Miloš

“It is the continual and stupendous dead pressure of this inhuman upon the living human under which the modern world is groaning. Not merely the subject races, but you who live under the delusion that you are free, are every day sacrificing your freedom and humanity to this fetich of nationalism, living in the dense poisonous atmosphere of world-wide suspicion and greed and panic.

I have seen in Japan the voluntary submission of the whole people to the trimming of their minds and clipping of their freedom by their government, which through various educational agencies regulates their thoughts, manufactures their feelings, becomes suspiciously watchful when they show signs of inclining toward the spiritual, leading them through a narrow path not toward what is true but what is necessary for the complete welding of them into one uniform mass according to its own recipe. The people accept this all-pervading mental slavery with cheerfulness and pride because of their nervous desire to turn themselves into a machine of power, called the Nation, and emulate other machines in their collective worldliness.”
― Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism

“Was that what it was really like to be alive? The feeling of darkness dragging you forward?

How could they live with it? And yet they did, and even seemed to find enjoyment in it, when surely the only sensible course would be to despair. Amazing. To feel you were a tiny living thing, sandwiched between two cliffs of darkness. How could they stand to be alive?

Obviously it was something you had to be born to.”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

“Novski se borio da u svojoj smrti, da u svom padu, sačuva dostojanstvo ne samo svog lika nego i lika revolucionara uopšte, a Fedjukin je nastojao u svom traganju za fikcijom i za uslovnostima da sačuva
strogost i doslednost revolucionarne pravde i onih koji tu pravdu dele; jer bolje je da strada takozvana istina jednog jedinog čoveka, jednog sićušnog organizma, nego da se zbog njega dovedu u pitanje viši principi i interesi. I ako se tokom kasnijeg razvoja istrage Fedjukin ustremljivao na svoje tvrdoglave žrtve, to dakle nije bio hir neurotična čoveka i kokainiste, kako neki veruju, nego borba za sopstvena uverenja koja je, kao i žrtva, smatrao nesebičnim, neprikosnovenim i svetim. Ono što je izazivalo njegov bes i njegovu lojalnu mržnju, to bejaše upravo ta bolećiva sebičnost optuženih, njihova patološka potreba da dokažu svoju nevinost, svoju sopstvenu malu istinu, to neurotično vrćenje u krugu takozvanih činjenica obuhvaćenih merdijanima svoje tvrde lobanje, a da ta njihova slepa istina nije u stanju da se stavi u sistem jedne više vrednosti, jedne više pravde, koja traži da joj se prinesu žrtve i koja ne vodi i ne sme da vodi računa o ljudskim slabostima.”
― Danilo Kiš, A Tomb for Boris Davidovich

“You will see, as time goes by", said Ibn Rushd, "that in the end it will be religion that will make men turn away from God. The godly are God's worst advocates.”
― Salman Rushdie, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights