progress:
(2%)
"totally forgot this was on my shelf and now it's due in 6 days welp. maybe ill be able to finish it but who knows. in other news im a fan of vuongs poetic prose SO much more than whatever was going on in martyr!" — Jan 27, 2026 10:50PM
"totally forgot this was on my shelf and now it's due in 6 days welp. maybe ill be able to finish it but who knows. in other news im a fan of vuongs poetic prose SO much more than whatever was going on in martyr!" — Jan 27, 2026 10:50PM
The moral to be drawn from this contrast is the one Marcus frequently stresses in his writing: everyone, even or especially an emperor, has to play the hand he has been dealt.
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
—T.S. Eliot, from “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets (Gardners Books; Main edition, April 30, 2001) Originally published 1943.”
― Four Quartets
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
—T.S. Eliot, from “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets (Gardners Books; Main edition, April 30, 2001) Originally published 1943.”
― Four Quartets
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.”
―
―
“I want you always to remember me. Will you remember that I existed, and that I stood next to you here like this?”
― Norwegian Wood
― Norwegian Wood
“There’s only one crop to be reaped from your time on earth, and that is a reverential disposition and socially useful actions.”
― Meditations: The Annotated Edition
― Meditations: The Annotated Edition
Nicole’s 2025 Year in Books
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