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John Poulain
https://www.goodreads.com/johnpoulain
John Poulain said:
"
Absolutely phenomenal book, moves between Historical Fiction, Novel, History, Philosophical discussion almost seamlessly, with Pierre being an author aurrogate and going through a variety of trial and tribulations to arrive at what I assume is someth
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The book, Mon Journal, was written by social critic and historian Jules Michelet, and in it he essentially attributes the birth of an enlightened Western civilization to Europe’s transformation into a coffee-drinking society:
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life:
The Lord of the Rings
and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
[Kung Fu Monkey -- Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]”
―
[Kung Fu Monkey -- Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]”
―
“All human wisdom is contained in these two words - Wait and Hope”
― The Count of Monte Cristo
― The Count of Monte Cristo
“Lately in a wreck of a Californian ship, one of the passengers fastened a belt about him with two hundred pounds of gold in it, with which he was found afterwards at the bottom. Now, as he was sinking- had he the gold? or the gold him?”
― Unto This Last
― Unto This Last
“An enemy, Ender Wiggin," whispered the old man. "I am your enemy, the first one you've ever had who was smarter than you. There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. From now on I am your teacher.”
― Ender’s Game
― Ender’s Game
“Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it. It seems to me nonsense, in a period like our own, to think that one can avoid writing of such subjects. Everyone writes of them in one guise or another. It is simply a question of which side one takes and what approach one follows. And the more one is conscious of one's political bias, the more chance one has of acting politically without sacrificing one's aesthetic and intellectual integrity.”
― Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays
― Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays
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