Irina Ratushinskaya quotes
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“Russian literature saved my soul. When I was a young girl in school and I asked what is good and what is evil, no one in that corrupt system could show me.”
-- Irina Ratushinskaya -
“All this [Soviet labor camp for political prisoners] brings about one marked change in your physical appearance; by the end of your first year, you will have what are known as 'zek's eyes.' The look in a zek's eyes is impossible to describe, but once encountered, it is never forgotten. When you emerge, your friends, embracing you, will exclaim: 'Your eyes! Your eyes have changed!' And not one of your tormentors will be able to bear your scrutiny. They will turn away from it, like beaten dogs.”
-- Irina Ratushinskaya -
“you must not, under any circumstances, allow yourself to hate. Not because your tormentors have not earned it. But if you allow hatred to take root, it would flourish and spread during your years in the camps, driving out everything else, and ultimately corrode and warp your soul. You will no longer be yourself, your identity will be destroyed, all that will remain will be a hysterical, maddened and bedevilled husk of the human being that once was.”
-- Irina Ratushinskaya -
“The calendar? A mere convention ...”
-- Irina Ratushinskaya -
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Source : A. J. Liebling (2016). “Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris”, p.59, North Point Press
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“It's Friday and I'm ready to swing. Pick up my girls and hit the party scene.”
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“Yeah, I'd like to get the girl and at least make it through the film.”
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Source : "The Essays of A. J. Muste (Pacifism and Class War)". Book edited by Nat Hentoff, 1967.
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Source : Abba Eban (1969). “My people: the story of the Jews”, George Weidenfeld & Nicholson
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