James Kaimakamis

“They had already put together an entire committee to choose the best targets, but it was actually von Neumann who convinced them that they shouldn’t detonate the devices at ground level, but higher up in the atmosphere, since that way the blast wave would cause incomparably larger damage. He even calculated the optimal height himself—six hundred meters, about two thousand feet. And that is exactly how high our bombs were when they exploded above the roofs of those quaint wooden houses in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
― Benjamín Labatut, The MANIAC

“Looking at the waves scudding outwards and getting lost on the horizon, he could not help but recall the words of his mentor, the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who had once told him that a part of eternity lies in reach of those capable of staring, unblinking, at the sea’s deranging expanses.”
― Benjamín Labatut, When We Cease to Understand the World

“Η συγχώρεση δεν είναι ποτέ μια άμεση αντίδραση στην προδοσία. Απαιτεί χρόνο, όπως κάθε εργασία του πένθους.”
― Massimo Recalcati, Mantieni il bacio: Lezioni brevi sull'amore

“Αν για τον Πλάτωνα ο έρωτας θα έπρεπε να γιατρεύει την πληγή της διχοτόμησης που επέβαλε ο Ζευς, για τον αντιπλατωνισμό του Ροθ ο έρωτας δεν ενοποιεί καθόλου, αλλά διαιρεί, κομματιάζει, ανοίγει στα δύο. Διαιρεί γιατί εκθέτει την τρωτότητά μας φανερώνοντας τον αγιάτρευτο χαρακτήρα της έλλειψής μας.”
― Massimo Recalcati, Mantieni il bacio: Lezioni brevi sull'amore