Quotes from Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński
The best-known quotes from Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński — on totalitarianism, power, nationalism and the collapse of the Soviet empire.
Translation note: Unless a published English translator is named, the wording on this page is an editorial translation from Polish and may differ from the authorised English-language edition.
A selection of the best-known quotes from Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński — on totalitarianism, power, nationalism and the disintegration of an empire.
📖 See also: summary and analysis · the book’s page
Best-known quotes
“Flowers do not bloom for themselves, but always for someone else.” — Imperium
“Three plagues, three contagions, threaten the world. 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 one trait, a common denominator — an aggressive, all-powerful, total irrationality.” — Imperium
“Oil creates the illusion of a completely changed life, life without work, life for free.” — Imperium
“A civilisation that asks no questions, that casts out of its orbit the whole world of unease, criticism and searching, is a civilisation standing still, paralysed, motionless.” — Imperium
“No Louvre is worth two zlotys in Vorkuta.” (on the relativity of values) — Imperium
“The point is that nationalism is always accompanied by conflict.” — Imperium
“Where power is absolute, there is no room for individual opinion.” — Imperium
“One of the aims of these operations was to create an uprooted human being, torn out of his culture, his surroundings and his landscape, and thereby more defenceless and more obedient to the demands of the regime.” — Imperium
“Where superstition lives, there is no place for independent thought.” — Imperium
“From the arrival of Berzin, Kolyma became one of the nightmare realities of the twentieth century.” — Imperium
See also
source: kapuscinski.info