76,097 books
—
282,753 voters
“Lies propagate, that's what I'm saying. You've got to tell more lies to cover them up, lie about every fact that's connected to the first lie. And if you kept on lying, and you kept on trying to cover it up, sooner or later you'd even have to start lying about the general laws of thought. Like, someone is selling you some kind of alternative medicine that doesn't work, and any double-blind experimental study will confirm that it doesn't work. So if someone wants to go on defending the lie, they've got to get you to disbelieve in the experimental method. Like, the experimental method is just for merely scientific kinds of medicine, not amazing alternative medicine like theirs. Or a good and virtuous person should believe as strongly as they can, no matter what the evidence says. Or truth doesn't exist and there's no such thing as objective reality. A lot of common wisdom like that isn't just mistaken, it's anti-epistemology, it's systematically wrong. Every rule of rationality that tells you how to find the truth, there's someone out there who needs you to believe the opposite. If you once tell a lie, the truth is ever after your enemy; and there's a lot of people out there telling lies.”
― Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
― Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
“You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rags -- that is loyalty of unreason, it is pure animal.”
― A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
― A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
“THERE were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.”
― A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
― A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
“I don't want to rule the universe. I just think it could be more sensibly organised.”
― Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
― Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
“Median is the key: not a mean average person, blended, but a person who is like the largest number of people in her demographic.”
― Gnomon
― Gnomon
Astronomy and Space exploration
— 288 members
— last activity Jan 20, 2025 08:33PM
This group is for Space lovers and and astronomy lovers .....Discussions about space and ideas about new technologies is carried out ...its a open gro ...more
Goodreads Librarians Group
— 304511 members
— last activity 2 minutes ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
— 2673 members
— last activity 18 hours, 49 min ago
A chance to discuss books covering the Second World War, the battles, campaigns, leaders and weapons. Tantum librorum, tam brevi tempore (So many ...more
Science Book Club
— 342 members
— last activity Apr 18, 2021 09:25AM
Objective: We read science-related books; the goal is to read one book a month.
Science and Inquiry
— 4459 members
— last activity Dec 23, 2025 03:55PM
This Group explores scientific topics. We have an active monthly book club, as well as discussions on a variety of topics including science in the new ...more
Fulmenius’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Fulmenius’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Fulmenius
Lists liked by Fulmenius






















