Showing posts with label War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label War. Show all posts

Monday, January 30, 2012

"Reflections on War and Death" by Sigmund Freud

Kindle edition here.
  • "Caught in the whirlwind of these war times"
  • "It would seem as though no event had ever destroyed so much of the precious heritage of mankind, confused so many of the clearest intellects or so thoroughly debased what is highest."
  • "Even science has lost her dispassionate impartiality. Her deeply embittered votaries are intent upon seizing her weapons to do their share in the battle against the enemy."
  • "The anthropologist has to declare his opponent inferior and degenerate, the psychiatrist must diagnose him as mentally deranged."
  • "One need not be a sentimentalist, one may realize the biological and physiological necessity of suffering in the economy of human life, and yet one may condemn the methods and the aims of war and long for its termination."

Thursday, January 27, 2011

"Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance" by Richard Powers

Paperback edition.
  • "We must be able to endure seeing the truth, but above all we should pass it on to our fellow men and to posterity whether it be favorable or unfavorable to us."
  • "a man with moral cause stands outside the law"
  • "foolishness went over better in public than gravity"
  • "Technology could feed dreams of progress or kill dreams of nostalgia."
  • "He embodies the unsolvable paradox at the heart of modern man."
  • "When we don't know what we are after, we risk passing it over in the dark."

Sunday, January 23, 2011

"Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut

Kindle edition and paperback.
  • "People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order, so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say."
  • "The brainless serenity of charwomen and janitors working late at night came over us. In a messy world we were at least making our little corner clean."
  • "Americans are forever searching for love in forms it never takes, in places it can never be."
  • "You're looking at the world's champion mistakemaker"
  • "All the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies."
  • "Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be found on lies, will not understant this book either."

Saturday, January 22, 2011

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Download here or here.
  • "He who relies solely on warlike measures shall be exterminated; he who relies solely on peaceful measures shall perish."
  • "Military weapons are the means used by the Sage to punish violence and cruelty, to give peace to troublous times, to remove difficulties and dangers, and to succor those who are in peril."
  • "Every animal with blood in its veins and horns on its head will fight when it is attacked."
  • "If I fight, I conquer."
  • "All warfare is based on deception."
  • "when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."