These quotations come from the books and public statements of Ryszard Kapuscinski, the Polish journalist, reporter, and writer (1932-2007).

On life and experience

“A journey does not begin when we set out, nor end when we return home. It begins much earlier and never really ends, because the film of it keeps running inside our memory.” — Travels with Herodotus

“There is such a thing as travel fever, and it is essentially an incurable disease.” — Travels with Herodotus

“In the person who believes that everything has already happened, what is most beautiful has died: the beauty of life.” — Travels with Herodotus

“When a human being encounters an obstacle he cannot destroy, he begins to destroy himself.” — Lapidarium / Travels with Herodotus

“A person cannot outlive his own shadow.” — Ebony

“Flowers do not bloom for themselves, but always for someone else.” — Imperium

“I like to think of every road as one without end, running all the way around the world. It comes from the fact that from my Pinsk you could reach all the oceans by boat.” — Lapidarium

“In his actions, a person has no choice. He carries his fate within himself, as if it were a genetic code — he must go where and do what destiny has ordained.” — Travels with Herodotus

On journalism and truth

“To be a journalist, you must first of all be a good human being. Bad people cannot be good journalists.” — Conversation with Helena Kowalik, Przeglad, 2007

“I do not believe in impartial journalism, I do not believe in formal objectivity. A journalist cannot be an indifferent witness; he should possess the quality that psychology calls empathy.” — Newsweek, 21 February 2010

“In countries where freedom of speech prevails, a journalist’s freedom is limited by the interests of the newspaper he works for. In many cases a journalist, especially a young one, must make far-reaching compromises.” — The Portrait of a Reporter

“Can writing change anything? Yes. I believe this deeply. Without that belief I could not, would not be able to write.” — The Power of the Word, Gazeta Wyborcza, 24 January 2007

“Words have become cheap. They have multiplied, and in multiplying they have lost their value.” — Travels with Herodotus / Lapidarium

“People remember what they want to remember, not what actually happened.” — Lapidarium

“Only children ask important questions and truly want to learn the answers.” — Travels with Herodotus

On the world and society

“Three plagues threaten the world, three epidemics. The first is the plague of nationalism. The second is the plague of racism. The third is the plague of religious fundamentalism. All three share the same characteristic, the same common denominator: aggressive, all-powerful, total irrationality.” — Imperium

“Only by the greatest simplification can we say: Africa. In reality, Africa does not exist.” — Ebony

“Nothing builds a bond between people in Africa faster than shared laughter.” — Ebony

“People do not starve because there is no food in the world. There is plenty, in abundance. But between those who want to eat and the full warehouses stands a high obstacle: political games. Whoever has weapons has food. Whoever has food has power.” — Ebony

“Oil creates the illusion of a completely changed life, a life without work, a life for free.” — Imperium

“Countries that refuse to accept people from the Third World will themselves turn into the Third World.” — Lapidarium

“There is one place where Americans behave as in church — quietly, with concentration, devoutly — in a bank.” — Lapidarium

On curiosity and discovery

“The average person is not especially curious about the world. There are not many such enthusiasts.” — Travels with Herodotus

“Do we really know what drives a person into the world? Is it curiosity?” — Travels with Herodotus

“At that time literature seemed to be the whole world. People sought in it the strength to live.” — Travels with Herodotus

“If you breathe deeply enough, everything smells.” — The Emperor

“It is never warm on the summits. Icy winds blow there.” — The Emperor

On reason and history

“If reason ruled the world, would history exist at all?” — Ebony

“History is often the product of thoughtlessness. It is the bastard of human stupidity, the offspring of bewilderment, idiocy, and madness.” — Ebony

“The stages of barbarism: first one destroys those who create values. Then also those who know what values are. True barbarism arrives when no one is any longer able to judge, no one knows that what they are doing is barbarism.” — Lapidarium

“The higher the rank at which a crime was committed, the greater the probability that it will be regarded not as a crime, but as a necessary political move.” — Lapidarium

“If, among many truths, you choose only one and follow it blindly, it will turn into falsehood and you will become a fanatic.” — Lapidarium

“A civilization that asks no questions, that casts out the entire world of anxiety, criticism, and searching that expresses itself in questions, is a civilization standing still, paralyzed, immobile.” — Imperium

“In times of peace, sons bury fathers; in war, fathers bury sons.” — Travels with Herodotus

“Human affairs run in circles, and in their turning they do not allow the same people to remain happy.” — Travels with Herodotus

“When questions appear that have no answers, it means that a crisis has arrived.” — Lapidarium

