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Quote by Thomas de Quincey

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Confessions of an English Opium Eater

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Thomas de Quincey
Thomas de Quincey

Thomas de Quincey was an English essayist and critic, renowned for his personal experiences and philosophical reflections on opium. His work 'On the Use and Abuse of Opium' is one of the most famous autobiographical essays of the 19th century and has had a profound impact on literature and psychology. more

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“[Listening to a song] one could experience a freedom from one's physical body, and from one's social body - the mask you wore to go about in public among those who thought they knew you, an unchosen mask of nervousness and tradition, the mask that, when owrn too long, makes the face behind it shrivel up and rot away. For some, a spinning record opened up the possibility that one might say anything, in any voice, with any face, the singer's mask now a sign of mystery.”

Listening To MusicSelf Indentity
Author:Greil Marcus
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“Vijayanagara had adopted ‘many of the administrative, tax-collecting, and military methods of the Muslim sultans that surrounded it—namely, stirrups, horse-shoes, horse armour, and a new type of saddle’. Its architecture also showed evidence of the use ‘of the arch and the dome of the Islamic north’.15 Reciprocally, Hindu influences were also discernible in the Islamic sultanates, with whom the Vijayanagara kingdom on occasion entered into strategic alliances. I am not, however, clear what these arguments prove. Because the kings of Vijayanagara did not appear bare-chested in public, or because they used stirrups or horseshoes, and because, where they felt politically necessary, they aligned themselves with one Muslim sultanate to finesse the other, was Vijayanagara not a Hindu kingdom? Or that, when it was defeated, the Muslim sultans did not savagely destroy the city and, in particular, attack its remarkable temples? To quote a few instances of Hindu–Muslim syncretism in architecture, in dress or in administrative practices, is more an acknowledgement of the unavoidable fusions wrought over centuries, and not a change in the mindset of Muslim conquerors against kafirs and their practice of destroying Hindu cultural and religious artefacts. It is a moot point too whether the Vijayanagara kings, on conquering a Muslim sultanate, would have as relentlessly destroyed mosques. Historical records clearly bring out that Krishnadevaraya (1509–1528 CE)—the most illustrious ruler of Vijayanagara and among the greatest kings India has seen—respected all faiths. He was himself a Vaishnavite, but extended wholehearted patronage to Shaiva, Jain and other sects. He employed Muslims in his army, encouraged them to settle in the capital city and erected a mosque in 1439 for them to pray. For the Muslim officers in his court, he placed a copy of the Koran before his throne so that they could perform the ceremony of obeisance before him without sinning against their religious injunctions, even though the Vijayanagara kingdom was formed with the aim of protecting Hindus and Hindu culture from Muslim attacks. Christian Portuguese also found residence in the capital. The Portuguese traveller, Barbosa, who visited Hampi during Krishnadevaraya’s rule, wrote: ‘The king allows such freedom that every man may come and go and live according to his own creed, without suffering any annoyance and without enquiry whether”

HinduismHampi
Book:The Great Hindu Civilisation: Achievement, Neglect, Bias and the Way Forward
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“ვიცოდი, რომ სიკეთე, ისევე როგორც ბოროტება, ჩვევის, მოხერხებულობისა და გაწაფულობის საქმეა. ისიც ვიცოდი, რომ დროებითი შეიძლება გაგრძელდეს, რომ გარეგანი შიდა სიღრმეებში იჭრება და რომ ნიღაბი საბოლოოდ მაინც სახედ გარდაიქმნება; რადგან ზიზღი, სუსულელე, უმერება, მძვინვარება და ბორგვა ღრმად და ხანგრძლივად იდგამს ფესვებს ადამიანთა სულებში და ვერ ვხედავთ მიზეზებს, რომელთა გამოც ნათელგონიერება, სამართლიანობის გრძნობა და კეთილგანწყობა ასევე ვერ გაიკვლევდა გზას მოკვდავთა გონებაში. რა ფასი ექნებოდა წესრიგს საზღვრებზე, თუ იმ მეკონკე ებრაელსა და ძეხვეულით მოვაჭრე ბერძენს მშვიდობიანი თანაცხოვრების აუცილებლობაში ვერ დავარწმუნებდი.”

LawGood And EvilPolicy Formation
Book:Memoirs of Hadrian
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“…I am suspicious of the very idea of policy. Policy implies the existence of an elite group - government officials, typically - that gets to decide on something that they then arrange to be imposed on everybody else. There’s a little mental trick we often play on ourselves when discussing such matters. We say, for instance, “What are we going to do about the problem of X?” as if “we” were society as a whole, somehow acting on ourselves, but, in fact, unless we happen to be part of that roughly 3-5% of the population whose views actually do affect policy makers, this is all a game of make-believe; we are identifying with our rulers when, in fact, we’re the ones being ruled.”

PolicyPolicy Formation
Author:David Graeber
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