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Quote by Primo Levi

“The work of bestial degradation, begun by the victorious Germans, had been carried to its conclusion by the Germans in defeat.”

Quote by Primo Levi

Book:Survival In Auschwitz

Work

Survival In Auschwitz

This book offers a first-hand perspective on the extreme conditions and hardships faced by inmates in the Auschwitz concentration camp, providing a profound and disturbing insight into the human capacity for endurance and resilience amidst unimaginable suffering. more

Author

Chemist and Italian Jewish author, known for his dual identity as a survivor of Nazi concentration camps and a chemist. His works profoundly reflect the moral dilemmas and psychological states of humans in extreme environments. more

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“To give a name to a thing is as gratifying as giving a name to an island, but it is also dangerous: the danger consists in one's becoming convinced that all is taken care of and that once named, the phenomenon has also been explained.”

Giving Care Names Taken Dangerous Danger Becoming Convinced Islands Phenomenon

Author:Primo Levi

“It is this refrain that we hear repeated by everyone: you are not at home, this is not a sanatorium, the only exit is by way of the Chimney. (What did it mean? Soon we were all to learn what it meant.)”

Way Mean Home Prison Exit Refrain Chimneys

Book:Survival In Auschwitz

Source: Survival In Auschwitz

“At that time I had not yet been taught the doctrine I was later to learn so hurriedly in the Lager: that man is bound to pursue his own ends by all possible means, while he who errs but once pays dearly”

Men Mean Ends Pay Taught Survival Bounds Doctrine Pursue Lager

Book:Survival In Auschwitz

Source: Survival In Auschwitz

“I like that people who are not experts can not only understand but get engaged by my work. I like that Joe Paterno can read me. Bill Bradley.”

People Bills Experts Engaged Engagement Can Not

Author:Leslie Fiedler

“We collected in a group in front of their door, and we experienced within ourselves a grief that was new for us, the ancient grief of the people that has no land, the grief without hope of the exodus which is renewed in every century.”

People Grief Doors Groups Land Century Fronts Sorrow Ancient Without Hope Exodus

Book:Survival In Auschwitz

Source: Survival In Auschwitz

“To accuse another of having weak kidneys, lungs, or heart, is not a crime; on the contrary, saying he has a weak brain is a crime. To be considered stupid and to be told so is more painful than being called gluttonous, mendacious, violent, lascivious, lazy, cowardly: every weakness, every vice, has found its defenders, its rhetoric, its ennoblement and exaltation, but stupidity hasn't.”

Heart Found Brain Crime Stupid Weakness Weak Painful Vices Stupidity Contrary Violent Lazy Rhetoric Lungs Cowardly Defenders Kidneys Exaltation

Author:Primo Levi

“The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believe that what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium. What a very few are acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of barbarism.”

“For me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai. Like Moses, from that cloud I expected my law, the principle of order in me, around me, and in the world... I would watch the buds swell in spring, the mica glint in the granite, my own hands, and I would say to myself: "I will understand this, too, I will understand everything.”

World Hands Law Science Order Black My Own Principles Watches Spring Clouds Expected Chemistry Flash Torn Moses Bud Fiery Granite Sinai

Author:Primo Levi

“Much of human history can, I think, be described as a gradual and sometimes painful liberation from provincialism, the emerging awareness that there is more to the world than was generally believed by our ancestors.”

Thinking World Humans Sometimes Belief Awareness Painful Liberation Ancestor Human History Emerging Provincialism

Book:Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science

Source: Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science

“Any sufficiently crisp question can be answered by a single binary digit-0 or 1, yes or no.”

Crisps Binary Yes Or No

Book:Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

Source: Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence