"A mind, lean in its own language. In others, it gets fat."

Elias Canetti Literature See all quotes by Elias Canetti →

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“Whenever the truth threatens, he hides behind a thought.”

“Nothing was better for you than humiliation, for there was nothing you felt more deeply.”

“His great holy books, which he does not know. They are so holy that he does not dare to open them.”

“If one has lived long enough, there is danger of succumbing to the word “God” merely because it was always there.”

“He sometimes tells himself that there is nothing more to be said, simply because he won’t get around to saying it.—How contemptible!”

“Say the most personal thing, say it, nothing else matters, don’t be ashamed, the generalities can be found in the newspaper.”

Resonant Thoughts

"I have always thought respectable people scoundrels, and I look anxiously at my face every morning for signs of my becoming a scoundrel."

— Bertrand Russell

Philosophy1872–1970

#mind

"Look at me and think of Schwarzenegger."

— David Cameron

Politics1933–2012

#mind

"Anarchism is just the way people act when they are free to do as they choose, and when they deal with others who are equally free — and therefore aware of the responsibility to others that entails."

— David Graeber

Politics1961–2020

#justice

"A Stalin functionary admitted, "Innocent people were arrested: naturally - otherwise no one would be frightened. If people, he said, were arrested only for specific misdemeanours, all the others would…"

— Paul Johnson

Literature1928–2023

#wisdom