New Watch

When there are strange things going on all around, every coincidence should be considered very carefully.

As she conceived it, tea had to be as black as tar and as strong as a sinner's conscience. Or the other way around. As black as that conscience and as strong as tar. And sweet.

Isn’t that always the way! Just when you really want to know if you did the right thing or not. But no one will ever answer that question for you.

When leaders betray their people and the people don’t overthrow them, it’s not just the leaders who should be blamed.

The past is not important. The present is inconsequential. The future is indeterminate. He

You’re a big boy, you ought to understand that punctual transport, public order and safe streets, polite people and good medical services are all the achievements of dictatorship.

Drinking beer in a children’s playground is an old Soviet tradition.

The laws of nature are not intelligent,’ I replied. ‘The force of gravity is not intelligent. Electricity is not intelligent. A savage looking at a television might assume that it’s a sapient being, but we—’ ‘A sapient being? Looking at a television these days, the only possible assumption is that it’s a loud-mouthed, hysterical madman suffering from progressive mental debility,’ Anna Tikhonovna said derisively.

THERE’S A SIMPLE way to understand what a blind man feels in this life: close your eyes and try to do something. Something ordinary, not difficult. Something you normally do anyway ‘without looking’ – take a spoon out of a drawer in a table, light a cigarette, put a CD in a music centre. It only takes five minutes at the most to understand everything and know that you’ll never forget it.

We are Others We serve different powers But in the Twilight there is no difference between the absence of darkness and the absence of light Our struggle is capable of destroying the world We conclude the Great Treaty of truce Each side shall live according to its own laws Each side shall have its own right We limit our rights and our laws We are Others We create the Night Watch So that the forces of Light might monitor the forces of Darkness We are Others We create the Day Watch So that the forces of Darkness might monitor the forces of Light Time will decide for us

And no doubt you’re quite happy for her to slave away at the cooker, wash the nappies, get no sleep for nights on end

What has to happen to us before we understand that we have to take good care of everything we have, of every tree in our boundless forests, every little stream that isn’t even marked on the maps, every village with only five households, every soldier drafted into the army, every man in the street toiling under his dreary daily burden? What will it take to change us?

When leaders betray their people and the people don't overthrow them, it's not just the leaders who should be blamed.

The way people behave depends on the basic moral tests and norms in a society. Naturally, the Khmer Rouge, Al-Qaeda terrorists, respectable middle-class Europeans, and, say, members of the Komosol in the 1930's, would behave quite differently in identical situations. But that wouldn't change the essential point. The ration of altruists and egoists, even among Benedictine monks and members of the Gestapo, is the same. It's just that their altruism and egotism are expressed differently.

And that, Pavel, is why you shouldn't use magic for every tiny little thing. Where you can put your trust in science, that's what you should do.

the whole problem is that the regime is a reflection of society. Crooked and grotesque, but still a reflection. And as long as most of the citizens of a country—if they happened to gain power—would steal and regard themselves as better than other people, no remoralization of the ruling circles will change anything. Those politicians who acquire a conscience will leave. And new ones without consciences will take their places. It’s people who have to change, society—

I’m sorry,” I said. I felt unbearably ashamed. “I’m sorry.” “What for?” “For being a blind, self-satisfied ass. For not seeing . . .

Fuck your fucking mother!' Gesar howled, twisting the wheel round. In a moment of genuine terror only the Russian language could convey the true depths of his feelings. It made me feel proud of our great Russian culture!

at home the very walls lend you strength,