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Quote by Lev Grossman

Work

The Magicians

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Author

Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman

Lev Grossman is an American novelist, best known for his fantasy novel series 'The Magicians'. His works blend literary depth with rich imagination, earning him widespread acclaim. more

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“Society. I felt as though even I were beginning at last to acquire some vague notion of what it meant. It is a struggle between one individual to another, a then-and-there struggle, in which the immediate triumph is everything. ‘Human beings never submit to human beings.’ Even slaves practice their mean retaliations. Human beings cannot conceive of any means of survival except of a single then-and-there contest. They speak of duty to one’s country and such like things, but the object of their effort is invariably the individual, and, even once the individual’s needs have been met, again the individual comes in. The incomprehensibility of society is the incomprehensibility of the individual. The ocean is not society; it is individuals.”

SocietyEgoIndividualitySelfishness
Book:No Longer Human
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“I propose a conspiracy of orphans. We exchange winks. We reject hierarchies. All hierarchies. We take the shit of the world for granted and we exchange stories about how we nevertheless get by. We are impertinent. More than half the stars in the universe are orphan-stars belonging to no constellation. And they give off more light than all the constellation stars.”

IndividualitySolidarityOrphanSubversionInstitutionConstellationHierarchies
Book:Confabulations
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“It doesn't take an army to change the world, or an average-sized militia group, either. All it takes is one individual to say the word "No". Be it a man refusing to register for the draft, or be it a gun owner refusing to register his weapons in Connecticut, it is the same: defiance in the face of arbitrary authority.”

IndividualityGun ControlRefusalDefianceChange The WorldAuthoritarianismPower Of ThoughtsGun RightsConscriptionDraftRefusing To SettleRefusal To Answer The Call
Author:Mike Klepper
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“Further, the constitution of our consciousness is the ever present and lasting element in all we do or suffer; our individuality is persistently at work, more or less, at every moment of our life: all other influences are temporal, incidental, fleeting, and subject to every kind of chance and change. This is why Aristotle says: It is not wealth but character that lasts. And just for the same reason we can more easily bear a misfortune which comes to us entirely from without, than one which we have drawn upon ourselves; for fortune may always change, but not character. Therefore, subjective blessings — a noble nature, a capable head, a joyful temperament, bright spirits, a well-constituted, perfectly sound physique, in a word, mens sana in corpore sano, are the first and most important elements in happiness; so that we should be more intent on promoting and preserving such qualities than on the possession of external wealth and external honor.”

CharacterWealthConsciousnessHealthHonorIndividualityMisfortuneBright SpiritCapable HeadJoyful TemperamentMens Sana In Corpore SanoNoble Nature
Book:Parerga and Paralipomena
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