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In Chapter 2, Florentino's stalker-like obsession makes him physically ill as he naively dreams of finding treasure for Fermina, despite barely knowing her. Meanwhile, Fermina's initial rebellious infatuation abruptly fades during a market walk when she realizes their bond lacks substance, especially now that household autonomy has freed her from needing to rebel.

You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit or it is nowhere.

We know that there is no help for us but from one another, that no hand will save us if we do not reach out our hand. And the hand that you reach out is empty, as mine is. You have nothing.
You possess nothing. You own nothing. You are free. All you have is what you are, and what you give.

“He had come to see the Way of the Sword in a new light. ... He wanted to conquer himself, to make life itself submit to him, to cause people to live rather than die. The Way of the Sword should not be used merely for his own perfection. It should be a source of strength for governing people and leading them to peace and happiness.

'That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.’ 😭😭

Oh those white people have small hearts who can only feel for themselves.
- Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince

Nice comes to us by way of the Old French nice (‘weak, clumsy, silly’), from the Latin nescius (‘ignorant, not knowing’)

“They dug through languages like they were mines, searching for valuable veins of common heritage and distorted mean. It changed the way they spoke. Constantly they trailed off in the middle of sentences. They could not utter even common phrases and aphorisms without pausing to wonder where those words came from.”
As a former linguistics student, this feels accurate. 😁

"My dear, I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of my fear. It is my nature to grow old; I cannot escape old age."

…the greatness of nations is the nightmare of humanity

If you did not in your own mind distinguish btw useful and erroneous information, then you were not learning at all, you were merely replacing ignorance with false belief, which was no improvement