Annie

“Parlammo dei vari reparti che c’erano in giro. Simeone pareva sollecito e conciliante.
«C’è posto anche per i badogliani» disse a un certo punto.
«Il posto c’è» dissi io; «ma dove sono i badogliani?»
«No» disse lui. «I badogliani che dico io siete voi.»
«Tanti saluti» disse Enrico: «firmato Badoglio»; e si avviò con Dante per tornare al campo. L’uomo disse che doveva andare anche lui per le sue strade, ma io gli dissi: «Aspetta un momento», e mi misi a polemizzare con una certa foga.
«Stammi bene a sentire» gli dissi. «Noi non siamo badogliani, anzi siamo nemici personali di Badoglio. Badoglio è una carogna.»
Gli spiegai ben bene le mie vedute sul maresciallo e sui suoi colleghi, inoltre sul Re Imperatore e sul Principe di Piemonte; aggiunsi un appendice sui principini. «Dunque,» conclusi «se voi mettete fuori la chiacchiera che noi siamo badogliani, noi diremo che voi siete troskisti. Lo sai chi era Trotzki?»
«Era una carogna» disse Simeone.
«Sbagliato» dissi. «Era il creatore dell’Armata Rossa, il più bravo dei compagni di Lenin; era bravo più o meno come Lenin, e ancora più brillante.»
«Non sarete mica troskisti?» disse Simeone.
«Ma sì» dissi; «l’ala troskista dei badogliani.»
«Dimmelo tu cosa siete» disse lui; io fui tentato di dirgli: deviazionisti crociani di sinistra, ma poi gli dissi brevemente che eravamo studenti, e con chi eravamo lì, e perché.”
― Luigi Meneghello, I piccoli maestri

“I’m afraid I am hopelessly, furiously envious of all those who will continue to live when I am dead. I am equally embarrassed and terrified by the thought. I try to deny it, but it recurs with increasing frequency the older I get.”
― Henning Mankell, After the Fire

“The path to ignorance is wide.
The path to shallowness is smooth.
The path to understanding is bumpy.
The path to wisdom is narrow.
The path to ignorance is steep.

The path to vice is wide.
The path to pleasure is smooth.
The path to integrity is bumpy.
The path to innocence is narrow.
The path to paradise is steep.

The path to fear is wide.
The path to assurance is smooth.
The path to hope is bumpy.
The path to valor is narrow.
The path to faith is steep.

The path to sorrow is wide.
The path to desire is smooth.
The path to patience is bumpy.
The path to gratitude is narrow.
The path to humility is steep.

The path to strife is wide.
The path to indifference is smooth.
The path to peace is bumpy.
The path to joy is narrow.
The path to harmony is steep.

The path to error is wide.
The path to delusion is smooth.
The path to discovery is bumpy.
The path to truth is narrow.
The path to certainty is steep.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

“remembered him coming home after long shifts and immediately sitting down at the kitchen table, forcing my mother to listen to his complaints about all his difficult colleagues and the maître d’s, not to mention the diners he had to put up with. I never heard him accept responsibility for any tricky situation that had arisen; it was always the other person who had been in the wrong. When I was a child, I thought my father was an amazing man who never made any mistakes, but as time went on I realised that of course he was simply blaming someone else. That was also why he burdened himself with what sometimes seemed like a bottomless sorrow over a life that had turned out to be a failure.”
― Henning Mankell, After the Fire