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“I call to mind flatness and dampness; and then all is madness - the madness of a memory which busies itself among forbidden things.”
― The Pit and the Pendulum
― The Pit and the Pendulum
“I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on Fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed. My father taught me that, along with a few other things that have kept my life interesting.”
― Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
― Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
“Dear Jesus, do something.”
― Pale Fire
― Pale Fire
“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning - the Christian meaning, they insisted - of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.”
― Ends and Means
― Ends and Means
“One can tell a child everything, anything. I have often been struck by the fact that parents know their children so little. They should not conceal so much from them. How well even little children understand that their parents conceal things from them, because they consider them too young to understand! Children are capable of giving advice in the most important matters. How can one deceive these dear little birds, when they look at one so sweetly and confidingly? I call them birds because there is nothing in the world better than birds!”
― The Idiot
― The Idiot
Bell’s 2025 Year in Books
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