Irina Ratushinskaya famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Russian literature saved my soul.Â 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

#Girl #School #Evil
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

#Dog #Eye #Years
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

#Being Yourself #Hate #Years
The calendar? A mere convention ...
-- Irina Ratushinskaya

#Time #Calendars #Conventions

I met a keen observer who gave me a tip: 'If you run across a restaurant where you often see priests eating with priests, or sporting girls with sporting girls, you may be confident that it is good. Those are two classes of people who like to eat well and get their money's worth.'
It's Friday and I'm ready to swing. Pick up my girls and hit the party scene.
Yeah, I'd like to get the girl and at least make it through the film.
Iâ€™m sick of girls who donâ€™t know how to high-five,
Then the fear all humans felt when met with Deathâ€™s gaze came over his face. Thatâ€™s right buddy, Iâ€™m Death, now move away from my girl.
Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. . . . Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense." --Sam Seaborne, West Wing
There is a certain indolence in us, a wish not to be disturbed, which tempts us to think that when things are quiet, all is well. Subconsciously, we tend to give the preference to 'social peace,' though it be only apparent, because our lives and possessions seem then secure. Actually, human beings acquiesce too easily in evil conditions; they rebel far too little and too seldom. There is nothing noble about acquiescence in a cramped life or mere submission to superior force.
The beneficial effect of state intervention, especially in the form of legislation, is direct, immediate, and so to speak, visible, while its evil effects are gradual and indirect and lay out of sight ... Hence the majority of mankind must almost of necessity look with undue favor upon governmental intervention.
It [idolatry] nourishes mans ambition to domineer over his fellow man. Idolatry, therefore, is the source of all social and moral evil in the world.
I love the saliheen (pious people) even though Iâ€™m not one of them, and I hate the taliheen (evil people) even though I (may be) worse than them.

Irina Ratushinskaya famous quotes

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