Shruti Bhati

“What unites us universally is our emotions, our feelings in the face of experience, and not necessarily the actual experiences themselves.”
― Anaïs Nin, In Favor of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays

“The only question that matters is where one's real sympathies will lie when the pinch comes. The intellectuals who are so fond of balancing democracy against totalitarianism and ‘proving’ that one is as bad as the other are simply frivolous people who have never been shoved up against realities. They show the same shallow misunderstanding of Fascism now, when they are beginning to flirt with it, as a year or two ago, when they were squealing against it. The question is not, ‘Can you make out a debating-society “case” in favour of Hitler?’ The question is, ‘Do you genuinely accept that case? Are you willing to submit to Hitler’s rule? Do you want to see England conquered, or don’t you?’ It would be better to be sure on that point before frivolously siding with the enemy. For there is no such thing as neutrality in war; in practice one must help one side or the other.”
― George Orwell, Why I Write

“To forbid the thought of escape, even that slightest butterfly thought of escape, was to murder one's humanity.”
― Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys

“It's strange,' he said, 'that you always changed everything and I changed nothing and yet we've both ended up in the same place.”
― Rachel Cusk, Transit