163 ratings (3.60 avg)
37 reviews

kilner

Add friend

kilner’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (1524)
currently-reading‎ (0)
read‎ (164)

did-not-finish‎ (0)
fantasy-sci-fi‎ (114)
re-read‎ (24)

historical‎ (17)
crime‎ (14)
classics‎ (13)

non-fiction‎ (10)
contemporary‎ (4)
graphic-novel‎ (2)

Stats | More…

kilner’s Quotes

“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”
― Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

tags: supernatural-wicked

652 likes

“Democritus and Heraclitus were two philosophers, of whom the first, finding the condition of man vain and ridiculous, never went out in public but with a mocking and laughing face; whereas Heraclitus, having pity and compassion on this same condition of ours, wore a face perpetually sad, and eyes filled with tears. I prefer the first humor; not because it is pleasanter to laugh than to weep, but because it is more disdainful, and condemns us more than the other; and it seems to me that we can never be despised as much as we deserve. Pity and commiseration are mingled with some esteem for the thing we pity; the things we laugh at we consider worthless. I do not think there is as much unhappiness in us as vanity, nor as much malice as stupidity. We are not so full of evil as of inanity; we are not as wretched as we are worthless.”
― Michel de Montaigne

59 likes

“To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

280 likes

“Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:
Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;
Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;
Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;
Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;
Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;
Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

1527 likes

“It's a funny thing about the modern world. You hear girls in the toilets of clubs saying, "Yeah, he fucked off and left me. He didn't love me. He just couldn't deal with love. He was too fucked up to know how to love me." Now, how did that happen? What was it about this unlovable century that convinced us we were, despite everything, eminently lovable as a people, as a species? What made us think that anyone who fails to love us is damaged, lacking, malfunctioning in some way? And particularly if they replace us with a god, or a weeping madonna, or the face of Christ in a ciabatta roll---then we call them crazy. Deluded. Regressive. We are so convinced of the goodness of ourselves, and the goodness of our love, we cannot bear to believe that there might be something more worthy of love than us, more worthy of worship. Greeting cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time.”
― Zadie Smith, White Teeth

550 likes

More of kilner’s quotes…

recent posts
kilner’s Groups

NeoGAF — 460 members — last activity Sep 19, 2017 10:03AM
Group for users from the NeoGAF forums

Challenge: 50 Books — 4300 members — last activity Mar 18, 2026 07:20PM
This group is for people who want to be challenged to read 50 books in one year. Start the challenge by creating a post with the title of your chall ...more

Beyond Reality — 2023 members — last activity Mar 19, 2026 01:57AM
Welcome to the Beyond Reality SF&F discussion group on GoodReads. In Beyond Reality, each of our members may nominate one SF and one fantasy book per ...more

The History Book Club — 26018 members — last activity 13 hours, 32 min ago
"Interested in history - then you have found the right group". The History Book Club is the largest history and nonfiction group on Goodread ...more

Classics and the Western Canon — 4955 members — last activity 35 minutes ago
This is a group to read and discuss those books generally referred to as “the classics” or “the Western canon.” Books which have shaped Western though ...more

More of kilner’s groups…