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“There are two tragedies in life.
the first is not getting what you want.
the other, is getting it.”
―
the first is not getting what you want.
the other, is getting it.”
―
“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
― The Alchemist
― The Alchemist
“I understand that in our work - doesn't matter whether it's acting or writing - what's important isn't fame or glamour, none of the things I used to dream about, it's the ability to endure.”
― The Seagull
― The Seagull
“In fact, there are two sorts of gaming--namely, the game of the
gentleman and the game of the plebs--the game for gain, and the game of the
herd. Herein, as said, I draw sharp distinctions. Yet how essentially base are
the distinctions! For instance, a gentleman may stake, say, five or ten louis
d’or--seldom more, unless he is a very rich man, when he may stake, say, a
thousand francs; but, he must do this simply for the love of the game
itself--simply for sport, simply in order to observe the process of winning or of
losing, and, above all things, as a man who remains quite uninterested in the
possibility of his issuing a winner. If he wins, he will be at liberty, perhaps, to
give vent to a laugh, or to pass a remark on the circumstance to a bystander,
or to stake again, or to double his stake; but, even this he must do solely out
of curiosity, and for the pleasure of watching the play of chances and of
calculations, and not because of any vulgar desire to win. In a word, he must
look upon the gaming-table, upon roulette, and upon trente et quarante, as
mere relaxations which have been arranged solely for his amusement. Of the
existence of the lures and gains upon which the bank is founded and
maintained he must profess to have not an inkling. Best of all, he ought to
imagine his fellow-gamblers and the rest of the mob which stands trembling
over a coin to be equally rich and gentlemanly with himself, and playing solely
14
for recreation and pleasure. This complete ignorance of the realities, this
innocent view of mankind, is what, in my opinion, constitutes the truly
aristocratic.”
― The Gambler
gentleman and the game of the plebs--the game for gain, and the game of the
herd. Herein, as said, I draw sharp distinctions. Yet how essentially base are
the distinctions! For instance, a gentleman may stake, say, five or ten louis
d’or--seldom more, unless he is a very rich man, when he may stake, say, a
thousand francs; but, he must do this simply for the love of the game
itself--simply for sport, simply in order to observe the process of winning or of
losing, and, above all things, as a man who remains quite uninterested in the
possibility of his issuing a winner. If he wins, he will be at liberty, perhaps, to
give vent to a laugh, or to pass a remark on the circumstance to a bystander,
or to stake again, or to double his stake; but, even this he must do solely out
of curiosity, and for the pleasure of watching the play of chances and of
calculations, and not because of any vulgar desire to win. In a word, he must
look upon the gaming-table, upon roulette, and upon trente et quarante, as
mere relaxations which have been arranged solely for his amusement. Of the
existence of the lures and gains upon which the bank is founded and
maintained he must profess to have not an inkling. Best of all, he ought to
imagine his fellow-gamblers and the rest of the mob which stands trembling
over a coin to be equally rich and gentlemanly with himself, and playing solely
14
for recreation and pleasure. This complete ignorance of the realities, this
innocent view of mankind, is what, in my opinion, constitutes the truly
aristocratic.”
― The Gambler
“In captivity in the shed, [he] had learned, not with his mind, but with his whole being, his life, that man is created for happiness, that happiness is within him, in the satisfying of human needs, and that all unhappiness comes not from lack, but from superfluity; but now, in these last three weeks of the march, he had learned a new and more comforting truth -- he had learned that there is nothing frightening in the world. He had learned that, as there is no situation in the world in which a man can be happy and perfectly free, so there is no situation in which he can be perfectly unhappy and unfree. He had learned that there is a limit to suffering and a limit to freedom, and that those limits are very close; that the man who suffers because one leaf is askew in his bed of roses, suffers as much as he now suffered falling asleep on the bare, damp ground, one side getting cold as the other warmed up; that when he used to put on his tight ballroom shoes, he suffered just as much as now, when he walked quite barefoot (his shoes had long since worn out) and his feet were covered with sores. (p. 1060)”
― War and Peace
― War and Peace
__void__’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at __void__’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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Ebooks, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor and Comedy, Mystery, Non-fiction, Psychology, Suspense, Thriller, and Travel
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