“Laziness can be a value on its own for those who want to show supremacy through contempt for work and wish to be free individuals by fighting the enslavement to labor. While they don’t want to become dependent on ‘wage slavery’ and their livelihood only hinges on salaries, they feel confined to a social stratification, causing a collective stigma that results in poverty and underfeeding. (The daily job)”
―
―
“Our streets are littered with university graduates holding paper certificates and looking for a way to enslave themselves again under a boss in the name of looking for a job.”
― How To Become Great Through Time Conversion: Are you wasting time, spending time or investing time?
― How To Become Great Through Time Conversion: Are you wasting time, spending time or investing time?
“Love, Don Jaime, love," he went on after a moment of sad reflection. "That is the only thing that can make us happy and, paradoxically, it is also the thing that condemns us to our worst torments. To love is to be enslaved.”
― The Fencing Master: A Deadly Arcane Secret and a Beautiful Woman Draw a Master into the Shadowy Politics of Madrid
― The Fencing Master: A Deadly Arcane Secret and a Beautiful Woman Draw a Master into the Shadowy Politics of Madrid
“But if you happen to be a man some time in the future, and you've made it this far, please remember: you will never be subjected to the temptation of feeling you must forgive a man as a woman. It's difficult to resist, believe me. But remember that forgiveness, too, is a power; to beg for it is a power, and to withhold it or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.
Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn't really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it even as far as death. Maybe it isn't about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it's about who can do what to whom, and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing.”
― The Handmaid’s Tale
Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn't really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it even as far as death. Maybe it isn't about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it's about who can do what to whom, and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing.”
― The Handmaid’s Tale
“I resist the urge to claim some of the pretty purple flowers for myself, though Gaewha tries the scissors and then clutches some flowers in her hand, tightly, fiercely. We have never been allowed possessions of our own. [...] Gaewha huddles in a corner with the scissors, ready to defend her flowers to the death.”
― The Stone Sky
― The Stone Sky
Charles’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Charles’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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