between the world and the self
One makes a show of being on good terms with a powerful person (broadly speaking—it could be anyone from the leader of your school class to a famous celebrity). And by doing that, one lets it be known that one is special. Behaviors like misrepresenting one’s work experience or excessive allegiance to particular brands of clothing are forms of givin... See more
Notes & Highlights for The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi
No surprise, then, that sometimes I dreamed of trying to pull a mask off my face, only to realize that the mask was my face.
Viet Thanh Nguyen • The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
There are people who trick you and deliver emptiness with a smile, while others rob you of your self-respect. You need to remember who you are.
Colson Whitehead • The Nickel Boys
To you, not liking yourself is a virtue.
Notes & Highlights for The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi
He had the image of his relationship to Esen being a thin strip of metal that Ouyang was deliberately bending back and forth. Each time it bent, it hurt. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt after it finally snapped, but Ouyang couldn’t make himself believe it.
Shelley Parker-Chan • She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor Duology Book 1)
Of course, I said, reaching for the bottle of scotch. Like me, it was half empty and half full.
Viet Thanh Nguyen • The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
And I saw that what divided me from the world was not anything intrinsic to us but the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named us matters more than anything we could ever actually do.
Ta-Nehisi Coates • Between the World and Me
was impossible, like loving the one who wanted to destroy you, but that was the message of the movement: to trust in the ultimate decency that lived in every human heart.
Colson Whitehead • The Nickel Boys
How to get through the day if every indignity capsized you in a ditch? One learned to focus one’s attention.