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“What if I told you that the world around you, with its rich colors, textures, sounds, and scents is an illusion, a show put on for you by your brain? If you could perceive reality as it is, you would be shocked by its colorless, odorless, tasteless silence. Outside your brain, there is just energy and matter.”
― The Brain: The Story of You
― The Brain: The Story of You
“To escape responsibility for violence we imagine it is enough to pledge never to be the first to do violence. But no one ever sees himself as casting the first stone. Even the most violent persons believe that they are always reacting to a violence committed in the first instance by someone else.”
― The One by Whom Scandal Comes
― The One by Whom Scandal Comes
“To read old books is to get an education in possibility for next to nothing.”
― Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind
― Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind
“When we look to the past ... what we are always looking for is whatever "is better than we are" ... The future cannot teach us because we are the ones who must imagine it.”
― Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind
― Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind
“Nothing’s over, ever.” And this is both a blessing and a curse. The past that ties us to people in ways that hurt us also ties us to people in ways that make healing possible. Sometimes we wish that the past could be over; sometimes we are grateful that it is not. It stands in the middle, “partially completed” but not over, poised between radical otherness and utter likeness. And that is why, as Weil says, “Our attachments and our passions do not so thickly obscure our discrimination of the eternal in the past.” We can see what really matters—“the eternal,” what always matters—because of that middle distance.”
― Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind
― Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind
The Brain and Mind
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— last activity Sep 25, 2025 01:42AM
This is a group for readers to recommend and discuss books related to real and/or artificial brains. Categories include but are not limited to: neuros ...more
Underground Knowledge — A discussion group
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This global discussion group has been designed to encourage debates about important and underreported issues of our era. All you need is an enquiring ...more
1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
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— last activity Nov 07, 2025 06:51PM
This is a group for those who want to take on the less-daunting task of reading all of the books from Julia Eccleshare's 1001 Children's Books You Mus ...more
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Friends, would you care to partake in a learned discussion of current events, the global economy, writing, selling, film, and reading? Then gift us wi ...more
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Read, Review, and Make Connections
Benjamin’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Benjamin’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,090 books
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223 friends
1,342 books
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107 friends
1,310 books
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29 friends
3,322 books
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321 friends
3,546 books
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1,350 friends
2,414 books
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174 friends
998 books
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701 friends
1,341 books
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483 friends
More friends…
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