#liza

Be as intellectual as you like about it, but India is brilliantly mad. And if you want to love it, you have to hate it first. ↗

— Simon Dring

#madness-and-civilization #travel #love

I cared about them. I wanted them to feel better, to live better lives. And then it occurred to me - I cared about myself. I wanted me to live a better life, too Caring about myself was allowing me to care about others. ↗

— Cate Tiernan

#friends #hope #love #realization #suicide

Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#men

My characters are more like men than these real men are, see. They're rough and rude, they got hands and they got bellies. They hate and they lust; break the skin of civilization and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed. ↗

— Robert E. Howard

#civilization #men

[Referring to the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde] ... Will civilization never reach humane ideals? Will men always punish most severely the sins they do not understand and which hold forth for them no temptation? Did Jesus suffer in vain? ↗

— Frank Harris

#homosexuality #punishment #sins #temptation #men

And how closely related to you is Cousin Beatrice?” Reynaud gave him a look. “Not that close. “Glad to hear it.” Vale dropped into a cushioned chair. “I hope she recovers fully so that you can then propose to her. Because I tell you now, matrimony truly is a blessed state, enjoyed by all men of good sense and halfway adequate bedroom skills.” “Thank you for that edifying thought,” Reynaud growled. Vale waved his glass. “Think nothing of it. I say, you haven’t forgotten how to treat a lady in the bedroom, have you?” “Oh, for God’s sake!” “You’ve been out of refined society for years and years now. I could give you some pointers, should you need them. ↗

— Elizabeth Hoyt

#reynaud #to-desire-a-devil #vale #men

His expression was suddenly serious as the tip of his finger traced her lips. “I never understood why history is filled with stories of men who waged wars over a woman they loved. There are many women in the world, and it was beyond my grasp what made one woman special enough to go to such extremes.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Now I understand. ↗

— Elizabeth Elliott

#elizabeth-elliott #the-dark-knight #love

This revolutionary idea of Western citizenship—replete with ever more rights and responsibilities—would provide superb manpower for growing legions and a legal framework that would guarantee that the men who fought felt that they themselves in a formal and contractual sense had ratified the conditions of their own battle service. The ancient Western world would soon come to define itself by culture rather than by race, skin color, or language. That idea alone would eventually bring enormous advantages to its armies on the battlefield. (p. 122) ↗

— Victor Davis Hanson

#civilization #consent #contract-for-service #government #politics

That small caress, such a simple show of affection, unleashed something coiled deep within Kenric. In that moment he finally understood what drove men to wage wars over a woman, why a man would give almost anything to possess the woman he wanted above all others. No amount of gold, fame, or glory could come close to arousing the emotions she stirred in him. Nothing else in the world. ↗

— Elizabeth Elliott

#kenric #the-warlord #men

Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself. What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking? Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul. ↗

— E.M. Forster

#civilisation #civilization #future #machine #science-fiction