Tamara > Tamara's Quotes

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
― Oscar Wilde

“Despite the madness of war, we lived for a world that would be different. For a better world to come when all this is over. And perhaps even our being here is a step towards that world. Do you really think that, without the hope that such a world is possible, that the rights of man will be restored again, we could stand the concentration camp even for one day? It is that very hope that makes people go without a murmur to the gas chambers, keeps them from risking a revolt, paralyses them into numb inactivity. It is hope that breaks down family ties, makes mothers renounce their children, or wives sell their bodies for bread, or husbands kill. It is hope that compels man to hold on to one more day of life, because that day may be the day of liberation. Ah, and not even the hope for a different, better world, but simply for life, a life of peace and rest. Never before in the history of mankind has hope been stronger than man, but never also has it done so much harm as it has in the war, in this concentration camp. We were never taught how to give up hope, and this is why today we perish in gas chambers.”
― Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

“Books do furnish a room.”
― Anthony Powell, Dance to the Music of Time

“To zabawne, że próbując uporać się z czasem, zazwyczaj wracamy do minionego, do tego, co ukształtowane, do gotowej formy. Wyobraźnia nie potrafi niczego wymyślić. Zawieszona w próżni spada jak kamień albo zajmuje się sobą, co koniec końców wychodzi na jedno.”
― Andrzej Stasiuk

“It seems that what I really want is a drug that will increase my consciousness of others, not myself.”
― Jerzy Kosinski, The Painted Bird

“Is there anything more frightening than people?”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

“It's amazing how people can sound like retards when they're talking to their girlfriend, especially if they really love her a lot. Because when you're just fucking someone you make a point of keeping your cool, but when you're really in love - it can sound pretty repulsive.”
― Etgar Keret, The Nimrod Flipout