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You have a Destiny. Remember that Jesus washed the feet of Mary Magdalene, and welcomed the lepers to his side, and stood against the Pharisees and the powerful. The meek shall inherit the earth, child, and you are one of the meek.
Vodka was one of the three things the Soviet Union made that were suitable for export, not counting political exiles; the other two were weapons and novels. Weapons I professionally admired, but vodka and novels I loved. A nineteenth-century Russian novel and vodka accompanied each other perfectly. Reading a novel while one sipped vodka legitimized the drink, while the drink made the novel seem much shorter than it truly was.
To them he’s one of us, and to us he’s one of them. Neither one thing nor another.
Disarming an idealist was easy. One only needed to ask why the idealist was not on the front line of the particular battle he had chosen.
The lack of an answer mattered not; indeed, the lack of an answer was part of the power
All anyone ever wants is to be recognized and remembered.
What am I dying for? he cried back. I’m dying because this world I’m living in isn’t worth dying for! If something is worth dying for, then you’ve got a reason to live.
If I was unhappy, it would reflect badly on me, for Americans saw unhappiness as a moral failure and thought crime.
Americans on the average do not trust intellectuals, but they are cowed by power and stunned by celebrity.
After a few million have died, what’s a few million more?
It would be better if every Sunday before the priest talks a warrior gets up and tells people who he’s killed on their behalf.
