{
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  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/pride-is-the",
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  "text": "Pride is the first thing you need to do away with in life. It's there to make you feel good about yourself. It's like putting a suit on a shriveled carrot and taking it out to the theater and pretending it's someone important. The first step in self-liberation is to be free of self-respect. I understand why it's useful for some. When people have nothing, they can still have their pride. That's why the poor were given the myth of nobility, because the cupboards were bare. Are you listening to me? This is important, Jasper. I don't want you to have anything to do with nobility, pride, or self-respect. They're tools to help you bronze your own head.",
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  "author": {
    "name": "Steve Toltz",
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  "book": {
    "title": "A Fraction Of The Whole",
    "slug": "a-fraction-of-the-whole",
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      "name": "pride",
      "slug": "pride-2",
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  "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:10",
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      "slug": "its-hard-enough",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/its-hard-enough",
      "text": "It's hard enough to go through life disappointing yourself every second day, but disappointing others takes it out of you too. That's why you should never answer the phone or the door. So you don't have to say no to whoever's on the other side.",
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      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:12"
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      "slug": "people-always-say",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/people-always-say",
      "text": "People always say, \"It's good to be a part of a something bigger than yourself,\" but you already are. You're part of a huge thing. The whole of humanity. That's enormous. But you can't see it, so you pick, what? An organization? A culture? A religion? That's not bigger than you. It's much, much smaller!",
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      "topics": [
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        {
          "name": "belonging",
          "slug": "belonging",
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    {
      "id": "7285296a-14ff-40a4-966a-0a74806d1b8a",
      "slug": "what-a-disappointment",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/what-a-disappointment",
      "text": "What a disappointment my brain turned out to be. After everything I had witnessed in my life, I had almost convinced myself that the wheel of personal history spins on thought, and therefore my history was muddy because my thinking had been muddy. I imagined that everything I'd experienced to date was likely to be a materialization of my fears (especially my fear of Dad's fears). In short, I had briefly believed that if man's character is his fate, and if his character is the sum of his actions, and his actions are a result of his thoughts, then man's character, actions, and fate are dependent on what he thinks. Now I wasn't so sure.",
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          "name": "fate",
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