– The Bookish Life, Joseph Epstein
One of Lamb Weston’s 13 French fry factories, in Richland, Wash., produces a million pounds of potato products a day. A burst of steam peels the potatoes, and then they’re shot at 75 miles per hour through metal blades that cut them into steak, wedge or straight shapes. Cameras identify imperfections like bruises and black spots, and little puffs of air knock damaged fries off the conveyor belt.
A me piaceva leggere, mica pensavo che qualcuno l'avrebbe mai usato per attaccarmi. Leggere era ed è un fatto privato, non politico, io non leggo per resistenza, non leggo per edificarmi, non leggo per salvare la Cultura, leggo perché mi diverto e leggo quello che mi pare, quando mi pare.
A me dispiace per chi non ha mai letto, perché ha vissuto almeno un quarto di vita in meno. Il tempo della lettura è sempre stato per me tempo guadagnato, un'attività che riproduce la teoria dei mondi paralleli, in cui tutti siamo tutti gli altri e le possibilità sono infinite.
A me dispiace, davvero, per quelli a cui manca questa esperienza, però pure vaffanculo, dai. Io volevo solo leggere, mica fare la guerra.
The extreme fragility of human culture, civilization. A man becomes a beast in three weeks, given heavy labor, cold, hunger, and beatings.
I understood why people do not live on hope — there isn’t any hope. Nor can they survive by means of free will — what free will is there? They live by instinct, a feeling of self-preservation, on the same basis as a tree, a stone, an animal.
I discovered that the world should be divided not into good and bad people but into cowards and non-cowards. Ninety-five percent of cowards are capable of the vilest things, lethal things, at the mildest threat.
and there’s also part 2
Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
Do not think it worthwhile to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.
When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
– Ten guidelines for nurturing a thriving democracy by Bertrand Russell