Sierra Allred’s Reviews > Notes from a Dead House > Status Update

“‘Well, go with God, go with God!’ the prisoners said, their voices abrupt, coarse, but as if pleased at something. Yes, with God! Freedom, a new life, resurrection from the dead… What a glorious moment!” -pg. 298

“However; here I am now trying to sort out whole prison into categories; but is that possible? Reality is infinitely diverse compared to all, even the most clever, conclusions of abstract thought, and does not suffer sharp and big distinctions. Reality tends towards fragmentation.” -pg. 252

Slowly and steadily making my way through

“Tyranny is a habit; it is endowed with development, and develops finally into an illness. I stand upon this, that the best of men can, from habit, become coarse and stupefied to the point of brutality. Blood and power intoxicate… Man and citizen perish forever in the tyrant, and the return to human dignity, to repentance, to regeneration, becomes almost impossible for him.” -pg. 197

The start of school has really limited my brain power for Dostoevsky

“You might even wonder, watching these improvised actors, and involuntarily think to yourself: how much power and talent sometimes perishes in our Russia almost for nothing, in prison and in hardship!” -pg. 161

“Every man, whoever he may be and however humiliated, still requires, even if instinctively, even if unconsciously, respect for human dignity. The prisoner himself knows that he is a prisoner, an outcast, and he knows his place before his superior; but no brands, no fetters will make him forget that he is a human being.” -pg. 111

On a pretty good roll of essay/memoir adjacent in the morning with my coffee, History nonfiction audiobook while I work and do chores throughout the day, and fun, silly fiction novel before bed at night