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“I understand you, and I shall not attempt to make you change your mind. I am too old to want to improve the world. I have told you what I think, and that is all. I shall remain your friend even if you act contrary to my convictions, and I shall help you even if I disagree with you.”
―
―
“It takes so little, so infinitely little, for a person to cross the border beyond which everything loses meaning: love, convictions, faith, history. Human life -- and herein lies its secret -- takes place in the immediate proximity of that border, even in direct contact with it; it is not miles away, but a fraction of an inch.”
― The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
― The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
“I often stood in front of the mirror alone, wondering how ugly a person could get.”
― Ham on Rye
― Ham on Rye
“Yes, suddenly I saw it clearly: most people deceive themselves with a pair of faiths: they believe in eternal memory (of people, things, deeds, nations) and in redressibility (of deeds, mistakes, sins, wrongs). Both are false faiths. In reality the opposite is true: everything will be forgotten and nothing will be redressed. The task of obtaining redress (by vengeance or by forgiveness) will be taken over by forgetting. No one will redress the wrongs that have been done, but all wrongs will be forgotten.”
― The Joke
― The Joke
“I think, therefore I am is the statement of an intellectual who underrates toothaches. I feel, therefore I am is a truth much more universally valid, and it applies to everything that's alive. My self does not differ substantially from yours in terms of its thought. Many people, few ideas: we all think more or less the same, and we exchange, borrow, steal thoughts from one another. However, when someone steps on my foot, only I feel the pain. The basis of the self is not thought but suffering, which is the most fundamental of all feelings. While it suffers, not even a cat can doubt its unique and uninterchangeable self. In intense suffering the world disappears and each of us is alone with his self. Suffering is the university of egocentrism.”
― Immortality
― Immortality
Lien’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Lien’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
367 books
|
250 friends
199 books
|
157 friends
635 books
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157 friends
600 books
|
57 friends
264 books
|
50 friends
1,642 books
|
29 friends
882 books
|
637 friends
246 books
|
541 friends
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Favorite Genres
Art, Classics, Contemporary, Ebooks, History, Memoir, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality
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