Lenka Příplatová > Lenka's Quotes

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa

“Religion is based primarily upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly as the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the place that the churches in all these centuries have made it.”
― Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects

“And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence”
― Bertrand Russell

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
― Isaac Asimov

“Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it. Those who do not do it, think of it as a cousin of stamp collecting, a sister of the trophy cabinet, bastard of a sound bank account and a weak mind.”
― Jeanette Winterson

“You’ll get over it…” It’s the clichés that cause the trouble. To lose someone you love is to alter your life for ever. You don’t get over it because ‘it” is the person you loved. The pain stops, there are new people, but the gap never closes. How could it? The particularness of someone who mattered enough to grieve over is not made anodyne by death. This hole in my heart is in the shape of you and no-one else can fit it. Why would I want them to?”
― Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body

“Mezitím už se nezávislé názory stíhaly jako trestný čin, proto tyto noviny měly autoritu coby hlásná trouba. Zase se v duchu zadíval na druhou skupinovou fotografii. Bylo na ní tolik lidí, že se tam sotva vešli, muselo jich být tolik, protože skoro nikdo z nich neuměl psát, měli jen základní vzdělání, nebyli zatíženi nějakými vlastními názory, nějakou intelektuálštinou, jak se tomu říkalo, nemuseli se jí zbavovat, jako to musel on nejdnou slibovat v sebekritikách, když se do něho pro jeho neřest navezli. V těch novinách bývalo zvykem, že jen co začala nějaká ideologická kampaň, hned se v redakci sčuchla vlčí smečka, která zkoumala, na koho kolem nich by se ta kampaň mohla vztahovat. Nikdy nezažil tolik vypočítavé nenávisti jako v těch novinách.”
― Ján Rozner, Sedem dní do pohrebu

“You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? - Medicine.”
― Tim Minchin