Fiction:
The Brothers Karamazov -Fyodor Dostoevsky
"Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love."
The Fall - Albert Camus
"A single sentence will suffice for modern man. He fornicated and read the papers. After that vigorous definition, the subject will be, if I may say so, exhausted."
Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse
"Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, its beauties and ugliness; accepts certain sufferings as matters of course, puts up patiently with certain evils. Human life is reduced to real suffering, real hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap. A man of the Classical Age who had to live in medieval times would suffocate miserably just as a savage does in the midst of our civilization. Now there are times when a whole generation is caught in this way between two ages, two modes of life, with the consequence that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence. Naturally, everyone does not feel this equally strongly. A nature such as Nietzsche's had to suffer our present ills more than a generation in advance. What he had to go through alone and misunderstood, thousands suffer today."
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
"The tongue can conceal the truth, but the eyes never! You're asked an unexpected question, you don't even flinch, it takes just a second to get yourself under control, you know just what you have to say to hide the truth, and you speak very convincingly, and nothing in your face twitches to give you away. But the truth, alas, has been disturbed by the question, and it rises up from the depths of your soul to flicker in your eyes and all is lost."
Dead Souls- Nikolai Gogol
The longer and more carefully we look at a funny story, the sadder it becomes."
Sanshiro - Natsume Soseki
"Nature can't influence the character of someone who can't translate nature into character."
Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro
"Maybe from as early as when you're five or six, there's been a whisper going at the back of your head, saying: "One day, maybe not so long from now, you'll get to know how it feels." So you're waiting, even if you don't quite know it, waiting for the moment when you realise that you really are different to them; that there are people out there, like Madame, who don't hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you – of how you were brought into this world and why – and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs. The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a person like that, it's a cold moment. It's like walking past a mirror you've walked past every day of your life, and suddenly it shows you something else, something troubling and strange."
Moby Dick- Herman Melville
The Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde
Frankenstein- Mary Shelley
Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison
Non-Fiction:
The Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon
Public Opinion - Walter Lippmann
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life- Richard Hofstadter
Common Sense - Thomas Paine
The Communist Manifesto - Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx
Reason, Social Myths and Democracy - Sidney Hook
All That Is Solid Melts into Air- Marshall Berman
Kennith Clark -Civilisation
Orientalism - Edward Said
Irrational Man - William Barrett
The Story of Philosophy - Will Durant
The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell
Violence - Slavoj Zizek
Profit over People - Noam Chomsky
Tragic Sense of Life - Miguel De Unamuno
I am hesitant to recommend primary source philosophy texts but Fear and Tembling by Soren Kierkegaard is a must read.
Working on adding a quote for each book.