“An anachronistic system is one that gives old answers to new questions.” — Lapidarium

On morality and values

“Boorishness carries contempt and violence, vileness and the will to destroy.” — Lapidarium

“Evil acts quickly, violently, with sudden crushing force, whereas good usually works more slowly and needs time to reveal itself and bear witness. That is why good is often late and loses.” — Lapidarium

“I fear a world without values, without sensitivity, without thought. A world in which everything is possible. Because then what is most possible is evil.” — Lapidarium II

“If I were alone in a forest, no criminal could meet me there, I would hear no lies, no whistling of lashes.” — Lapidarium

“Suspicion toward everyone is exhausting; one must trust someone, because one must rest beside someone.” — The Emperor

“No Louvre is worth two zlotys in Vorkuta.” — Imperium

“All it takes is to reach out your arm to embrace a girl, but all it also takes is to walk a few steps to lean over a coffin, and between what is the most beautiful life and what is the most cruel death — there we are.” — Busz po polsku

“A dictatorship never falls gradually and little by little, but always suddenly and completely. To the very end it appears strong, and that is why no one can predict the day it will cease to exist.” — Christ with a Rifle on His Shoulder

On teaching and writing

“To write one sentence of your own, you must first read thousands written by others.” — Conversation with Helena Kowalik, Przeglad, 2007

“Bookshops increasingly resemble bakeries: they want only fresh goods.” — Lapidarium

“Humor is a dangerous form of opposition.” — The Emperor

“At that time literature seemed to be the whole world. People sought in it the strength to live.” — Travels with Herodotus

On politics and power

“In politics one must know how to wait. Whoever waits better, wins.” — Christ with a Rifle on His Shoulder

“No palace collapses on its own.” — The Emperor

“If someone steps one pace ahead of history while carrying a weapon, he must die.” — The Emperor

“There come moments when the smallest event, a mere trifle, the most utter nonsense, will spark a revolution and unleash a war.” — The Emperor

“There is no worse combination than weapons, stupidity, and fear. Then one can expect the worst.” — The Emperor

“The point is that nationalism is always accompanied by conflict.” — Imperium

“The vileness of power comes from the fact that a small mind has great possibilities.” — The Emperor

“Where there is absolute power, there is no space for individual opinions.” — Imperium

“One of the aims of these operations was to create an uprooted human being, torn from his culture, his surroundings, and his landscape, and thus more defenceless and obedient toward the commands of the regime.” — Imperium

“If someone held a position and did not steal, people withdrew from him: he aroused suspicion. Others said: he must be a spy. Values had their signs reversed.” — Shah of Shahs

On purpose and solitude

“The higher the goal you set for yourself, the more alone you will be.” — Lapidarium

“We begin to understand many things too late, more things very late, and most things too late.” — Lapidarium

“Fools know that they are in the majority, that they have the advantage, that they rule.” — Lapidarium

“Where prejudice lives, there is no place for independent thought.” — Imperium

On haste and observation

“When you rush, you see nothing, feel nothing, experience nothing. Haste kills the soul.” — Lapidarium V (2002)

“Destiny must fulfill itself.” — Travels with Herodotus

“What is interesting is that the same person has different habits in a different place.” — Ebony

On Russia and The Emperor

“How is life?” — A conversation with an old woman about the Russian philosophy of life — Imperium

“Stalin’s chessboard.” — A metaphor describing barbaric forced deportations of peoples — Imperium

“The poverty of the soil.” — On the paradoxes of Russia — Imperium

“The Emperor treated sleep as a system of government.” — The Emperor

“From the arrival of Berzin onward, Kolyma became the nightmarish reality of the twentieth century.” — Imperium

On Africa and humanity

“Morning and dusk are the most pleasant hours in Africa. The sun no longer burns or has not yet begun to do so — it lets you exist, lets you live.” — Ebony

“The European mind accepts that it has limits, acknowledges its own imperfection, is sceptical, doubts, poses question marks. In other cultures this is absent.” — Ebony

“Racism, hatred of others, comes from colonialism, from a sense of superiority.” — Ebony

“The bush will teach you to value water more than all the riches of the world.” — Ebony

“The price of a slave was set by the quality of his teeth. People pulled out their own teeth or filed them down with stones, to keep their market value low. Such suffering — just to be free.” — Another Day of Life

“A person who has lived through a great war is different from someone who has never lived through any. They are two distinct species. They will never find common ground, because war, in truth, cannot be described; it cannot be shared — you cannot say to someone: here, take some of my war.” — The Soccer War

source: kapuscinski.info