“The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs or impede their efforts to attain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greaterContinue reading “RKS Literature: Freedom and Individuality”
Category Archives: literature
RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: “The Communist Manifesto”
“The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has piteously torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors,” and left no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous cash payment. The bourgeoisie possess theContinue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: “The Communist Manifesto””
RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Narcotics and COVID
“Always attuned to changes in the mood of the market, drug dealers had quickly realized the advantageous commercial consequences of a year of continual stress. When the numbers of the infections increased, so had the need to find drug-induced solace in what seemed like the Valley of the Shadow of Death. When the numbers decreased,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Narcotics and COVID”
RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Artists and Politicians
“But artists, he had long since concluded, were rather like politicians in their interest in the tasteful appearance of truth rather than the truth itself. “ Donna Leon “Give Unto Others” : Atlantic Monthly Press 2022
RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenin”: The Meaning of Existence
“Then, for the first time, realizing that for every man, and himself too, there was nothing ahead but suffering, death, eternal oblivion, he had decided that to live under such conditions was impossible – he must either find an explanation to the problem of existence which would make life seem other than the cruel ironyContinue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenin”: The Meaning of Existence”
RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenin”: Love and Jealously
“In her eyes Vronsky, with all his habits, ideas, desire – his whole spiritual and physical temperament could be summed up in one thing – love for women – and this love, which she felt ought to be wholly concentrated on her was diminishing. Therefore she reasoned, he must have transferred part of it to otherContinue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenin”: Love and Jealously”
RKS Literature: Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenin”: Count Vronsky’s Code of Principles
“Vronsky’s life was particularly happy in that he had a code of principles, which defined with unfailing certitude what should and should not be done. This code of principles covered only a very small circle of contingencies, but in return the principles were never obscure, and Vronsky, as he never went outside that circle, hadContinue reading “RKS Literature: Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenin”: Count Vronsky’s Code of Principles”
RKS Literature: Passage of the Day from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenin; Count Vronsky’s View of Himself
“In his Petersburg world people were divided into two quite distinct classes. One – the lower class – commonplace, stupid, and above all, ridiculous people, who believed that a husband should live with the one woman to whom he was married, that young girls should be virtuous, woman chaste and men virile, self-controlled and strong;Continue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenin; Count Vronsky’s View of Himself”
RKS Passage of the Day: Tolstoy’s Anna Karenin: Two Classes of Women
“Oblonsky smiled. He knew that feeling of Levin’s so well – that for Levin all the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class included all the girls in the world except Kitty, and they all had all the human weaknesses and were very ordinary girls: while Kitty was in a classContinue reading “RKS Passage of the Day: Tolstoy’s Anna Karenin: Two Classes of Women”
RKS True Story: Roma Panhandlers and a BMW in Athens
So I am sitting in a neighbourhood square in the Pangrati district of Athens having a late lunch with my wife and some friends. In the course of an hour 3 Roma panhandlers appeared putting on a dramatic and a tiresome act that has been perfected over the decades. It could be Rome, Paris orContinue reading “RKS True Story: Roma Panhandlers and a BMW in Athens”
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 