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Rachel Kadish

Rachel Kadish Books

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“Yet sacrifice of the self is everywhere viewed as the highest calling, and the more so for a woman, who must give every element of her life to others. Kindness is at all times counseled to women, who are called unnatural if not kind. Yet how can a kindness that blights the life of even one--though it benefit others--be called good? Is it in face kindness to sever oneself from one's own desires? Mustn't the imperative to protect all life encompass--even for a woman--her own? Then we must abandon our accustomed notion of a woman's kindness, and forge a new own.”

NatureKindnessSocietyWomanRulesSelf SacrificeGender RolesSocial Rules
Book:The Weight of Ink
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“Men, perhaps, might nourish both heart and mind, but for a woman there could be no such luxury... How readily the rules of female behavior--gentleness, acquiescence, ever-mindfulness--turn to shackles. So, she thought, there must be declared a new kind of virtue: one that made the throwing off of such rules, and even such deceit as this required, praiseworthy.”

MindHeartVirtueSocietyBehaviorExpectationsRulesGender Roles
Book:The Weight of Ink
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“The Grocery Checkout Proviso: The more things you care about, the more vulnerable you are. If you are part of that epicurean minority in this country that is still offended by violations of the English language, you will be slapped in the face every time you stand in line at the market. FIFTEEN ITEMS OR LESS. Caring passionately about grammar—caring passionately about anything most of humanity doesn’t care about—is like poking a giant hole in your life and letting the wind blow everything around.”

CaringGrammar
Book:Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story
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“Feminism means having a choice. And feminism doesn't care which choices you make, either. Just that you have them. The point has never been to establish some principled refusal to give yourself to another human being. The point is to make sure you can give yourself--or not give yourself--of your free will.”

GivingHumansMeanCareChoicesHuman BeingsFeminismFree WillRefusalChoices You MakePrincipled
Book:Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story
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“People misunderstand happiness. They think it's the absence of trouble. That's not happiness, that's luck. Happiness is the ability to live well alongside trouble. No two people have the same trouble, or the same way of metabolizing it. Q.E.D. - No two happy people are happy in the same way. . . . Every day brilliant people, people smarter than I, wallow in safe tragedy and pessimism, shying from what really takes guts - recognizing how much courage and labor happiness demands.”

PeopleThinkingWayWellsTwoAbilityTroubleSafeDemandLaborTragedyLuckBrilliantAbsenceGutsPessimismSmarterRecognizingLive WellHappy People
Book:Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story
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