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Quote by Stefan Heym

“If you live in a system that is suppressive, you don't walk upright, you always go with your head down.”

Quote by Stefan Heym

Author

Stefan Heym was a German Jewish writer born on April 10, 1913, and died on December 16, 2001. His works spanned various literary forms including novels, plays, and poetry, and are known for their profound social criticism and exploration of human nature. more

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“In the question of peace, people spoke up and demonstrated for peace and against the threat of war, the threat of atomic war.”

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“People in the East looked toward the West with longing. They would have liked to have the same comforts, the same goods, the same chances. They saw a system that demanded of them sacrifices with nothing but promises for the future.”

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“People who were not active in the intellectual life of the country could go on without feeling restricted, except they could not go where they wanted. They could not cross the border to the West whenever they liked.”

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“Show me one place where a whole government is concerned with a book of a writer and is concerned enough to suppress it.”

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“The idea of a socialism with a human face was something that I absolutely could support, because it was my idea from the very first.”

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“Crikey means gee whiz, wow!”

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“The Wall was the actual symbol of a defeat, of inferiority.”

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“These were the things that the government supplied you with - in turn, of course, demanding obedience. But you must not imagine that it was a constant feeling of outrage that was in the minds of people and the hearts of people.”

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“Today, when we live in a what is called Western democracy here... you're not taken seriously all the time. You can write what you want because nobody cares about it. But at that time, they cared very much about what you wrote, so that's an entirely different feeling.”

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“We certainly hoped perestroika would win out and that there would be changes. We knew all along that socialism could flourish only with a certain amount of freedom and democracy.”

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