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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 9:27 am
I think I was sweating with him during the interview at the police station though.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 9:47 am
My favorite quote from C&P:
“To go wrong in one's own way is better then to go right in someone else's.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
It gives me more patience with theists and people generally. Sing your song until your song changes. Imitation may be flattering for the one being imitated but it is demeaning for the one abandoning his own voice.
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 9:51 am
The Sneetches and Other Stories, or really any other book by Dr. Seuss, which showed me that being weird and different can be beautiful. The story about the sneetches, though, had a good message about not following fads and being an individual.
Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. It was the first book I read that gave me a real itch to want to be a writer.
1984 by George Orwell. It opened my eyes to how language can be manipulated and people can easily hold contradictory ideas.
I'd say at least 95% of the books I've read were fiction.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 10:02 am
(This post was last modified: June 12, 2015 at 10:03 am by Mudhammam.)
(June 12, 2015 at 9:47 am)whateverist Wrote: My favorite quote from C&P:
“To go wrong in one's own way is better then to go right in someone else's.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
It gives me more patience with theists and people generally. Sing your song until your song changes. Imitation may be flattering for the one being imitated but it is demeaning for the one abandoning his own voice.
I'm flipping through my copy right now to see what I underlined... found that quote. I marked the next sentence too as it is a nice touch:
"In the first case you are a man, in the second you're no better than a bird."
Besides that one it looks like I only made three other underlines in the book...
"The question whether the disease gives rise to the crime, or whether the crime from its own peculiar nature is always accompanied by something of the nature of disease, he did not yet feel able to decide."
"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart."
"Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery."
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
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RE: Your Three Most Influential Books
June 12, 2015 at 11:04 am
Strangely enough, I can't think of any books that have had a profound impact on me. There may well have been some, but if so I can't remember them. So I'd have to say everything by Douglas Adams instead. It all got me through a lot of years.