Ashley Roeder

“The men knew that their own conduct was turning brutal. “I have to say that the war has changed me a lot,” Aronov wrote. “War does not make people tender. On the contrary, it makes them reserved, rather coarse, and very cruel. That’s a fact.”4”
― Catherine Merridale, Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939–1945

“The only rule that ever made sense to me I learned from a history, not an economics, professor at Wharton. "Fear," he used to say, "fear is the most valuable commodity in the universe." That blew me away. "Turn on the TV," he'd say. "What are you seeing? People selling their products? No. People selling the fear of you having to live without their products." Fuckin' A, was he right. Fear of aging, fear of loneliness, fear of poverty, fear of failure. Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal. Fear sells.”
― Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

“Because," said the swallow man. "A friend is not someone to whom you give the things you need when the world is at war. A friend is someone to whom you give the things that you need when the world is at peace.”
― Gavriel Savit, Anna and the Swallow Man

“The world as it exists is a very, very dangerous place.”
― Gavriel Savit, Anna and the Swallow Man