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People would react to books by authors like James and Austen almost on a gut level. I think it was not so much the message, because the best authors do not have obvious messages. These authors were disturbing to my students because of their perspectives on life. ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#austen #authors #because #best #books

The biggest crime in Nabokov's 'Lolita' is imposing your own dream upon someone else's reality. Humbert Humbert is blind. He doesn't see Lolita's reality. He doesn't see that Lolita should leave. He only sees Lolita as an extension of his own obsession. This is what a totalitarian state does. ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#blind #crime #does #dream #else

Everybody wants to get enlightened but nobody wants to change. ↗

— Andrew Cohen

#enlightened #everybody #get #nobody #wants

I'm not convinced that what are traditionally considered to be male energies or qualities or female energies or qualities really have as much to do with gender as many people think they do. ↗

— Andrew Cohen

#convinced #energies #female #gender #i

Blest is that government where no art thrives. ↗

— Thomas Nashe

#blest #government #thrives #where

The logs of wood which move down the river together Are driven apart by every wave. Such inevitable parting Should not be the cause of misery. ↗

— Nagarjuna

#cause #down #driven #every #inevitable

So, to praise others for their virtues can but encourage one's own efforts. ↗

— Nagarjuna

#encourage #others #own #praise #their

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves. ↗

— Nagarjuna

#dependence #derive #mutual #nature #nothing

There is a tendency to seek an objective account of everything before admitting its reality. ↗

— Thomas Nagel

#admitting #before #everything #objective #reality

Eventually, I believe, current attempts to understand the mind by analogy with man-made computers that can perform superbly some of the same external tasks as conscious beings will be recognized as a gigantic waste of time. ↗

— Thomas Nagel

#attempts #beings #believe #computers #conscious