamazov
“What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused, or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winners were losers, successes failures, and rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to bodyguards, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere.”
― Catch-22
― Catch-22
“Lord, help me forgive those who sin differently than I.” When”
― Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
― Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
Chirayu’s 2025 Year in Books
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