mojayokok

  

 

Page 310
"Go ahead, adopt an ape, it sounds like fun, a chimpanzee or maybe even an arangutan, but be prepared to justify your decision when he eats your neighbor's begonias. By all means, have a baby, you deserve a descendant, but stand ready to defend your parenting skills when he grows up to become a serial killer. Mais oui, acquire a belief in God, theism is a popular and comforting lifestyle, but first do your homework, learning how the world's great minds have explained the Creator's seeming indifference to human suffering, lest you waste your time fretting about tsunamis and cystic fibrosis."

Page 401
"The real reason Charles Darwin distresses people, I would argue, is not that he stumbled on an argument against theism. No, the problem was that he replaced theism -- replace it with a construct more beautiful and majestic than any account of the Supreme Being out side the Book of Job, a construct that invites us to see every variety of life, from aphids to archbishops, zygotes to zoologists, as vibrant threads in an epic tapestry, its warp and woof stretching across the eons and back to the Precambrian ooze, the seminal sea-vents, the primordial clay-pits, or wherever it all began. An astonishing construct, a mind-boggling construct, a construct of which Jehovah is understandably and insanely jealous."

mojayokok

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mojayokok

( Page 449: Have you heard of cognitive dissonance?Collapse )

( Page 347: people simply fight their own, individualistic wars Collapse )

( Page 390: Maybe I have some idea of who the enemy is now. Maybe the enemy is me.Collapse )

( Page 273: Can't people just desire you because of your breasts any more?Collapse )

( Page 396: Scare them before they can scare you. Never appear weaker than them.Collapse )

( Page 411: however you play, it's a game you can never win Collapse )

( Page 448: remember the point when we first found out that Santa isn't realCollapse )

mojayokok

The whole book is filled with these pearls of wisdom. I wish I had read this while younger. It could have helped.

indiriverflow

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Quantum Consciousness and the Fifth Dimension

By Indi Riverflow



“Where ya comin’ from?”

Our worldview is largely a function of our location. The range of what we can experience and imagine is bounded by the culture that spawned us, and the place that we hold within it. Transcending locality is key to comprehending quantum consciousness.

conmoto

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The Orphan's Tales: in the Night Garden

Secreted away in a garden, a lonely girl spins stories to warm a curious prince: peculiar feats and unspeakable fates that loop through each other and back again to meet in the tapestry of her voice. Inked on her eyelids, each twisting, tattooed tale is a piece in the puzzle of the girl's own hidden history. And what tales she tells! Tales of shape-shifting witches and wild horse-women, heron kings and best princesses, snake gods, dog monks, and living stars--each story more strange and fantastic than the one that came before. From ill-tempered "mermaid" to fastidious Beast, nothing is every quite what it seems in these ever-shifting tales--even, and especially, their teller.

Thoughts:
To put it simply this is a wicked book. It has a very lyrical style and is quite refreshing. I'll admit the story can get a little confusing because they way this book is written almost every character has its own tale to tell that is somehow involved in the overall plot. Think Arabian Nights if you've ever read it. A must read for fantasy lovers.

mojayokok

‘To paraphrase someone smarter than me, who still knows nothing, the philosophical task of our age is for each of us to decide what it means to be a successful human being.’ (page 29)

mojayokok

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Page 107:
"'let's burn another one.'

'Ain't happening,' Eddie mumbled. 'They're already pissed off aout one. Wanna know why we can't use a twenty.'

Mott erupted, 'We can't use a fucking twenty because Ben Franklin's on the hundred!' He took a breath. 'And you see right there how that Puritan killjoy tight-ass Ben Franklin has infected the American mind.' He minced in a searing falsetto, 'A penny saved is a penny earned,' then boomed, 'Well, fuck that shit. A penny blown is a penny enjoyed.'"

Page 133:
"'Put it back,' Willie hissed.

Daniel thought willie was kidding and didn't even pause as he stuffed the sheaf of bills and an ounce baggie of cocaine into his pocket.

'Daniel,' Willie roared, 'did you fail to hear me or fail to understand? Put it back. We're practicing.'

'Be serious,' Daniel pleaded. 'If we get busted, is that what we tell the cops--it's okay, officer we're just practicing.'

'We don't tell the cops shit, ever. And we don't steal unless it's necessary. And we harken to Salinius's observation that 'the great enemies of honor are greed and convience.'"

Page 134:
Volta: I've never been a foe of sweet confoundings. After all, who's to say what the lesson is unless you learn it.

Willie: You're shameless! You stole that from sophocles!

Volta: William, as T. S. Eliot said, "A good poet borrows; a great poet steals."

Page 140:
"'I tell ya Daniel, there's no sure thing. Why, I as in a big-stakes Five-Card Draw game in Waco--we were playing with the joker--and I saw a hand with five aces get beat for everything the guy had.'

'Wait a minute', Daniel said, 'nothing can beat five aces. What'd the other guy have in his hand?'

'A Smith and Wesson. A thirty-eight, I believe.'"

Page 143:
"Bad Bobby told Daniel that a friend, a famous stock-car driver, had told him what he considered the greatest danger of racing: 'When you're driving hard out on the edge, and the love of speed comes over you so true and deep and real, you don't want to slow down. You know you ought to. But you're locked into something so awesome and consuming you can't back off. It's always the same--the faster you go the less you care about being able to stop. Ever.'

queen_evie

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Hi I'm new to this community.

I just finished reading 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho. I enjoyed it's subtlety and sweetness.

I am about to pick up Utopia by Thomas More...

has anyone read it? Good/bad?

Thanks!

ravennightworld

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I am new to this community! Hi everyone! I'm currently reading 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell' by Susanna Clark. From the publisher:

"At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England’s history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England—until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight. Soon, another practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell’s student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear."

Have any of you read this before?