“As we pass one step, and as we recognize it as being behind us, the next one already rises up before us. By the time we learn everything, we slowly come to understand it. And while you come to understand everything gradually, you don't remain idle at any moment: you are already attending to your new business; you live, you act, you move, you fulfill the new requirements of every new step of development. If, on the other hand, there were no schedule, no gradual enlightenment, if all the knowledge descended on you at once right there in one spot, then it's possible neither your brains nor your heart could bear it.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“...I would like to live a little bit longer in this beautiful concentration camp.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“Мога да заявя, че няма по-мъчително, по-разочароващо нещо от това ден след ден да следиш, ден след ден да откриваш какво е унищожено в тебе.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“It was not very likely, of course, but then all kinds of things are possible, after all.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“Mais n'exagérons rien, puisque c'est là le problème: je suis ici et je sais bien que j'accepte tous les arguments, au prix de pouvoir vivre”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“Ήταν εκείνη η συγκεκριμένη ώρα, ακόμα και τώρα, ακόμα κι εδώ την αναγνώριζα, ώρα που αγαπούσα περισσότερο απ' όλες στο στρατόπεδο και τότε με τύλιξε ένα έντονο, οδυνηρό, μάταιο συναίσθημα: νοσταλγία”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“I already know there will be happiness. For even there, next to the chimneys, in the intervals between the torments, there was something that resembled happiness. Everyone asks only about the hardships and the “atrocities,” whereas for me perhaps it is that experience which will remain the most memorable. Yes, the next time I am asked, I ought to speak about that, the happiness of the concentration camps.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“И докато оглеждах спокойния предзалезен площад насред разбитата, но пълна с хиляди обещания улица, почувствах как расте, как се надига готовността ми: да продължа тоя непродължим живот. Няма на света безумие, което да не сме в състояние да преживеем естествено и знам, че по пътя ми вече ме дебне щастието, като неизбежен капан. Та нали още там, край комините, в паузите на страданията съществуваше нещо, което можеше да се оприличи на щастие. Всеки пита само за превратностите, за "ужасите": макар че за мен навярно именно онова преживяване е останало най-паметно. Да, това трябва да им разкажа следващия път, ако ме попитат.
Ако ме попитат. И ако самият аз не забравя.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“Despite all deliberation, sense, insight, and sober reason, I could not fail to recognize within myself the furtive and yet—ashamed as it might be, so to say, of its irrationality—increasingly insistent voice of some muffled craving of sorts: I would like to live a little bit longer in this beautiful concentration camp.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
Imre Kertész
Born place: in Budapest, Hungary
Born date November 9, 1929
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“The most seductive sin, I suppose, is passing judgment on others, and the next must be acting out of one's anger when one has the power to hurt the ones who wound us.”
― Nell Gavin, quote from Threads: The Reincarnation of Anne Boleyn
“Okay," I said slowly, "but what the hell would you mate a horse with to get a unicorn, because I don't see horses and narwhales doing the dirty boogie.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from The Dragon Factory
“...I had arrived at an understanding of faith that had far more to do with trust than with certainty. I trusted God to be God even if I could not say who God was for sure. I trusted God to sustain the world although I could not say for sure how that happened. I trusted God to hold me and those I loved, in life and in death, without giving me one shred of conclusive evidence that it was so.”
― Barbara Brown Taylor, quote from Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
“Ecco dove accadde. Lei è stata qui. Questi leoni di pietra, ora senza testa, l'hanno fissata. Questa fortezza, una volta inespugnabile, cumulo di pietre ora, fu l'ultima cosa che vide. Un nemico da tempo dimenticato e i secoli, sole, pioggia, vento, l'hanno spianata. Immutato il cielo, un blocco d'azzurro intenso, alto, distante. Vicine, ogg come ieri, le mura ciclopiche che orientano il cammino: verso la porta dal cui fondo non fiotta più sangue. Nelle tenebre. Nel macello. E sola.
Con questo racconto vado nella morte.
Termino qui, impotente, e niente, niente di quello che avrei potuto fare o non fare, volere o pensare, mi avrebbe condotto a una meta diversa. Più profondamente di ogni altro moto dell'animo, più profondamente persino della mia paura, mi impregna, mi corrode, mi avvelena l'indifferenza dei celesti verso noi terreni. Naufragata l'audace impresa di opporre il nostro debole calore alla loro gelidità.”
― Christa Wolf, quote from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays
“International politics is not unlike the jungle: smaller and weaker animals require acute intelligence, sensitive antennae, and nimbleness of footing to assure their own self-preservation; the strong—such as elephants—need pay less attention to ambient conditions and can often do as they wish, and others will get out of the way.”
― Graham E. Fuller, quote from A World Without Islam
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