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“I have seen that it is not man who is impotent in the struggle against evil, but the power of evil that is impotent in the struggle against man. The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness, is the secret of its immortality. It can never by conquered. The more stupid, the more senseless, the more helpless it may seem, the vaster it is. Evil is impotent before it. The prophets, religious teachers, reformers, social and political leaders are impotent before it. This dumb, blind love is man’s meaning. Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil, struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness. But if what is human in human beings has not been destroyed even now, then evil will never conquer.”
― Life and Fate
― Life and Fate
“I make mistakes. That's what I do. I
speak without thinking, I act without
knowing. I drink so much that I can
barely walk...I'm a fantastic lover
though, and an amazing friend. God
knows I mean well.”
―
speak without thinking, I act without
knowing. I drink so much that I can
barely walk...I'm a fantastic lover
though, and an amazing friend. God
knows I mean well.”
―
“I don't believe in your "Good". I believe in human kindness.”
― Life and Fate
― Life and Fate
“Ivan tells Anna: "I used to imagine that being embraced by a woman . . . as something so wonderful that it would make me forget everthing . . . [But] happiness, it turns out, will be to share with you the burden I can't share with anyone else.”
― Everything Flows
― Everything Flows
“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?”
― Forever Flowing
― Forever Flowing
Robert’s 2025 Year in Books
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