Natalya

“In great hearts the cruelty of life gives birth to good.”
― Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate

“Good men and bad men alike are capable of weakness. The difference is simply that a bad man will be proud all his life of one good deed – while an honest man is hardly aware of his good acts, but remembers a single sin for years on end.”
― Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate

“Don't you remember how you once answered a question of mine? Me - I shall never forget your words. Those words of yours opened my eyes; they brought me the light of day. I asked you how the Germans could send Jewish children to die in the gas chambers. How, I asked, could they live with themselves after that? Was there really no judgement passed on them by man or God? And you said: Only one judgement is passed on the executioner - he ceases to be a human being. Through looking on his victim as less than human, he becomes his own executioner, he executes the human being inside himself. But the victim - no matter what the executioner does to kill him - remains a human being forever. Remember now?”
― Vasily Grossman, Forever Flowing

“Гессе считает, что все темное, бессознательное, неразборчивое и
хаотическое — это Азия. Наоборот, самосознание, культура, ответственность, ясное разделение дозволенного и запрещенного — это Европа. Короче, бессознательное — это Азия, зло. А все сознательное — Европа и благо. Гессе был наивным человеком прошлого столетия. Ему и в голову не приходило, что зло может быть абсолютно сознательным. И даже — принципиальным.”
― Сергей Довлатов, Собрание сочинений в 3-х томах. Том 3