XOX

“We share Hitler's planet and several of his preoccupations; we have changed less than we think. We like our living space, we fantasize about destroying governments, we denigrate science, we dream of catastrophe. If we think we are victims of some planetary conspiracy, we edge towards Hitler. If we believe that the Holocaust was a result of the inherent characteristics of Jews, Germans, Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, or anyone else, then we are moving in Hitler's world.”
― Timothy Snyder, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

“In the darkest of times and places, a few people rescue Jews for what seems like no earthly reason. These tended to be people who in normal times might seem to take ethical and social norms a bit too literally, and whose fidelity to their expressed principles survived the end of the institutions that supported and defended them.
If these rescuers had anything in common beyond that, it was self-knowledge. When you know yourself there is little to say. This is worth brooding upon as we consider how we, who know ourselves so poorly and have so much to say about ourselves, will respond to the challenges to come.”
― Timothy Snyder, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

“Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation”
― Carlo M. Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

“Understanding the Holocaust is our chance, perhaps our last one, to preserve humanity.”
― Timothy Snyder, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning