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When I looked up the definitions of sociology, one of them was "the study of society", hence the quote above from Adlia Stevensen. So celebrate your inclusion in our free society and share an "untrammeled flow of words" with us. Your "open forum" awaits.

A few quotes from Fahrenheit 451:

There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; THere must be something there. You don't stay for nothing. (page 81)

But remember that the Captain bewlongs to the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom, the solid majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority. (page 136)

From The Cellist of Sarajevo:

But there's little he can do about it. So he forgets about the marketplace, forgets about his empty stomach, and crosses the one-way street that encircles the main part of the old town. Here the terrain flattens out as the mountains give way to the bed of the valley. He wonders what will happen after, when the fighting stops. Even if each building is rebuilt so it's exactly as it was before, he doesn't know how he could sit in a comfortable chair and drink a coffee with a friend and not think about this war and all that went with it. But maybe, he thinks, he would like to try. He knows he doesn't want to give up the possibility.

I read this book for World Lit a couple of months ago and really enjoyed it

Susan wrote: "From The Cellist of Sarajevo:

But there's little he can do about it. So he forgets about the marketplace, forgets about his empty stomach, and crosses the one-way street that encirc..."

from She's Not There

"We had a lovely time with the McGatts. You remember John McGatt, honey? He used to bring you Silly Putty when you were little?"
"I remember."
My mother shook her head. "It seems just like yesterday, when you were my baby boy."
"Mom," I said, annoyed.
She took off her watch, put it on the table. There next to the alarm clock was Onion's diaphragm, sitting in its soft brown case. She hadn't seen it yet, but Mom would see a lot of things in the time that was coming.

From Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: "The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything," writes the neurologiest Daniel Levitin. "In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up agin and again. Of course, this doesn’t address why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others do. But no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.�

from Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, after banishment of the letter z:

"Dear Tassie,
Today The Tribune published the names of fifty-eight of the sixty men, women and children charged this week with first offense. (Two names were unpublishable due to the presence of a particular letter within.) All were speakers of banned words -- words overheard upon the lanes, in schoolyards and church pews, and on the common greens. Neighbor turning in neighbor, perpetuating old grudges and grievances with this new weapon unleashed upon us by the High Island Council...."

From Blindness:

The line was now in disarray, the doctor was asking, Where is the wound, Here, Here, where, On my leg, can't you see, this bitch stuck the heel of her shoe in me, I tripped, I couldn't help it, repeated the girl before blurting out in exasperation, The bastard was touching me up, what sort of woman does he think I am.

From The Hiding Place

Father held the baby close, his white beard brushed its cheek, looking into the little face with eyes as blue and innocent as the baby's own. At last he looked up at the pastor. "You say we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that the greatest honor that could come to my family."

from The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty:

Quote from a lecture the author attended - if we treat another person as essentially bad we dehumanize him or her. If we take the view that ever human being has some good in them, even if it is only 0.1 percent of their makeup, then by focusing on their good part we humanize them. By acknowledging and attending to and rewarding their good part, we allow it to grow, like a small flower in a desert.

from The Rain of God:

Then the sun, the right eye of God, was going down behind the towering cliffs. Lupe and her family gathered to give their thanks to the Almighty. It had been another good day. No one in their family had been harmed, and the mother goat that had died would now be their evening meal.

Dee wrote: "from The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty:

Quote from a lecture the author attended - if we treat another person as essentially bad we dehumanize him or her. ..."

Wow, definitely something to think about.

from Ella Minnow Pea, p. 92 (I didn't think anything on p. 46 gave a flavor of the book.):

Finally! A bright ray in all the murk. I am not feeling even an ounce of concern over the loss of "K." "K" may go. The two of us will learn to accept its loss.

You are probably, at this point, examining this letter with utter stupefaction. Has your gloomy mother taken leave of all her senses?

No. I'm only allowing myself a little happiness while I am still able.

You know, as I, that time is running out.

yeah that quote really hit home for me

Lynne wrote: "Dee wrote: "from The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty:

Quote from a lecture the author attended - if we treat another person as essentially bad we dehumanize ..."