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“[T]here is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
― The Brothers Karamazov
“Apparently, men grew wiser with every grey hair, while women just grew invisible.”
― The Beautiful Dead
― The Beautiful Dead
“The one thing that stung Zhenya was the insinuation that he ducked the best players,
"Anyone I play it's their choice," Zhenya said. "I can't help it if I'm better than they are. Sometimes I play a rook or a bishop down. What could be fairer than that?"
"They never know what hit them," Sosi said; her eyes grew as round as moons. She looked like the perfect fanatic to encourage a leap into a volcano. She rolled a rook back and forth on the Formica, as if she were gathering an electric charge. "Zhenya can turn any game into a slaughter."
It was like visiting the Macbeths, Arkady thought.”
― The Siberian Dilemma
"Anyone I play it's their choice," Zhenya said. "I can't help it if I'm better than they are. Sometimes I play a rook or a bishop down. What could be fairer than that?"
"They never know what hit them," Sosi said; her eyes grew as round as moons. She looked like the perfect fanatic to encourage a leap into a volcano. She rolled a rook back and forth on the Formica, as if she were gathering an electric charge. "Zhenya can turn any game into a slaughter."
It was like visiting the Macbeths, Arkady thought.”
― The Siberian Dilemma
“Before there is science, there are stories to explain the world. They make it happier somehow.”
― American Girl: Memories That Made Me
― American Girl: Memories That Made Me
“In hindsight, Khrushchev stands out as a rare case of a nuclear optimist. His nuclear brinkmanship was exceptionally crude and aggressive, reckless and ideology-driven. The architect of the New Look played hardball. But he relied more on his instincts than on strategic calculations. And he was not a master of diplomatic compromise. His improvisations, lack of tact, rudeness, and spontaneity let him down, after several strokes of luck. His ideological beliefs, coupled with his emotional vacillations between insecurity and overconfidence, made him a failure as a negotiator.”
― A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev
― A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev
Ian’s 2025 Year in Books
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