Aaron

“Literature is that which he can not read without pain, without choking on truth.”
― Roland Barthes

“Imagine hearing on CNN that yesterday yet another American town was wiped out by the “Reds.” (Let’s leave the precise identity of the enemy unspecified.) All men were killed, women raped and then also slain, and those children who were not slaughtered immediately were instead carried away to be sold on the organ black market. Or that the Reds again tortured a U.S. serviceman to death, videotaped it, and showed it repeatedly on the Al Reddiyyah channel. Or perhaps an interview with a ransomed captive about her horrible experiences at the hands of the Reds. You would hear a story of this kind once a week throughout your life; and the same state of affairs was in place when your parents and grandparents grew up. Without doubt, any society subjected to such pressures for generations would be transformed.”
― Peter Turchin, War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires

“A few years ago, long after these Whitehall studies, the British government’s tax office had a problem, and they called Michael back to the civil service to ask him to help them—urgently—to find a solution. The staff investigating tax returns kept killing themselves. So Michael spent time in their offices to find out why this was happening.”
― Johann Hari, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions

“If you argue and rankle and contradict, you may achieve a victory sometimes; but it will be an empty victory because you will never get your opponent's good will.”
― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People