“I am eternally grateful to him, and indirectly to what Harvard used to be, I suppose, for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else may be going on.” Timequake — Kurt Vonnegut

“We have no states, no nations, no presidents, no premiers, no chiefs, no generals, no bosses, no bankers, no landlords, no wages, no charity, no police, no soldiers, no wars. Nor do we have much else.” The Dispossessed — Ursula K. Le Guin

“Voluntarily or involuntarily, of choice or of necessity, most moderns lead a nerve-racking life and are continually too tired to be capable of enjoyment without the help of alcohol.” The Conquest of Happiness — Bertrand Russell and Daniel C. Dennett

“Nothing stays the same, life is defined by a state of flux; that was basic biology. Or so Dellarobia had been told, perhaps too late for it really to sink in. She was an ordinary person. Loss was the enemy.” Flight Behavior — Barbara Kingsolver

“when action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.” The left hand of darkness — Ursula K. Le Guin

“How could two people get the same set of parts and make such different constructions? But then, there was raising. That had to be taken into account. What could a doormat rear but a pair of boots?” Flight Behavior — Barbara Kingsolver

“the Vietnam War, the only war we ever lost,” Timequake — Kurt Vonnegut

“For capitalism is already essentially abolished once we assume that it is enjoyment that is the driving motive and not enrichment itself.” Capital: Volume II — Karl Marx

“she had made herself as pretty as a Chevrolet and mindless as a cauliflower.” 334 — Thomas M. Disch

““While there is a lower class I am in it, while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” Timequake — Kurt Vonnegut

“they ran in that resonance which is the world itself and which cannot be spoken but only praised.” All the Pretty Horses: Book 1 of The Border Trilogy — Cormac McCarthy

“he realised that he did not exist to her in the same way that he existed in his own perception. She held a copied version, an interpretation of him, filtered through the matrix of her priorities and desires. Therefore, surely, he only held a copy of her” The Etched City — K.J. Bishop

“The production of surplus-value, or the making of profits, is the absolute law of this mode of production.” Capital: Volume I — Karl Marx

“It was understandable. He was in his mid-twenties. He expected things to be cumulative, to make sense. He expected events to cut an intelligible figure in the air as they went by.” Red Plenty — Francis Spufford

“But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.” Man's Search for Meaning — Viktor E. Frankl

“The heels of her oxblood boots struck the waxed floor loudly, advertising her traveling whereabouts like a GPS.” Flight Behavior — Barbara Kingsolver

“Hence we nowhere find a more shameless squandering of human labour-power for despicable purposes than in England, the land of machinery.” Capital: Volume I — Karl Marx

“borders are the nexus of most systems of oppression.” Undoing Border Imperialism — Harsha Walia and Andrea Smith

“Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones.” Capital: Volume I — Karl Marx

“If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.” The Conquest of Happiness — Bertrand Russell and Daniel C. Dennett

“if you bare your arse to a vengeful unicorn, the number of possible outcomes dwindles to one.” The Bone Clocks: A Novel — David Mitchell

“Caslon and Bodoni,” Island — Aldous Huxley

“"no compost or laetation whatsoever comparable to this continual motion, repastination, and turning of the mould with the spade."” Walden — Henry David Thoreau

“‘Na, komm’ schonl Hor’ aufi’” Shantaram: A Novel — Gregory David Roberts

“the path to the marvelous is sometimes cleared by a sharp tongue,” Jitterbug Perfume: A Novel — Tom Robbins

““You really are almost as weird as people keep trying to make us think you are.” Dhalgren — Samuel R. Delany and William Gibson

“borders are the nexus of most systems of oppression.” Undoing Border Imperialism — Harsha Walia and Andrea Smith

““Hadn’t you heard?” They all looked at her. Death glided by, shadowless, among the empties on the grass.” The Crying of Lot 49 — Thomas Pynchon

“Before the war, men might have said that India and Europe are not analogous, because India is less civilized than Europe; but now, I hope, no one would have the effrontery to maintain anything so preposterous.” Why Men Fight — Bertrand Russell

“We have no states, no nations, no presidents, no premiers, no chiefs, no generals, no bosses, no bankers, no landlords, no wages, no charity, no police, no soldiers, no wars. Nor do we have much else.” The Dispossessed — Ursula K. Le Guin

“Keep your phone on, buddy. Keep your head screwed on straight, and if you get scared again, just remember my ultimate rule.” The Three-Body Problem — Cixin Liu and Ken Liu

“God is Dipa’s alibi. Why can’t criminals be frank about what they’re up to?” Island — Aldous Huxley

“they ran in that resonance which is the world itself and which cannot be spoken but only praised.” All the Pretty Horses: Book 1 of The Border Trilogy — Cormac McCarthy

“Simply on the basis of its temporality, digital communication conveys affect more than it transmits feeling. Shitstorms are streams of affect. They represent exemplary phenomena of digital communication.” Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power — Byung-Chul Han and Erik Butler

“Professional men wish to send their sons to a public school, though the education they will obtain is no better than at a grammar school, and the companions with whom they will associate are more vicious.” Why Men Fight — Bertrand Russell

“susurrus” Jerusalem — Alan Moore

“In the Red Bull mirror behind the counter, the cartoon bull noticed her, winked. She dodged eye contact. She hated it when they spoke to you, called you by your name.” The Peripheral — William Gibson

“Do not be content with an alternation between moments of rationality and moments of irrationality. Look into the irrationality closely with a determination not to respect it and not to let it dominate you.” The Conquest of Happiness — Bertrand Russell and Daniel C. Dennett

“I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.” Walden — Henry David Thoreau

“Mikami cut the switch to his emotions as a reflex.” Six Four — Hideo Yokoyama and Jonathan Lloyd-Davies

“A prolific critic of necessity must say many absurd things. The test is, once a body of articles has passed your eye, whether the intelligence and acumen is more memorable than the absurdity.” Dhalgren — Samuel R. Delany and William Gibson

“History was going to go like this: lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, win.” The Ministry for the Future: A Novel — Kim Stanley Robinson

“Mistaking the idea for the world, the mind formulates a theory and, having formulated a theory, feels inclined to act.” The Braindead Megaphone — George Saunders

“was reassuring to be judged by appearances, when the judge was both accurate and friendly.” Dhalgren — Samuel R. Delany and William Gibson

“For capitalism is already essentially abolished once we assume that it is enjoyment that is the driving motive and not enrichment itself.” Capital: Volume II — Karl Marx

“Mistaking the idea for the world, the mind formulates a theory and, having formulated a theory, feels inclined to act.” The Braindead Megaphone — George Saunders

“Real travel requires a maximum of unscheduled wandering, for there is no other way of discovering surprises and marvels, which, as I see it, is the only good reason for not staying at home.” The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are — Alan Watts

“A man who doesn’t detest a bad government is a fool. And if there were such a thing as a good government on earth, it would be a great joy to serve it.” The left hand of darkness — Ursula K. Le Guin

“The ideal way to spend a summer vacation. Hot, alone, and free, not bothering anyone, and nobody bothering me.” Sputnik Sweetheart — Haruki Murakami and Philip Gabriel

“All because something in us is easily seduced by the idea of the idol who demands absolute allegiance in return for absolute security. Most betrayals in history are rooted in versions of that need.” Stories We Tell Ourselves: Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe — Richard Holloway