Ani

“European opulence is literally a scandal for it was built on the backs of slaves, it fed on the blood of slaves, and owes its very existence to the soil and subsoil of the underdeveloped world. Europe's well-being and progress were built with the sweat and corpses of blacks, Arabs, Indians, and Asians. This we are determined never to forget.”
― Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

“Spring was at hand. " I believe I might
recover," I thought, "if I could get out of this shell into the light of day, into the fields and woods." It was so long
since I had seen them. I remember, too, it came into my mind how nice it would be if by some magic, some
enchantment, I could forget everything that had happened in the last few years; forget everything, refresh my
mind, and begin again with new energy. In those days, I still dreamed of that and hoped for a renewal of life.
"Better go into an asylum," I thought, "to get one's brain turned upside down and rearranged anew, and then be
cured again.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Insulted and Humiliated

“I believed a person could consider himself a human being as long as he felt totally prepared to kill himself, to interfere in his own biography. It was this awareness that gave me the will to live. I checked myself — frequently — and felt I had the strength to die, and thus remained alive.”
― Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Tales

“I love the sun, especially the setting March sun in St Petersburg on a clear frosty evening. The whole street is suddenly bathed in brilliant light. All the houses glow. For a time, the grey, yellow and dull green facades lose their drabness; there's a sense of euphoria, of awakening, as though someone had poked you in the ribs. A new vista, new ideas... marvellous what a single ray of sunshine can do to a man's soul!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Insulted and Humiliated