Another fact that allowed Fascism to gain power over men was their blindness. A man cannot believe that he is about to be destroyed. The optimism of people standing on the edge of the grave is astounding.
He sensed Death with a depth and clarity of which only small children or great philosophers are capable, philosophers who are themselves almost childlike in the power and simplicity of their thinking.
I don’t want you to be young and beautiful. I only want one thing. I want you to be kind-hearted – and not just towards cats and dogs.
There are one or two people – I’m not talking about family, about Zhenya or your mother – whom a pariah can trust. He can contact these people without first waiting for a sign.
In great hearts the cruelty of life gives birth to good.
There’s nothing more difficult than saying goodbye to a house where you’ve suffered.
There are people whose souls have just withered, people who are willing to go along with anything evil – anything so as not to be suspected of disagreeing with whoever is in power.
When you think about new-born babies being killed in our own lifetime,’ he said, ‘all the efforts of culture seem worthless. What have people learned from all our Goethes and Bachs? To kill babies?
The true champions of a nation’s freedom are those who reject the limitations of stereotypes and affirm the rich diversity of human nature to be found.
Why do people have memories? It would be easier to die – anything to stop remembering.
Both his voice and eyes had the burning cold of alcohol. His strength no longer lay in his military experience or his knowledge of the map, but in his harsh, impetuous soul.
A mountain had died, its skeleton had been scattered over the ground. Time had aged the mountain; time had killed the mountain-and here lay the mountain’s bones.
The longer a nation’s history, the more wars, invasions, wanderings, and periods of captivity it has seen-the greater the diversity of its faces.