David Van Reybrouck · 656 pages
Rating: (3.4K votes)
“The fact that they did not ask for political power, however, did not mean that they were happy as ever. The native’s political apathy was more an indicator of a lack of education than of any surplus of satisfaction. In”
― David Van Reybrouck, quote from Congo: The Epic History of a People
“But it was definitely a hecatomb, a slaughter on a staggering scale that was not intentional, but that could have been recognized much earlier as the collateral damage of a perfidious, rapacious policy of exploitation, a living sacrifice on the altar of the pathological pursuit of profit.”
― David Van Reybrouck, quote from Congo: The Epic History of a People
“Early anthropology was not at all seen as art for art’s sake; it was intended to facilitate the colonizer’s work.”
― David Van Reybrouck, quote from Congo: The Epic History of a People
“Scientists were the embodiment of this new-fangled sobriety—impartial, businesslike, colorless, and reliable. Or so people assumed. For in actual practice, it was their supposed impartiality that allowed them to gain so much influence. One”
― David Van Reybrouck, quote from Congo: The Epic History of a People
“Mission schools were factories for tribal prejudice. Children who were not allowed to leave their villages were suddenly told that the Bakongo lived on the other side of their vast country and what they were to think of them.”
― David Van Reybrouck, quote from Congo: The Epic History of a People
“came from the mines in Kivu.42 The area around the”
― David Van Reybrouck, quote from Congo: The Epic History of a People
“I never wanted to fix things with them.” I pause, and my voice is very quiet. “I wanted out. I screwed up.”
“I don’t know, Murph.” We make the turn into the cemetery, and he hesitates, as if unsure of his next words. “I wonder if you’re just telling yourself that.”
I frown. “What?”
“I don’t think you wanted to kill yourself.”
I pull next to his car in the now-empty employee lot. “Didn’t you listen to everything I just told you?”
“Yeah. I did. Maybe you wanted to try to kill yourself, but I don’t think you wanted to actually do it.”
“What’s the difference?”
He opens the door and gets out, standing there, looking down at me. “You wore your seat belt.”
― Brigid Kemmerer, quote from Letters to the Lost
“فلماذا اذن يجب ان اصغي الى قلبي؟
لأنك لن تنجح في اسكاته ابدا و حتى لو تظاهرت بانك لا تسمع ما يقول فسيظل هناك في صدرك و لن يكف عن ترداد ما يعتقده عن الحياة و العالم”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from Alkimist
“What does one prefer? An art that struggles to change the social contract, but fails? Or one that seeks to please and amuse, and succeeds?”
― Robert Hughes, quote from The Shock of the New
“Only one man had the circumstances and gifts to give us such incomparable works, and William Shakespeare of Stratfrod was unquestionably that man -- whoever he was.”
― Bill Bryson, quote from Shakespeare: The World as Stage
“Oh, you men,’ said Philippa. ‘You don’t understand anything. How can you show off your dress or your figure if you’re hiding behind a table in the gloom and smoke?”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, quote from Time of Contempt
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