Susan Aldridge > Susan's Quotes

“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.”
― Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

“We cannot indefinitely avoid depressing subject matter, particularly it it is true, and in the subsequent quarter century the world has had to hear a story it would have preferred not to hear - the story of how a cultured people turned to genocide, and how the rest of the world, also composed of cultured people, remained silent in the face of genocide. (v)”
― Elie Wiesel, Night

“The real damage is done by those millions who want to 'survive.' The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.”
― Sophie Scholl

“Stand up for what you believe in even if you are standing alone”
― Sophie Scholl

“I will cling to the rope God has thrown me in Jesus Christ, even when my numb hands can no longer feel it.”
― Sophie Scholl

“An end in terror is preferable to terror without end.”
― Sophie Scholl

“The sun still shines.”
― Sophie Scholl

“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”
― Nelson Mandela

“Do remember, though, that sometimes the people you oppress become mightier than you would like.”
― Veronica Roth, Insurgent

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
― Winston Churchill

“Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”
― Flannery O'Connor

“The covers of this book are too far apart.”
― Ambrose Bierce

“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”
― Elbert Hubbard, Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Vol. 3: American Statesmen

“Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.”
― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

“They have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice.

(Frequently misquoted as "He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.")”
― William Penn

“Often those that criticise others reveal what he himself lacks.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“It's easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It's a lot more difficult to perform one.”
― Chuck Palahniuk