Diary of a Dead Man on Leave Quotes

“Nothing tears the heart like a glimpse of happiness.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“What life has become, as Andreas said. And the only answer I have to that—the only one I’ve ever had—is what life could be.
I have to admit: I’m no longer holding my breath.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“When I was about Walter’s age, I remember asking my father why one’s country should demand more loyalty than friends, family, or conscience, and seeing the look of surprise on his face when he found he lacked a convincing answer.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“While walking back down through the woods to the station, I felt, for a few minutes, an almost overwhelming sense of loss. With the late afternoon sun still pouring down through the trees and Anna’s blonde hair dancing on her shoulders in front of me, I needed all my discipline to keep from crying. Nothing tears the heart like a glimpse of happiness.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“...there was no shame in crying when something or someone was worth crying over.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“This, I think, is how political poison infects a whole culture—it enters the bloodstream through the cuts and bruises of personal disappointment and feeds on hearts wounded by feelings of inadequacy or rejection.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“And maybe one day people will accept each other for who they are and not which race they’re born to,” I said.
He gave me the classic Walter look, the one that says, “You may be the adult, but who do you think you’re kidding?”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“The government has verbal diarrhea- if there's a war, they'll end up talking the enemy to death.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“Why did you come back?” she asked. “You hate them as much as I do.”
There was no point denying it. “Because it’s home,” I said simply. It wasn’t true, but it could have been. Most people find it hard to abandon the country of their birth.
“For better or worse,” she murmured.

I was lying when I said I’d come back to Germany because it was home, but this house of theirs feels increasingly like one. I’ve lived in many places over the years, and some of them—the Hotel Lux in Moscow; sundry lodgings in Canton, Sofia, and Rio—have come to feel like somewhere I belonged. We all used to say that the party was our real home, but it isn’t. Those who work in the Comintern’s external sections spend most of their time as cuckoos in others’ nests.
I’m a cuckoo in this house, of course. One who feels more and more at home in his foreign nest. Maybe all cuckoos are prone to this delusion, but I should know better.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“We talked—mostly, he talked—about the war. He has no interest in why it had happened or why Germany had lost—his stock of anecdotes all seem to revolve around an essential disbelief that men could do such things to one another. And not just the cruel and violent things. In such conditions he finds man’s humanity to man even harder to credit.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“Listen for an hour, speak for a minute”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“Hitler understands that National Socialism needs to appear socialistic, even as he seeks to destroy everything in Germany that actually fits the description.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“who they are and not which”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“Days off are one of the great joys of an ordinary working life, perhaps”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“I’ve known a lot of political figures but never another one whose self-control seemed so fragile.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

“It is a shameful spectacle to see how the whole democratic world is oozing sympathy for the poor tormented Jewish people, but remains hard-hearted and obdurate when it comes to helping them.' More than a little rich when coming from the tormentor in chief, but hard to dispute.”
― David Downing, Diary of a Dead Man on Leave