“It is said that autism is like having a different operating system from other people. ... Most people are Windows PCs, the arty people are Macs, and we run on Linux. We will need programs to help us interact with the majority of Windows people. And at our heart is a different, not inferior, operating system.”
―
―
“The European powers at that time believed they could change Moslem Asia in the very fundamentals of its political existence, and in their attempt to do so introduced an artificial state system into the Middle East that has made it into a region of countries that have not become nations even today. The basis of political life in the Middle East—religion—was called into question by the Russians, who proposed communism, and by the British, who proposed nationalism or dynastic loyalty, in its place. Khomeini's Iran in the Shi'ite world and the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere in the Sunni world keep that issue alive. The French government, which in the Middle East did allow religion to be the basis of politics—even of its own—championed one sect against the others; and that, too, is an issue kept alive, notably in the communal strife that has ravaged Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s.”
― A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and The Creation of the Modern Middle East
― A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and The Creation of the Modern Middle East
“European statesmen of the First World War era did—to some extent—recognize the problem and its significance. As soon as they began to plan their annexation of the Middle East, Allied leaders recognized that Islam’s hold on the region was the main feature of the political landscape with which they would have to contend. Lord Kitchener, it will be remembered, initiated in 1914 a policy designed to bring the Moslem faith under Britain’s sway. When it looked as though that might not work—for the Sherif Hussein’s call to the Faithful in 1916 fell on deaf ears—Kitchener’s associates proposed instead to sponsor other loyalties (to a federation of Arabic-speaking peoples, or to the family of King Hussein, or to about-to-be-created countries such as Iraq) as a rival to pan-Islam. Indeed they framed the postwar Middle East settlement with that object (among others) in view.”
― A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
― A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
“The divisions separating the parties have grown so sharp, and our politics so closely divided, that Congress has become dysfunctional. Along the way, the Supreme Court, an institution designed not to be political, has become our nation's most coveted political football.”
―
―
“He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan for himself, employs all his faculties. He must use observation to see, reasoning and judgment to foresee, activity to gather materials for decision, discrimination to decide, and when he has decided, firmness and self-control to hold to his deliberate decision. And these qualities he requires and exercises exactly in proportion as the part of his conduct which he determines according to his own judgment and feelings is a large one. It is possible that he might be guided in some good path, and kept out of harm’s way, without any of these things. But what will be his comparative worth as a human being?”
― On Liberty
― On Liberty
Felix’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Felix’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Felix
Lists liked by Felix
















































