“Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Social subjects, classified by their classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between the beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar, in which their position in the objective classifications is expressed or betrayed.”
― Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
― Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
“The supposed conflict between heredity and environment is quite superficial; the two are connected by double ties: first that the surest and probably the quickest way to improve environment is to secure a sound stock; and secondly that, for the eugenist, the best environment is that which effects the most rapid racial improvements. The ordinary social reformer sets out with a belief that no environement can be too good for humanity; it is without contradicting this, that the eugenist may add that man can never be too good for the environment.”
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“Men are not rational beings, as commonly supposed. A man is a bundle of instincts, feelings, sentiments, which severally seek their gratification, and those which are in power get hold of reason and use it to their own ends, and exclude all other sentiments and feelings from power.”
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“Men of profound thought appear to themselves in intercourse with others like comedians, for in order to be understood they must always simulate superficiality.”
― Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits
― Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits
“You can only convince people who think they can benefit from being convinced.”
― The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
― The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
Existential Book Club
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This a book club for anybody interested in reading existentialist literature and fiction. Every month I'll be putting up a new text either by an exist ...more
The History Book Club
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— last activity Apr 30, 2026 05:58PM
"Interested in history - then you have found the right group". The History Book Club is the largest history and nonfiction group on Goodread ...more
Mir’s 2025 Year in Books
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