Pilecki Institute Quotes & Sayings

What would happen to the individual if all the functions of the body were placed under the control of the consciousness is what would happen to a nation in which all individual activities were directed by government. — Henry George

The crew did not fit the stereotype of the Navy sailors that I expected. The media always presented Navy men as being GI Joe's in white. But a good sum of them were in their thirties and forties. Very few sported less than two chins, let alone the six-pack of a warrior. While standing at attention, I saw a slew of potbellies jiggling atop Navy belt buckles. I saw bald spots, acne, retro porn mustaches, and wrinkles, but to my utter disappointment, no eye candy. — Maggie Young

Why are you always filming people?"
"I'm busy documenting a thousand stories about Johannesburg."
"Oral histories?"
"No, stories. People don't always speak the truth. — Harry Kalmer

You will never know how courageous you are until you are willing to leave your comfort zone to leap into the unknown. — Theresa Lewis

This was the first time God had crossed my mind in over a year, and again only in my moment of absolute hopelessness. I'd done the same on the raft and in the prison camps when I'd promised God my life should he let me survive. Had I kept my promise? No. And this time, instead of promises, I had only anger and complaints and blame. But I didn't blame myself; I blamed God. Maybe he was listening, maybe not, but even if, as I sometimes suspected, God watched over me, I couldn't blame him for cutting me loose this time. — Louis Zamperini

The strident chimes of prayer bells from the distant temple resonated in the night air with ritual insistence, and nudged Kamala from her repose. What had once sounded to her like a sharp and persistent call to prayer now, with ceaseless repetition, mellowed to become plaintive and wistful, like one's favourite recording playing in the background to the syncopated percussion of lovemaking. (From the novel Blood & Nemesis by Ben Antao). — Ben Antao

I love my wife. My ex-wife. Nothing will ever change that." "Okay." "I can't love anyone else. — C.D. Reiss

The English were unpleasant in their own very English way. It was as if they lived at the top of the world, and naturally looked down on everyone else; 'looked down' in the sense that everyone was clearly beneath them so what else could they do? No spite or guilt, just... 'Why doesn't everyone else try harder?' There was a hint of warmth to their contempt that I found especially deplorable. — Otaro Maijo

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. — Fernando Pessoa

What a strange thing love is! — Jane Austen

Fighting fear is a full-time job. — Darius Foroux

We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifices. Capitalism was built on the exploitation of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad. — Martin Luther King Jr.

They chant until his name no longer sounds like his name. It sounds like the primal scream of an ancient race. — Veronica Roth

Should you have liked your sister to have been noticed by a grocer's assistant for doing so?"
"In the first place, as it is not many years since I myself was a draper's assistant, the mere circumstance of a grocer's assistant noticing any act does not alter the character of the act to me. — Elizabeth Gaskell

She stole a glance at Kevin Kimberly...No other man of her acquaintance ever boasted so smooth a shave or as shapely a haircut. — Nancy Paschal