R > R's Quotes

“One should never underestimate the role of stupidity in history”
― Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran

“The Earth should not be cut up into hundreds of different sections, each inhabited by a self-defined segment of humanity that considers its own welfare and its own "national security" to be paramount above all other consideration.

I am all for cultural diversity and would be willing to see each recognizable group value its cultural heritage. I am a New York patriot, for instance, and if I lived in Los Angeles, I would love to get together with other New York expatriates and sing "Give My Regards to Broadway."

This sort of thing, however, should remain cultural and benign. I'm against it if it means that each group despises others and lusts to wipe them out. I'm against arming each little self-defined group with weapons with which to enforce its own prides and prejudices.

The Earth faces environmental problems right now that threaten the imminent destruction of civilization and the end of the planet as a livable world. Humanity cannot afford to waste its financial and emotional resources on endless, meaningless quarrels between each group and all others. there must be a sense of globalism in which the world unites to solve the real problems that face all groups alike.

Can that be done? The question is equivalent to: Can humanity survive?

I am not a Zionist, then, because I don't believe in nations, and because Zionism merely sets up one more nation to trouble the world. It sets up one more nation to have "rights" and "demands" and "national security" and to feel it must guard itself against its neighbors.

There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don't come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity. ”
― Isaac Asimov, I. Asimov: A Memoir

“That's wrong," she declared. "Everyone must have one thing that they can excel at. It's just a matter of drawing it out, isn't it? But school doesn't know how to draw it out. It crushes the gift. It's no wonder most people never get to be what they want to be. They just get ground down.”
― Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“Hak cihâna tolıdur kimseler Hakk’ı bilmez / Anı sen senden iste o senden ayru olmaz.”
― Yunus Emre, Poemas

“Books are masters who instruct us without rods or ferules, without words or anger, without bread or money.
If you approach them, they are not asleep; If you seek them, they do not hide;
If you blunder, they do not scold; if you are ignorant, they do not laugh at you.”
― Richard de Bury, The Love of Books: The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
― Aristotle

“And so I began to read,' Sorkar said. 'And at first the complete works were like a jungle, the language was quicksand. Metaphors turned beneath my feet and became biting snakes, similes fled from my grasp like frightened deer, taking all meaning with them. All was alien, and amidst the hanging, entangling creepers of this foreign grammar, all sound became a cacophany. I feared for myself, for my health and sanity, but then I thought of my purpose, of where I was and who I was, of pain and I pressed on.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“What they were after wasn't further complexification or sophistication of existing methods, but unprecedented technology. Wasn't the kind of thinkin' you get from workaday university lab scholars, publish-or-perishin' and countin' their pay. The truly original scientist is a free individual.”
― Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

“That's what the world is , after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Actually, the Burmese don't refer to her by name. They just call her "The Lady." It's like Voldemort in Harry Potter, "He Who Must Not Be Named.”
― Guy Delisle, Burma Chronicles

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.”
― Isaac Asimov

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.”
― Isaac Asimov

“Ralph Nimmo carecía de título universitario y se enorgullecía de ello. -Un título [...] es el primer paso de un recorrido calamitoso. Como no quieres desperdiciarlo, pasas al trabajo de graduado y a la investigación doctoral. Terminas por ser un absoluto ignorante de todo, excepto en tu estrechísima especialidad.”
― Isaac Asimov

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
― Oscar Wilde

“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“Vaya, pues sí que viven bien los maestros. Si fuera humano me gustaría ser como él, maestro de escuela. Uno puede dormirse cuando quiere y, aun así, siguen considerándote un buen maestro. Así que no le veo yo problema a ser maestro y gato a la vez.”
― Natsume Sōseki, I Am a Cat

“He de confesarte que, desde mis días de estudiante, no he sentido ninguna simpatía por los hombres de negocios. No hacen nada si no hay dinero de por medio. A mi entender, son lo que se solía llamar antiguamente, en los buenos tiempos, la escoria de la sociedad.”
― Sōseki Natsume, I Am a Cat

“El que cambia su opinión demuestra con ello que su mente no es de piedra.”
― Natsume Sōseki, I Am a Cat

“Es una de esas fisonomías que se quedaron sin vender en el siglo XIX y que en el XX siguen sin encontrar postor.”
― Natsume Sōseki, I Am a Cat

“You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.”
― Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes

“Lope De Vega'ya, Shakespeare'e, Marlowe'a, Ibsen'e, Moliere'e, saygım sonsuzdu; gelgelelim artık tiyatro çağı kapanmıştı. Hayatın kendisi öylesine hileli hale gelmişti ki, tiyatroda ancak can çekişme sahnelenebilirdi.”
― Murat Menteş, Dublörün Dilemması

“İnsan boş bir tüfektir ama bakarsın birgün patlar.”
― Murat Menteş, Korkma Ben Varım

“Prens Sabahattin'in adı hiç duydun mu?" diye sordu Nusret. "Her neyse. Şimdi Paris'te. O da bir Jöntürk sayılır. Bütün prensler gibi aptalın tekidir, ama bir düşüncesi var..." Eliyle odanın bir köşesindeki kitapları işaret etti. "Ya da, herkesin yaptığı gibi, başkasından aşırılmış bir düşüncesi var ki, doğru buluyorum. Demolins'e göre İngilizlerin üstünlüğünü, orada bireylerin, insanların daha özgür olmasında aramak lâzım. İşte, bizde bu yok. Bizde öyle özgür, aklını kullanan, girişken insan yok! Bizde herkes köle, herkes boyun eğmek, toplumun içinde erimek, anneyle teyzenin saçma tehditleri. Din, korku, karanlık düşünceler, ezberlenmiş şeyler... Sonunda boyun eğmekten başka bir şey öğrenmiyorlar. Kimse kendi çabasıyla, topluma karşı çıkarak yükselmiyor. Kimse kendi hesabına düşünmüyor. Düşünürse, korkuyor... Herkes olsa olsa kendi hesabına kulluk ediyor." (...)”
― Orhan Pamuk, Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları

“« "Mehmet'i ilk gördüğümde" derdi Canan, bir bekleme salonundaki masaların birine bırakmış eski bir derginin kapağından kendisine bakan Clint Eastwood'u hiç görmeden, "bütün hayatımının değişeceğini hemen anladım. Onu görmeden önce bir hayatım vardı, onu tanıdıktan sonra başka bir hayatım oldu. Sanki çevremdeki her şey, bütün eşyalar, yataklar, insanlar, lambalar, küllükler, sokaklar, bulutlar, bacalar bir anda renk ve biçım değiştirdiler de ben bu yepyeni dünyayı hayranlıkla tanımaya koyuldum" »”
― Orhan Pamuk, The New Life

“Nedir zaman? Bir kaza! Nedir hayat? Bir zaman! Nedir kaza? Bir hayat, yeni bir hayat!”
― Orhan Pamuk, The New Life

“Mutlulukla bir dünyayı seyrettim, Canan, seni severek...”
― Orhan Pamuk, The New Life