#lt

I take no pride in hopeless longing; I wouldn't hold a stillborn aspiration. I'd want to have it, to make it, to live it. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#objectivism #philosophy #taggart #pride

Granny Weatherwaz was a witch. That was quite acceptable in the Ramtops, and no one had a bad word to say about witches. At least, not if he wanted to wake up in the morning the same shape as he went to bed. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#insults #witch #equality

American journalism (like the journalism of any other country) is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretensions are enormous, but its achievements are insignificant. ↗

— H.L. Mencken

#journalism #media #media

The Procrustean bed. . .suggests itself with dispiriting aptness as a metaphor for the Culture Wars, right down to the blandishments with which Procrustes must have lured his guests over the threshold. (I picture him as a handsome fellow with a large vocabulary and an oleaginous tongue, not unlike the chairmen of many English departments.) There's just one crucial difference. Sometimes Procrustes lopped off his victims, and sometimes he stretched them, but the Culture Wars always lop. I have never seen cultural politics enlarge a work of literature, only diminish it. ↗

— Anne Fadiman

#culture-wars #political-correctness #procrustes #censorship

I don't want to see you. I don't like you. I don't like your face. You look like an insufferable egotist. You're impertinent. You're too sure of yourself. Twenty years ago I would have punched your face with the greatest of pleasure. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#ego #insulting #old-man #punch #ego

Ah yes, now you’re beginning to feel it. It’s so satisfying to see my best efforts coming to fruition. Undoubtedly one of the most gratifying rewards of my profession. It would warm my heart—if I had one. ↗

— Jaye Frances

#ebooks #fantasy #fiction #jaye-frances #kdp-select

10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and the remaining 80 percent can be moved in either direction. ↗

— Susan Sontag

#humanity #mankind #mercy #mankind

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed. ↗

— Edmund Burke

#wealth

Mercy is for the weak… let me show you how much of an Unseelie I still am. ↗

— Julie Kagawa

#paranormal #romance #ya #young-adult #fairies

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#wealth