Wallenberg Quotes

“Bureaucrats do not, as a whole, like to make decisions. Decisions require a degree of courage and responsibility, qualities in short supply among public servants on both sides of the Great Divide.”
― Kati Marton, Wallenberg: The Incredible True Story of the Man Who Saved Thousands of Jews

“Cities tend to reflect the character of their residents. Budapest is a dramatic, theatrical kind of place. More than anything else it resembles a stage set.”
― Kati Marton, Wallenberg: Missing Hero

“The Soviet state, like any other giant enterprise, is, above all, a bureaucracy. Bureaucrats do not, as a whole, like to make decisions. Decisions require a degree of courage and responsibility, qualities in short supply among public servants on both sides of the Great Divide.”
― Kati Marton, Wallenberg: Missing Hero

“The riddle that was making the rounds was: “What is the difference between Hitler and Chamberlain? Answer: Chamberlain takes his weekend in the country. Hitler takes his country in the weekend.”
― Kati Marton, Wallenberg: Missing Hero

“Buda, perched on steep hills, her sprawling Royal Palace, and her Citadel carved into jagged cliffs which plunge into the river, craves the attention of the visitor arriving down the Danube from Vienna. Pest, on the flat plain that is the continuation of the Puszta, is all business, commerce and intellect, all conversation and art. Fantastic amalgams of Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine straining to find their Magyar soul face the boulevards, which are unabashed imitations of both Paris and Vienna. The Parliament, ostentatiously outdoing Westminster, spire for spire, Gothic arch for Gothic arch, faces the dirty, gray Danube, the heart of the city.”
― Kati Marton, Wallenberg: Missing Hero

“In the Gulag Archipelago there are no heroes or villains. No prince or pauper. It is the most democratic of all societies. Everyone is an inmate.”
― Kati Marton, Wallenberg: The Incredible True Story of the Man Who Saved Thousands of Jews