Totalitarism Quotes

“The most sacred thing is to be able to shut your own door.”
― G. K. Chesterton

“Orwell's 1984 [...] is political thought disguised as a novel; the thinking is certainly lucid and correct, but it is distorted by its guise as a novel, which renders it imprecise and vague. [...] the situations and the characters are as flat as a poster.

The pernicious influence of Orwell's novel resides in its implacable reduction of a reality to its political dimension alone, and in its reduction of that dimension to what is exemplarily negative about it. I refuse to forgive this reduction on the grounds that it was useful as propaganda in the struggle against totalitarian evil. For that evil is, precisely, the reduction of life to politics and of politics to propaganda. So despite its intentions, Orwell's novel itself joins in the totalitarian spirit, the spirit of propaganda. It reduces (and teaches others to reduce) the life of a hated society to the simple listing of its crimes.”
― Milan Kundera, Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts

“Kitsch is the aesthetic ideal of all politicians and all political parties and movements. Those of us who live in a society where various political tendencies exist side by side and competing influences cancel or limit one another can manage more or less to escape the kitsch inquisition: the individual can preserve his individuality; the artist can create unusual works. But whenever a single political movement corners power, we find ourselves in the realm of totalitarian kitsch.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Pozitia mea este simpla: mai bine coruptie decat teroare.”
― Emil Cioran, Scrisori către Wolfgang Kraus

“...his [Mayakovsky] genius was as indispensable to the Russian Revolution as Dzherzhinsky's police. Lyricism, lyricization, lyrical talk, lyrical enthusiasm are an integrating part of what is called the totalitarian world; that world is not the gulag as such; it's a gulag that has poems plastering its outside walls and people dancing before them.”
― Milan Kundera, Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts

“Vosotros los jóvenes no sabéis apreciar las cosas, proseguía. No sabéis lo que hemos tenido que pasar para lograr que estéis donde estáis. Míralo, es él quien pela las zanahorias. ¿Sabéis cuántas vidas de mujeres, cuántos cuerpos de mujeres han tenido que arrollar los tanques para llegar a esta situación?
La cocina es mi pasatiempo predilecto, decía Luke. Disfruto cocinando.
Un pasatiempo muy original, replicaba mi madre. No tienes por qué darme explicaciones. En otros tiempos no te habrían permitido tener semejante pasatiempo, te habrían llamado marica.
Vamos, madre, le decía yo. No discutamos por tonterías.
Tonterías, repetía amargamente. Las llamas tonterías. Veo que no entiendes. No entiendes nada de lo que estoy diciendo.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

“Жестокость обязательно подстилается сентиментальностью. Это закон дополнения.”
― Александр Солженицын.

“Viața s-a descurcat mereu fără cuvinte: cu mugete, interjecții, citate din anecdote și comedii. De cuvinte legate au nevoie puterea și literatura. Literatura rusă este modalitatea de existență în Rusia a conștiinței netotalitare. Conștiința totalitară s-a servit din plin de ordine și rugăciuni. De sus ordine, de jos rugăciuni. Ultimele, de regulă, sunt mai originale decât cele dintâi. Înjurătura este rugăciunea vie a unei țări concentraționare.”
― Mihail Šiškin, Paltonul cu gaică

“[...] a imortalidade faz essa outra diferença que, a propósito, tem uma relação com a diferença entre o totalitarismo e a democracia. Se os indivíduos vivem apenas setenta anos, então um Estado, ou uma nação, ou uma civilização que pode durar mil anos são mais importantes do que um indivíduo. Todavia, se o cristianismo for verdadeiro, então o indivíduo não apenas é mais importante, mas também incomparavelmente mais relevante, porque ele é perene, e a vida de um Estado ou de uma civilização, quando comparada com a dele, não passa de um sopro.”
― C.S. Lewis, Cristianismo Puro e Simples

“Kilkadziesiąt lat życia w totalitarnym systemie kształtuje totalitarne postawy, potrzebę autorytarnej władzy. To daje poczucie bezpieczeństwa, bo jest znajome. To niewielki krok z jednego totalitarnego systemu do partii, która zapowiada kolejny totalitarny system. Wiara w tamten system upadła wraz z nim, ale w coś trzeba wierzyć, i oto ktoś proponuje nowy przedmiot wiary. Kto wyrósł w totalitarnym systemie, ten tęskni za porządkiem, jasnymi regułami, brakiem niepewności i relatywizmu. Polska, Czechy, Węgry [Ukraina] też są dobrymi przykładami. I każde irracjonalne myślenie potrzebuje wroga. Pod ręką są imigranci.”
― Ewa Wanat, Deutsche nasz. Reportaże berlińskie

“Il comandamento dei dispotismi di una volta era: "Tu non devi!". Il comandamento dei totalitari era: "Tu devi!". Il nostro è: "Tu sei!".”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Istnieje prawda i istnieje fałsz. lecz dopóki ktoś upiera się przy prawdzie, nawet wbrew całemu światu, pozostaje normalny.”
― George Orwell, 1984