Key takeaways §
- The book really shows how much influence someone with a strong message can have, even if the objective quality of life of the followers is worse than it was before.
- The census was a symbol of the oppressive Republic, along with the separation of chuch and state as well as marriage outside the church.
Highlights §
- From the moment his son reached the age of reason, the Scotsman impressed upon his mind the following simple precept: revolution will free society of its afflictions, while science will free the individual of his. Galileo had resolved to devote his life to fighting for both these goals. (Location 274)
- But in fact something had changed with the advent of the Republic. To people’s misfortune and confusion: Church and State were separated, freedom of worship was established, and cemeteries were secularized, so that it was no longer parishes but towns that would be responsible for them. (Location 398)
- And what is the power that oppresses them, that denies them the right to land, to culture, to equality? Isn’t it the Republic? And the fact that they are armed to fight against it is proof that they have also hit upon the right method, the sole method the exploited have to break their chains: violence. (Location 966)
- The war that they were waging was only apparently that of the outside world, that of men in uniform against men in rags, that of the seacoast against the interior, that of the new Brazil against traditional Brazil. (Location 2249)
- Health, like love, like wealth and power, was selfish: it shut one up within oneself, it abolished all thought of others. (Location 4653)
- It was as though in this region that he kept continually journeying through, bouncing back and forth, time had been abolished, or was a different time, with its own rhythm. (Location 5270)
- Wasn’t fire the best way of proving that such myths were false, of dispelling the victims’ fears, of making the starving masses see that it was possible to destroy the power of the landowners, that the poor possessed the strength necessary to put an end to it? Despite the dregs of religion they clung to, the Counselor and his men knew where the blows must be aimed. (Location 5288)
- In the very best of cases, as David Hume had written, religion was a dream of sick men; that was doubtless true, yet in certain cases, such as that of Canudos, it could serve to rouse the victims of society from their passivity and incite them to revolutionary action, (Location 5343)
- “It’s easier to imagine the death of one person than those of a hundred or a thousand,” (Location 7808)
- Note: Scope insensitivity
- the baron murmured. “When multiplied, suffering becomes abstract. It is not easy to be moved by abstract things.” (Location 7809)
- The conspiracy had to exist: that’s why they invented it and why they believed it.” (Location 8483)
- They went to Canudos to see English officers. And they saw them. I talked with my replacement for an entire afternoon. He never once lied deliberately, he just didn’t realize he was lying. (Location 8504)
- “Besides that, none of them saw what was really there.” (Location 8520)
- “A story of madmen,” he muttered. “The Counselor, Moreira César, Gall. Canudos drove all those people mad. And you, too, of course.” (Location 9427)
- But a thought made him shut his mouth and not say a word more. “No, they were mad before that. It was only Estela who lost her mind because of Canudos.” (Location 9429)
- “It’s not so much a story of madmen as a story of misunderstandings,” the nearsighted journalist corrected him again. (Location 9431)
- You are unable to understand what happens to those of us who are not handsome, charming, privileged, rich, as you were. You are unable to understand what it is to know that love and pleasure are not for you. That you are doomed to the company of whores.” (Location 10332)