read
(222)
currently-reading (19)
to-read (997)
2024-tbr (57)
history (45)
2023-tbr (44)
classical-literature (42)
philosophy (37)
currently-reading (19)
to-read (997)
2024-tbr (57)
history (45)
2023-tbr (44)
classical-literature (42)
philosophy (37)
science-and-natural-history
(30)
fantasy (29)
favorites (29)
politics (25)
historical-fiction (23)
memoir (21)
feminist (19)
2025-tbr (18)
fantasy (29)
favorites (29)
politics (25)
historical-fiction (23)
memoir (21)
feminist (19)
2025-tbr (18)
“We're here to make magic with words”
― Babel
― Babel
“It is astounding, in truth, how much of academia’s perceived resource scarcity is artificially constructed.”
― Babel
― Babel
“If medical practitioners wanted to save lives,” said Baxter, “instead of making money out of them, they would unite to prevent diseases, not work separately to cure them. The cause of most illness has been known since at least the sixth century before Christ, when the Greeks made a goddess of Hygiene. Sunlight, cleanliness and exercise, McCandless! Fresh air, pure water, a good diet and clean roomy houses for everyone, and a total government ban on all work which poisons and prevents these things.” “Impossible, Baxter. Britain has become the industrial workshop of the world. If social legislation arrests the profits of British industry our worldwide market will be collared by Germany and America and thousands would starve to death. Nearly a third of Britain’s food is imported from abroad.” “Exactly! So until we lose our worldwide market British medicine will be employed to keep a charitable mask on the face of a heartless plutocracy.”
― Poor Things
― Poor Things
“Only bad religions depend on mysteries, just as bad governments depend on secret police. Truth, beauty and goodness are not mysterious, they are the commonest, most obvious, most essential facts of life, like sunlight, air and bread. Only folk whose heads are muddled by expensive educations think truth, beauty, goodness are rare private properties. Nature is more liberal. The universe keeps nothing essential from us — it is all present, all gift.”
― Poor Things
― Poor Things
“Trying, he thought, to express some unutterable truth about themselves. Which was that translation was impossible. That the realm of pure meaning they captured and manifested would and could not ever be known. That the enterprise of this tower had been impossible from inception. For how could there ever be an Adamic language? The thought now made him laugh. There was no innate, perfectly comprehensible language. There was no candidate - not English, not French - that could bully and absorb enough to become one. Language was just difference. A thousand different ways of seeing, of moving through the world. No, a thousand worlds within one. And translation, a necessary endeavor however futile, to move between them.”
― Babel
― Babel
Booktok 📚
— 169965 members
— last activity 11 minutes ago
A place for booktokers to interact with each other and share the love
A place for booktokers to interact with each other and share the love
Olivia ’s 2023 Year in Books
Take a look at Olivia ’s Year in Books. The good, the bad, the long, the short—it’s all here.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Olivia
Lists liked by Olivia