“For even if we know very little that is certain about spirit or soul, the true nature of the body, of materiality, is totally unknown and incomprehensible to us.”
― Humanist Without Portfolio: An Anthology of the writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt
― Humanist Without Portfolio: An Anthology of the writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt
“There is a muse, but he’s not going to come fluttering down into your writing room and scatter creative fairy-dust all over your typewriter or computer. He lives in the ground. He’s a basement kind of guy. You have to descend to his level, and once you get down there you have to furnish an apartment for him to live in. You have to do all the grunt labor, in other words, while the muse sits and smokes cigars and admires his bowling trophies and pretends to ignore you. Do you think it’s fair? I think it’s fair. He may not be much to look at, that muse-guy, and he may not be much of a conversationalist, but he’s got inspiration. It’s right that you should do all the work and burn all the mid-night oil, because the guy with the cigar and the little wings has got a bag of magic. There’s stuff in there that can change your life. Believe me, I know.”
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“A love of nature keeps no factories busy.”
― Brave New World
― Brave New World
“It is an absolutely vain endeavor to attempt to reconstruct or even comprehend the nature of a human being by simply knowing the forces which have acted upon him. However deeply we should like to penetrate, however close we seem to be drawing to truth, one unknown quantity eludes us: man's primordial energy, his original self, that personality which was given him with the gift of life itself. On it rests man's true freedom; it alone determines his real character.”
― Humanist Without Portfolio: An Anthology of the writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt
― Humanist Without Portfolio: An Anthology of the writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt
Yvonne’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Yvonne’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Yvonne
Lists liked by Yvonne









