"Miranda is aware of how pretentious this sounds, but is it still pretentious if it’s true?"

Emily St. John Mandel Literature See all quotes by Emily St. John Mandel →

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More by Emily St. John Mandel

“It’s possible that no one who didn’t grow up in a small place can understand how beautiful this is, how the anonymity of city life feels like freedom.”

“The horse, Bernstein, was missing half his tail, because the first cello had just restrung his bow last week.”

“He found he was a man who repented almost everything, regrets crowding in around him like moths to a light. This was actually the main difference between twenty-one and fifty-one, he decided, the sheer volume of regret.”

“Hell is the absence of the people you long for.”

““I’m a man of my word,” Jeevan said. At that point in his directionless life he wasn’t sure if this was true or not, but it was nice to think that it might be.”

“She tried to keep this opinion to herself and occasionally succeeded.”

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— Herbert Marcuse

Philosophy1898–1979

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"I must admit, sir, that I have modified the verses a little, to allow for the new things I have learned, so I am an unreliable source of truth, sir, save in its most fundamental sense. Like a majority…"

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"Pettiness separates; breadth unites. Let us be broad and big. Let us not overlook vital things because of the bulk of trifles confronting us. A true conception of the relation of the sexes will not ad…"

— Emma Goldman

Social Activism1869–1940

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