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Ryszard Kapuściński Biography

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“Одно отличает людей такого рода: это ненасытные люди-губки, которые се легко впитывают и так же легко с этим расстаются. В них ничто надолго не задерживается, а поскольку природа не терпит пустоты, им постоянно нужно что-то новое, они постоянно должны что-то впитывать, добавлять, множить, увеличивать.”

PeopleHuman Nature
Book:Travels with Herodotus
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“There is something in this January Siberian landscape that overpowers, oppresses, stuns. Above all, it is its enormity, its boundlessness, its oceanic limitlessness. The earth has no end here; the world has no end. Man is no created for such measureless. For him a comfortable, palpable, serviceable measure is the measure of his village, his field, street, house. At sea, the size of the ship's deck will be such a measure. Man is created for the kind of space that he can traverse at one try, with a single effort.”

PhilosophyHomeWisdomPoetryLiteratureHouseEffortComfortSolitudeRussiaMeasureTraverseSiberiaPolish LiteratureSiberian Hellhole
Book:Imperium
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“Such people, while useful, even agreeable, to others, are, if truth be told, frequently unhappy–lonely in fact. Yes, they seek out others, and it may even seem to them that in a certain country or city they have managed to find true kinship and fellowship, having come to know and learn about a people; but they wake up one day and suddenly feel that nothing actually binds them to these people, that they can leave here at once. They realize that another country, some other people, have now beguiled them, and that yesterday’s most riveting event now pales and loses all meaning and significance. For all intents and purposes, they do not grow attached to anything, do not put down deep roots. Their empathy is sincere, but superficial. If asked which of the countries they have visited they like best, they are embarrassed–they do not know how to answer. Which one? In a certain sense–all of them. There is something compelling about each. To which country would they like to return once more? Again, embarrassment–they had never asked themselves such a question. The one certainty is that they would like to be back on the road, going somewhere. To be on their way again–that is the dream.”

TravelLonely
Book:Travels with Herodotus
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“His August Majesty chided the bureaucrats for failing to understand a simple principle: the principle of the second bag. Because the people never revolt just because they have to carry a heavy load, or because of exploitation. They don't know life without exploitation, they don't even know that such a life exists. How can they desire what they cannot imagine? The people will rvolt only when, in a single movement, someone tries to throw a second burden, a second heavy bag, onto their backs. The peasant will fall face down into the mud - and then spring up and grab an ax. He'll grab an ax, my gracious sir, not because he simply can't sustain this new burden - he could carry it - he will rise because he feels that, in throwing the second burden onto his back suddenly and stealthily, you have tried to cheat him, you have treated him like an unthinking animal, you have trampled what remains of his already strangled dignity, taken him for an idiot who doesn't see, feel, or understand. A man doesn't seize an ax in defense of his wallet, but in defense of his dignity, and that, dear sir, is why His Majesty scolded the clerks. For their own convenience and vanity, instead of adding the burden bit by bit, in little bags, they tried to heave a whole big sack on at once.”

PoorRevolutionDignityBurdenInequalityRevolt
Book:The Emperor: Downfall of An Autocrat
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“Ad Algeri vedevo per la prima volta il Mediterraneo da vicino, potevo immergerci la mano, sentirne il contatto. Per trovarlo non occorreva informarsi: bastava continuare a seguire le via in discesa. Lo si intravedeva anche da lontano: era dappertutto, luccicava tra le case, spuntava in fondo alle vie che scendevano a rotta di collo verso il basso. In fondo si stendeva il quartiere del porto con la sua fila di semplici bar in legno, odorosi di pesce, vino e caffè. Ma le folate di vento portavano soprattutto il sentore acre del mare e il suo fresco alito ristoratore. Non avevo mai visto un luogo dove la natura fosse così benevola nei confronti dell'uomo. C'era tutto: il sole, il vento fresco, l'aria chiara, l'argento del mare. Avevo letto talmente tanto su di esso, che mi sembrava di conoscerlo. Nelle sue onde piatte c'era il bel tempo, la pace e l'invito a viaggiare, a conoscere . Veniva voglia di unirsi ai pescatori che salpavano da riva in quel momento.”

MareViaggiareMediterraneoAlgeriErodoto
Book:Travels with Herodotus
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“Man knows, and in the course of years he comes to know it increasingly well, feeling it ever more acutely, that memory is weak and fleeting, and if he doesn't write down what he has learned and experienced, that which he carries within him will perish when he does. This is when it seems everyone wants to write a book. Singers and football players, politicians and millionaires. And if they themselves do not know how, or else lack the time, they commission someone else to do it for them...engendering this reality is the impression of writing as a simple pursuit, though those who subscribe to that view might do well to ponder Thomas Mann's observation that, 'a writer is a man for whom writing is more difficult than it is for others”

Writing
Book:Travels with Herodotus
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“After all, what is a dollar but paper? A bullet can save your life. Bullets make weapons more significant, and that makes you more significant. A man's life - what is that worth? Another man exists only to the degree that he stands in your way. Life doesn't mean much, but it's better to take it from the enemy before he has time to deliver a blow.”

PoliticalPoliticsSociologyPolitical SciencePolíticaSocial CriticismCrítica SocialSociologiaCiência Política
Book:The Emperor
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“Usually it is said that periodic droughts cause bad crops and therefore starvation. But it is the elites of starving countries that propagate this idea. It is a false idea. The unjust or mistaken allocation of funds and national property is the most frequent source of hunger. There was a lot of grain in Ethiopia, but it had first been hidden by the rich and then thrown on the market at a doubled price, inaccessible to peasants and the poor.”

PoliticalEconomySociologyPolitical SciencePolíticaEconomiaSocial CriticismCrítica SocialSociologiaCiência Política
Book:The Emperor
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