Dorin

“Să nu vă credeţi cumva prietenii când vă cer să fiţi sincer cu ei. Nu speră decât că le veţi întări impresia bună pe care o au despre e însişi, oferindu-le o certitudine în plus, pe care o vor desprinde din promisiunea de sinceritate. Cum să fie sinceritatea o condiţie a prieteniei? Preferinţa pentru adevărul spus cu orice preţ e o pasiune care nu cruţă nimic şi căreia nimic nu îi rezistă. E un viciu, ceva comod câteodată ori egoist. Dacă sunteţi în situaţia asta, nu staţi pe gânduri: promiteţi că vei spune adevărul şi minţiţi cât de bine se poate. Veţi răspunde astfel dorinţei lor adânci şi le veţi demonstra îndoit afecţiunea pe care le-o purtaţi.”
― Albert Camus, La chute

“Silence is also a form of speaking. They’re exactly alike. It’s a basic component of language. We’re always selecting what we say and what we don’t. Why do we say one thing and not the other? And we do this instinctively, too, because no matter what we’re talking about, there’s more that doesn’t get said than does. And this isn’t always to hide things—it’s simply part of an instinctive selection in our speech. This selection varies from one person to the next, so that no matter how many people describe the same thing, the descriptions are different, the point of view is different. And even if there is a similar viewpoint, people make different choices as to what is said or not said. This was very clear to me, coming from the village, since the people there never said more than they absolutely needed to. When I was fifteen and went to the city, I was amazed at how much people talked and how much of that talk was pointless. And how much people talked about themselves—that was totally alien to me.
For me, silence had always been another form of communication. After all, you can tell so much just by looking at a person. At home we always knew about each other even if we didn’t talk about ourselves all the time. I encountered a lot of silence elsewhere as well. There was the silence that was self-imposed, because you could never say what you really thought.”
― Herta Müller

“When we see the Earth from space, we see ourselves as a whole. We see the unity, and not the divisions. It is such a simple image with a compelling message; one planet, one human race.”
― Stephen Hawking, Brief Answers to the Big Questions

“Somebody betrayed us... The Germans learned the location of our partisan troop. They surrounded the forest from all sides. We were hiding in the deep woods, hiding in the swamps where the torturers did not go [...] A radio operator was with us. She gave birth recently. The baby was hungry... Wanting the breast... But the mother is starving, she has no milk, and the baby is crying. The Germans are nearby... With dogs... If the dogs hear the baby, we're all dead. All of us - thirty people... Do you understand? We make a decision... Nobody dares to tell her the commader's order, but the mother guesses it herself. She puts the bundle with the baby into the water and holds it there for a long time... The baby does not cry... Not a sound... And we cannot lift our eyes. We cannot look at the mother or at each other”
― Svetlana Alexievich, War's Unwomanly Face