Ionut Iamandi

“Love, it seems to me, is that condition in which one is most contentedly oneself. If this sounds paradoxical, remember Rilke’s admonition: love consists in leaving the loved one space to be themselves while providing the security within which the self may flourish. As a child, I always felt uneasy and a little constrained around people, my family in particular. Solitude was bliss, but not easily obtained. Being always felt stressful- wherever I was there was something to do, someone to please, a duty to be completed, a role inadequately fulfilled: something amiss. Becoming, on the other hand, was relief. I was never so happy as when I was going somewhere on my own, and the longer it took to get there, the better. Walking was pleasurable, cycling enjoyable, bus journeys fun. But the train was very heaven.”
― Tony Judt, The Memory Chalet

“The lives of the great majority of Russians are uncommonly personal, which makes them excellent friends and poor citizens.”
― Richard Pipes

“The imposition of a Russian rather than a German solution cut Europe’s vulnerable eastern half away from the body of the continent. At the time this was not a matter of great concern to western Europeans themselves. With the exceptions of the Germans, the nation most directly affected by the division of Europe but also ill-placed to voice displeasure at it, western Europeans were largely indifferent to the disappearance of eastern Europe. Indeed, they soon became so accustomed to it, and were anyway so preoccupied with the remarkable changes taking place in their own countries, that it seems quite natural that there should be an impermeable armed barrier running from the Baltic to the Adriatic. But for the people to the east of that barrier, thrust back as it seemed into a grimy, forgotten corner of their own continent, at the mercy of the semi-alien Great Power no better of than they and parasitic upon their shrinking resources, history itself ground slowly to a halt.”
― Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

“La două luni după eliberare, oamenii au încetat să se mai bucure și să se mai îmbrățișeze. Nu mai dădeau de pomană alimente și îmbrăcăminte, ci le vindeau pe piața neagră. Cei care-și compromiseseră integritatea în timpul ocupației au început acum să-și facă planuri și calcule, să se urmărească și să se spioneze reciproc, să-și acopere urmele în dorința de a-și pune la adăpost bunurule pe care le dobândiseră prin colaborarea cu nemții, prin lașitate și denunț sau prin jefuirea caselor părăsite de evreii deportați. Sentimentul de vină și teama de răzbunare le-au alimentat curând ura și suspiciunea îndreptate în special asupra victimelor reale ale ocupației: opozanții activi și pasivi, partizanii, evreii și prizonierii politici; oamenii cinstiți care rămăseseră fermi pe poziție și nu-și trădaseră principiile chiar cu prețul persecuției. inocentul a devenit un reproș viu și o potențială amenințare pentru cel vinovat.”
― Heda Margolius Kovály, Sub o stea cruda