
“Are any people more overtly and overtly—and yes, tiresomely—polite than the English upper-middle class? Always begging pardon, asking forgiveness for real or imagined infractions that don’t even register on anyone else’s Richter Scale. An American says, “Please pass the salt.” An Englishman of a certain class and age says, “I’m very sorry, but could I possibly trouble you for the salt?’ That’s more than a matter of degree. It’s a yawning chasm of attitude and sensibility.”
― Rousseau's Ghost: A Novel
― Rousseau's Ghost: A Novel
“देश में शुल्क लेकर शिक्षा देनेवाले बड़े-बड़े विश्वविद्यालय हैं। पर इस बच्चे का क्या होगा ? इसके भी माँ है। वह देश की सहानुभूति का कितना अंश पाती है ?-हमारी थाली की बची रोटियाँ, जो कल तक कुत्तों को दी जाती हैं। यही, यही हमारी सच्ची दशा का चित्र है। यह माँ अपने बच्चे को लेकर राह पर बैठी हुई धर्म, विज्ञान, राजनीति, समाज जिस विषय को भी मनुष्य होकर मनुष्यों ने आज तक अपनाया है, उसी की भिन्न, रुचिवाले पथिक को शिक्षा दे रही है-पर कुछ कहकर नहीं। कितने आदमी समझते हैं। यही न समझना संसार है-बार-बार वह यही कहती है। उसकी आत्मा से यही ध्वनि निकलती है-संसार ने उसे जगह नहीं दी-उसे नहीं समझा; पर संसारियों की तरह वह भी है-उसके भी बच्चा है।”
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―
“Your life wouldn't work for me, but it doesn't have to. It only has to work for you.”
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“...that without the possibility of legally "owning" information there would be little incentive for "developing" it.”
― Rousseau's Ghost: A Novel
― Rousseau's Ghost: A Novel
“Pack your bags, Jack: the barbarians are already inside the gates, and damned if they aren't all professors. Not of history, thank heaven, but of English and of something called Cultural Studies (don't ask me what that is; I don't actually know, nor, I think, do they—though they do manage to put the 'cult' into 'culture'). Décon is their guru, and they his mindless acolytes. They'd follow him anywhere, including the death camps, which are of course only another 'social construction' on their telling.”
― Rousseau's Ghost: A Novel
― Rousseau's Ghost: A Novel
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