Quote From a Book

"...STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Math] professionals are the mandarins of [this] computer age—and...our view of reality may turn out to be every bit as blinkered as the things 'everyone' knew in the inner courts of Versailles or St. Petersburg or the Forbidden Palace. There is a certain smell to the lies that privileged intellectuals tell each other in deeply divided societies during the last few gilded years before the streets catch fire."
~~from “Books” column by Chris Moriarty in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Sept./Oct. 2015
 
"...[H]ow easily lifelong prejudices can be formed by the silliest of circumstances. Therefore...it is important that our children be taught this simple tenet: Hate people on an individual basis only—you must actually get to know someone at least slightly before you can properly hate him or her."
~~from The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love by Jill Conner Browne
 
"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road
 
I have always remembered this passage from Somerset Maugham's book - Of Human Bondage

“I have nothing but contempt for the people who despise money.
They are hypocrites or fools. Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.
Without an adequate income half the possibilities of life are shut off.
The only thing to be careful about is that you do not pay more than a shilling for the shilling you earn.
You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist.
They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh.
They do not know how mean it makes you.
It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer.”
 
palides2021 said:
That was funny! I remember I bought a book once from the library book sale, and inside, someone had written, something like this: "This book belongs to "name," and whoever took it, may your eyes fall out." Or something to that effect. :)
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The Albany County Library in Laramie, WY had a small container on the check out desk where they put the things (envelopes, letters, photos) that people used as bookmarks and forgot when returning. Sometimes they were missed and slid down between pages and if you bought book at library sale you might find some interesting things. i've also found some interesting things stuck in books i bought at estate or yard sales.
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“Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'

'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.

'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'

'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'

'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.”

― Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit
 
“Neurotypical syndrome [i.e., NOT on the autism/Aspergers spectrum] is a neurobiological disorder characterized by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity. There is no known cure.”
~~from The Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical website, launched by Laura Tisoncik, as quoted in NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman
 
Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed- in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Letters and Papers from Prison
 
"Geriatrician William H. Thomas...[has said], 'Elders have long spoken for the Earth, its living creatures, and the children who are yet to be born.'...Let us consider those elders who have 'long spoken for Earth.' I guess Thomas isn’t talking about old men who made their fortunes from strip mining, logging, or dumping industrial waste into rivers and who are trying to hang on to every dollar they have acquired from despoiling the natural world."
~~from Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age by Susan Jacoby
 
"…I have never admired the 'natural' or believed in the 'wisdom of the body.' Death is as 'natural' as anything gets, and the body has always seemed to me like a retarded Siamese twin dragging along behind me, a hysteric really, dangerously overreacting, in my case, to everyday allergens…I put my faith in science."
~~from Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich
 
"…[T]he faint, lingering echoes of the savannah…flickering shadows of the Old Forest…remnants of tooth and claw…[remind] all…men and women that the Universe [owes] nobody any favors. Or even explanations."
~~from “Lungfish” by David Brin in Lifeboat Foundation Presents Visions of the Future edited by J. Daniel Batt
 

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