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“Yet although this particular delusion, at least in the form of a large-scale public enterprise, has vanished from the western world, the urge to hunt 'witches' has done nothing of the kind. It has been revived on a colossal scale by replacing the medieval idea of malefic witchcraft by pseudo-scientific concepts like 'race' and 'nationality,' and by substituting for theological dissension, a whole complex of warring ideologies. Accordingly, the story of 1692 is of far more than antiquarian interest: it is an allegory of our times. One would like to believe that leaders of the modern world can in the end deal with delusion as sanely and courageously as the men of old Massachusetts dealt with theirs.”
― Marion L. Starkey, The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry Into the Salem Witch Trials

“Listening to the voices of the Ravensbruck women I looked for clues about why this group survived. I could almost hear Maria Bielicka banging her fists on the table as she tried to explain why survival was in the blood of every Polish woman, 'passed on from mother to daughter. Jeannie Roussau… survived because she refused not to... she refused to make German arms... she refused to die on the freezing airfield and escaped back to the man camp, hiding in a typhus truck. When Bernadotte arrived, Jeannie was locked in the Strafblock but refused to be left behind, and persuaded the Blockova to let her out. 'You can refuse what is happening. Or go along with it. I was in the refusal camp,' she said. I asked her how she had the courage. 'I don't know. I was young. I thought if I do it, it will work. You simply cannot accept some things. Certain things.”
― Sarah Helm, Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women

“For those who have suffered unjustly, justice alone is not enough. They want the guilty to suffer unjustly too. Only this will they understand as justice.”
― Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman, Penguin 1986 Edition

“If all the dew were diamonds...we would be very rich. We would be drunk all our lives.”
― John Steinbeck