“there is no collective guilt,...guilt is individual, like salvation." [p.28]”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“To understand everything is to forgive everything.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“People had Jewish friends, good friends; Jewish employers, good employers; Jewish employees, hard workers. They obeyed the laws, they didn’t hurt anyone. And here was Hitler saying they were to blame for everything. ‘So when the vans came and took them away, people didn’t do anything. They stayed out of the way, they kept quiet. They even got to believing the voice that shouted the loudest. Because that’s the way people are, particularly the Germans. We’re a very obedient people. It’s our greatest strength and our greatest weakness. It enables us to build an economic miracle while the British are on strike, and it enables us to follow a man like Hitler into a great big mass grave.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“When one can understand the people, their gullibility and their fear, their greed and their lust for power, their ignorance and their docility to the man who shouts the loudest, one can forgive.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“the SS had made the two initials of its name, and the twin-lightning symbol of its standard, synonymous with inhumanity in a way that no other organisation before or since has been able to do.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“one can forgive even what they did. But one can never forget.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“There are some men whose crimes surpass comprehension and therefore forgiveness, and here is the real failure. For they are still among us,”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“I understand so far,’ said Miller. ‘But why a passport? Why not a driving licence, or an ID card?’ ‘Because shortly after the founding of the republic the German authorities realised there must be hundreds or thousands wandering about under false names. There was a need for one document that was so well researched that it could act as the yardstick for all the others. They hit on the passport. Before you get a passport in Germany, you have to produce the birth certificate, several references and a host of other documentation. These are thoroughly checked before the passport is issued. ‘By contrast, once you have a passport, you can get anything else on the strength of it. Such is bureaucracy. The production of the passport convinces the civil servant that, since previous bureaucrats must have checked out the passport holder thoroughly, no further checking is necessary. With a new passport, Roschmann could quickly build up the rest of the identity – driving licence, bank accounts, credit cards. The passport is the open sesame to every other piece of necessary documentation in present-day Germany.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“It is always tempting to wonder what would have happened if … or if not. Usually it is a futile exercise, for what might have been is the greatest of all the mysteries.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“I have spent twenty years trying to understand the look in her eyes. Was it love or hatred, contempt or pity, bewilderment or understanding? I shall never know.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“there was no such thing as collective guilt. But we Germans have been told for twenty years that we are all guilty. Do you believe that?”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“The specific murderers of the SS therefore hide even today behind the collective guilt theory.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“But the words did not come. They never do, when one needs them.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
“To understand everything is to forgive everything.’ When one can understand the people, their gullibility and their fear, their greed and their lust for power, their ignorance and their docility to the man who shouts the loudest, one can forgive. Yes, one can forgive even what they did. But one can never forget. There”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Odessa File
Frederick Forsyth
Born place: in Ashford, Kent, England, The United Kingdom
Born date August 25, 1938
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“You’re a smart girl. You’re going to replay everything we’ve done, and you’re going to reach the same conclusion I have.” He moved in close, leaning down to kiss my jawline and lower.
“And wh- what conclusion is that?” When had he discovered how sensitive my neck was? With one spot in particular. . .
He pressed his lips directly to my pulse point, making my knees weak. “Eto ne izbezhno dlya nas.” You and I are inevitable.”
― Kresley Cole, quote from The Professional: Part 2
“You get to thinking that maybe the diving line shouldn't be animals and people but good and bad.”
― Deb Caletti, quote from The Nature of Jade
“He got in my face and started jabbing a finger into my chest. “Then we don’t want your help, if this is what it looks like. First you bring a human among us, and now this? I don’t like your kind, and I’m not the only one. They can’t be trusted. You can’t be trusted.” He drew the last word out, practically hissing it. That’s our Eric. What a charmer. Ladies, try not to swoon.”
― Lish McBride, quote from Necromancing the Stone
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It is better to be disliked for being who you are than to be loved for who you are not.”
― Sherry Argov, quote from Why Men Marry Bitches: A Woman's Guide to Winning Her Man's Heart
“She breathes a soft sigh, and in the tried and true ways of time immemorial, she welcomes me home.”
― Magda Alexander, quote from Storm Ravaged
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