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Quote by Norman Geras

“A crucial question for them, indeed, one challenging their humanity, is the question addressed to the spectator at the scene of evil. How continue life as normal after having seen that? How, if you are not a stone or a pile of dead wood or a cadaver? How, in other terms, without disappearing into the insentient natural cosmos? The victim and survivor of the Holocaust thus puts his question, embodied in literary form, so to say, of a prayer. To be indifferent is to stand condemned.”

Quote by Norman Geras

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Norman Geras
Norman Geras

Norman Geras was a prominent political commentator and writer. Known for his insightful analysis of political and social issues, Geras made significant contributions to the political debates of the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. His career included teaching positions at several universities in the UK and the US, as well as publishing articles in various publications such as The New Statesman, The Observer, and The London Review of Books. Geras' influence has been generally positive, though his views sometimes sparked controversy. more

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“When, grown older, we look back on the selfishness of the people who’ve been mixed up with our lives, we see it undeniably for what it was, as hard as steel or platinum and a lot more durable than time itself. As long as we’re young, we manage to find excuses for the stoniest indifference, the most blatant caddishness, we put them down to emotional eccentricity or some sort of romantic inexperience. But later on, when life shows us how much cunning, cruelty, and malice are required just to keep the body at ninety-eight point six, we catch on, we know the score, we begin to understand how much swinishness it takes to make up a past. Just take a close look at yourself and the degree of rottenness you’ve come to. There’s no mystery about it, no more room for fairy tales; if you’ve lived this long, it’s because you’ve squashed any poetry you had in you. Life is keeping body and soul together.”

“Better kind than correct, Better idiot than arrogant. Better ignorant than bigoted, Better exploited than indifferent. Better broke than bent, Better naive than narcissist. Better mistaken than mindless, Better broken than a cheat. Better wrong than cruel, Better ridiculed than rigid. Better shattered than shallow, Better ignited than idjit.”