Natan Sharansky > Quotes

“In dictatorships you need courage to fight evil; in the free world you need courage to see evil.”
― Nathan Sharansky

“Over the years, I have come to understand a critical difference between the world of fear and the world of freedom. In the former, the primary challenge is finding the strength to confront evil. In the latter, the primary challenge is finding the moral clarity to see evil.”
― Natan Sharansky, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny And Terror

“Among those who have always lived in a democracy, this story will raise few eyebrows. After all, in a free world, competition of ideas and of parties flourishes and allegiances are often based on a single common principle or purpose that struggles against a competing point of view. Though generally healthy for a society, this competition can be quite dangerous if we lose sight of the fact that there is a far greater divide between the world of freedom and the world of fear than there is between the competing factions within a free society. If we fail to recognize this, we lose moral clarity. The legitimate differences among us--the shades of gray in a free society--will be wrongly perceived as black and white. Then the real black and white line that divides free societies from fear societies, the real line that divides good from evil will no longer be distinguishable.”
― Natan Sharansky, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny And Terror

“The Americans have their spies here, and we have our people over there. You, however, are not simply a spy. You’re a Soviet citizen—and a traitor. An entirely different fate awaits you.”
― Natan Sharansky, Fear No Evil

“thought of this introductory part of the interrogation as the Manilov-Chichikov routine, after the characters in Gogol’s Dead Souls who dawdled at great length at the door, each trying to let the other enter first. But whereas in Gogol’s novel the two men eventually went through the door together, I never permitted myself to violate the etiquette of the investigation.”
― Natan Sharansky, Fear No Evil

“When Jews abandon identity in the pursuit of universal freedom, they end up with neither.”
― Natan Sharansky, Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy

“A lack of moral clarity is why an Israeli journalist compared a kipa to a prison. It is why people in free societies cannot distinguish between religious fundamentalists in democratic states and religious terrorists in fundamentalist states. It is why people in free societies can come to see their fellow citizens as their enemies and foreign dictators as their friends.”
― Natan Sharansky, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny And Terror