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Quote by Paul Auster

“En un momento dado los vaqueros están de palique, sentados alrededor de una fogata, y el vejete de la cuadrilla (interpretado por James Whitmore, me parece) suelta una frase que me arrancó una sonora carcajada: "Me está gustando esto de envejecer", dice. "Quita las preocupaciones de la vida." Besé a Joyce en la mejilla y musité: -Ese imbécil no sabe lo que dice. Y por primera vez en toda la noche hice reír a mi abatida y aún perpleja enamorada.”

Quote by Paul Auster

Work

The Brooklyn Follies

The Brooklyn Follies is a novel that delves into the lives of various individuals living in Brooklyn, capturing the essence of the neighborhood's vibrant community and complex social dynamics. more

Author

Paul Auster
Paul Auster

Paul Auster is an American author known for his unique narrative style and philosophical reflections. His works often explore themes of identity, memory, and reality, and have won him a wide audience. more

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“Mungu alikuumba miaka mingi kabla hujazaliwa. Ndani ya roho yako kulikuwa na mpango mkuu wa Mungu juu ya maisha yako katika kipindi chote utakachokuwa hai, na katika kipindi chote utakachokuwa mfu. Lakini Shetani katika mji wa angani unaosemekana kuzuia majibu ya maombi ya Danieli ya siku ishirini na moja, kutoka mbinguni kuja duniani, uitwao Sadiki, wenye mashetani wenye nguvu kuliko mashetani wote katika ufalme wa giza, akaizuia roho hiyo kisha akaiwekea mpango mkuu wa Shetani juu ya maisha yako ili umtumikie yeye badala ya kumtumikia Mwenyezi Mungu. Kwa mfano, Mungu alipanga uzaliwe mkoani Arusha. Halafu akapanga mke au mume wako azaliwe mkoani Mwanza. Mkoani Arusha Mungu alipanga uwe mwinjilisti wa vitabu, wakati mkoani Mwanza alipanga mke au mume wako awe mwimbaji wa nyimbo za injili. Katika mikoa yote miwili Mungu alishatuma malaika wema wa kuwasaidia katika mipango mikuu ya maisha yenu na kuwaepusha na hila zote za adui. Lakini badala ya kuzaliwa Arusha au Mwanza Shetani ataziprogramu roho zenu upya ili wa Arusha azaliwe Dodoma au Mara au Venezuela na wa Mwanza azaliwe Lindi au Kagera au Mombasa, ambapo hakutakuwa na malaika wema wa kuwasaidia. Badala ya kuwa mwinjilisti wa vitabu, Shetani atakufanya uwe jambazi; na badala ya kuwa mwimbaji wa nyimbo za injili, Shetani atakufanya uwe mwanamuziki. Ndiyo maana wakati mwingine ni vizuri kuhama sehemu unapoishi na kwenda kuishi sehemu nyingine, ambapo kwa kusaidiana na malaika wako wa mwanzo ambaye Mungu alikupangia kabla hujazaliwa, utafanikiwa katika maisha yako, kama alivyofanya Ibrahimu. Watu wengi wanaishi maisha ambayo si ya kwao. Kukomboa kile ambacho Mungu alikipanga ndani ya roho yako kabla hujazaliwa, na kabla roho yako haijazuiwa na mashetani wa angani, kuwa karibu na Mwenyezi Mungu. Kwa Mungu hakuna siri, atakufunulia tu.”

“What Althusser does… is to rethink the concept of ideology in terms of Lacan’s ‘imaginary’. For the relation of an individual subject to society as a whole in Althusser’s theory is rather like the relation of the small child to his or her mirror-image in Lacan’s. In both cases, the human subject is supplied with a satisfyingly unified image of selfhood by identifying with an object which reflects this image back to it in a closed, narcissistic circle. In both cases, too, this image involves a misrecognition, since it idealizes the subject’s real situation. The child is not actually as integrated as its image in the mirror suggests; I am not actually the coherent, autonomous, self generating subject I know myself to be in the ideological sphere, but the ‘decentred’ function of several social determinants. Duly enthralled by the image of myself I receive, I subject myself to it; and it is through this ‘subjection’ that I become a subject.”

“If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for their prescription, who has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer - even if it's not my grandparent. If there's an Arab-American or Mexican-American family being rounded up by John Ashcroft without benefit of an attorney or due process, I know that that threatens my civil liberties. And I don't have to be a woman to be concerned that the Supreme Court is trying to take away a woman's right, because I know that my rights are next. It is that fundamental belief - I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper - that makes this country work.”

“The advantages of a hereditary Monarchy are self-evident. Without some such method of prescriptive, immediate and automatic succession, an interregnum intervenes, rival claimants arise, continuity is interrupted and the magic lost. Even when Parliament had secured control of taxation and therefore of government; even when the menace of dynastic conflicts had receded in to the coloured past; even when kingship had ceased to be transcendental and had become one of many alternative institutional forms; the principle of hereditary Monarchy continued to furnish the State with certain specific and inimitable advantages. Apart from the imponderable, but deeply important, sentiments and affections which congregate around an ancient and legitimate Royal Family, a hereditary Monarch acquires sovereignty by processes which are wholly different from those by which a dictator seizes, or a President is granted, the headship of the State. The King personifies both the past history and the present identity of the Nation as a whole. Consecrated as he is to the service of his peoples, he possesses a religious sanction and is regarded as someone set apart from ordinary mortals. In an epoch of change, he remains the symbol of continuity; in a phase of disintegration, the element of cohesion; in times of mutability, the emblem of permanence. Governments come and go, politicians rise and fall: the Crown is always there. A legitimate Monarch moreover has no need to justify his existence, since he is there by natural right. He is not impelled as usurpers and dictators are impelled, either to mesmerise his people by a succession of dramatic triumphs, or to secure their acquiescence by internal terrorism or by the invention of external dangers. The appeal of hereditary Monarchy is to stability rather than to change, to continuity rather than to experiment, to custom rather than to novelty, to safety rather than to adventure. The Monarch, above all, is neutral. Whatever may be his personal prejudices or affections, he is bound to remain detached from all political parties and to preserve in his own person the equilibrium of the realm. An elected President – whether, as under some constitutions, he be no more than a representative functionary, or whether, as under other constitutions, he be the chief executive – can never inspire the same sense of absolute neutrality. However impartial he may strive to become, he must always remain the prisoner of his own partisan past; he is accompanied by friends and supporters whom he may seek to reward, or faced by former antagonists who will regard him with distrust. He cannot, to an equal extent, serve as the fly-wheel of the State.”