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“The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps; and among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God’s foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man’s insanity is heaven’s sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God.”
― Moby-Dick or, The Whale
― Moby-Dick or, The Whale
“Of all evil I deem you capable: Therefore I want good from you. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.”
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“God, what a ghastly enterprise to be in, though--and what an odd way to achieve success. I'm an exhibitionist who wants to hide, but is unsuccessful at hiding; therefore, somehow I succeed.”
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“I sought her eye, desirous to read there the intelligence which I could not discern in her face or hear in her conversation; it was merry, rather small; by turns I saw vivacity, vanity, coquetry, look out through its irid, but I watched in vain for a glimpse of soul. I am no Oriental; white necks, carmine lips and cheeks, clusters of bright curls, do not suffice for me without that Promethean spark which will live after the roses and lilies are faded, the burnished hair grown grey. In sunshine, in prosperity, the flowers are very well; but how many wet days are there in life--November seasons of disaster, when a man's hearth and home would be cold indeed, without the clear, cheering gleam of intellect.”
― The Professor
― The Professor
“Tegularius was a willful, moody person who refused to fit into his society. Every so often he would display the liveliness of his intellect. When highly stimulated he could be entrancing; his mordant wit sparkled and he overwhelmed everyone with the audacity and richness of his sometimes somber inspirations. But basically he was incurable, for he did not want to be cured; he cared nothing for co-ordination and a place in the scheme of things. He loved nothing but his freedom, his perpetual student status, and preferred spending his whole life as the unpredictable and obstinate loner, the gifted fool and nihilist, to following the path of subordination to the hierarchy and thus attaining peace. He cared nothing for peace, had no regard for the hierarchy, hardly minded reproof and isolation. Certainly he was a most inconvenient and indigestible component in a community whose idea was harmony and orderliness. But because of this very troublesomeness and indigestibility he was, in the midst of such a limpid and prearranged little world, a constant source of vital unrest, a reproach, an admonition and warning, a spur to new, bold, forbidden, intrepid ideas, an unruly, stubborn sheep in the herd.”
― The Glass Bead Game
― The Glass Bead Game
The Extra Cool Group! (of people Michael is experimenting on)
— 161 members
— last activity Jan 27, 2026 07:27PM
*Note: This group, although it lives on in a sense, like a photograph, capturing a moment so people can look back later and go, "Oh, wow, you looked s ...more
The Guttering Flame
— 76 members
— last activity Nov 28, 2011 08:35PM
This is a little society, a cadre, a coterie of the unlike-minded. Here we discuss Comic Books (or Graphic Novels, if you prefer) as art, aesthetic, l ...more
The Great Gormenghast Read
— 89 members
— last activity Mar 22, 2021 12:54AM
This group is for those who wish to participate in a planned read of the original Gormenghast novels as penned by Mervyn Peake before his death. The ...more
Herman Melville
— 71 members
— last activity Apr 03, 2017 06:35AM
Dedicated to the discussion and appreciation of Melville's works and life, open to lubbers and sea-dogs alike. ...more
SCOTUS History and Philosophy
— 47 members
— last activity Jul 19, 2022 04:53PM
A discussion of cases and issues and books related to the U.S. Note that this group is basically defunct. I am referring people to Alan Johnson's very ...more
J.G. Keely’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at J.G. Keely’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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