“And indeed, just think: in many ways, body and soul, I have been more a battlefield than a human being.”
―
―
“No man has the right to rule over another man, otherwise such a right necessarily, and immediately becomes the right of the strongest. As the tiger in the jungle rules over the defenceless antelope, so on the banks of the Nile a Pharaoh ruled over the progenitors of the fellaheen of Egypt. Nor can a group of men, by contract, from their own right, compel you to obey a fellow-man. What binding force is there for me in the allegation that ages ago one of my progenitors made a ‘Contrat Social,’ with other men of that time? As man I stand free and bold, over against the most powerful of my fellow-men. I do not speak of the family, for here organic, natural ties rule; but in the sphere of the State I do not yield or bow down to anyone, who is man, as I am.”
― Lectures on Calvinism
― Lectures on Calvinism
“We are living in a world in which nobody is free, in which hardly anybody is secure, in which it is almost impossible to be honest and to remain alive.”
― The Road to Wigan Pier
― The Road to Wigan Pier
“man is a frivolous and incongruous creature, and perhaps, like a chess player, loves the process of the game, not the end of it.”
― Notes from the Underground
― Notes from the Underground
“We're all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding.”
― The Light That Failed
― The Light That Failed
Richard’s 2025 Year in Books
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