Soviet officials frequently complained about the…

“indeed Soviet officials frequently complained about the “dependent” habits of Homo Sovieticus, his lack of initiative, and his stubborn expectation”

— Sheila Fitzpatrick

The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines…

— Jimmy Carter

Over the course of the year 1990, the then Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher had many conversations with President [Mikhail] Gorbachev…

— Vladimir Putin

“My lack of initiative was the root cause of all my troubles - of my inability to want something before having thought about it,…

— Fernando Pessoa

“Many times we have boundary problems because we lack initiative - the God-given ability to propel ourselves into life. We respond to invitations and…

— Anonymous

If you lack initiative, recognize that the problem comes from the inside, not from others. Determine why you hesitate to take action. Does risk…

— John C. Maxwell

“The architecture of the thugs also differs from that of normal societies. It can often be recognized by the megalomaniacal style of their public…

— Petr Beckmann

“If the immediate postwar period had been characterized by violent attacks on the existing institutions of civil society, after 1948 the regimes [of Eastern…

— Anne Applebaum

“When reason, common sense, and decency are assaulted often enough, then personality is crippled, and human intelligence disintegrates or is warped. The barrier between…

— Frank Ellis

“In their first year of medical school, students were informed that there were two species of human beings: Homo sapiens and Homo sovieticus.”

— David Remnick