The artist cannot set himself political aims, the aims of changing a political regime; it may come as a by-product of it, but to fight against untruth and falsehood, to fight against myths, or to fight against an ideology which is hostile to mankind, to fight for our memory, for our memory of what things were like—that is the task of the artist. A people which no longer remembers has lost its history and its soul.
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Dumbledore on Naming
Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.
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Dostoyevsky on the Love of Humanity
As soon as anyone is near me, his personality disturbs me and restricts my freedom. In twenty four hours I begin to hate the best of men: one because he's too long over his dinner, another because he has a cold and keeps on blowing his nose. I become hostile to people the moment they come close to me. But it has always happened that the more I hate men individually, the more I love humanity.
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Tom Stoppard on Opportunity
There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said — no. But somehow we missed it.
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Norman Maclean on Spots of Time
Poets talk about 'spots of time,' but it is really fishermen who experience eternity compressed into a moment. No one can tell what a spot of time is until suddenly the whole world is a fish and the fish is gone.