“The people in the hospital had been struck by her calm and the number of questions she had asked. They hadn't appreciated her inability to understand something quite obvious – that Tolya was no longer among the living. Her love… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share Image
“When a person dies, they cross over from the realm of freedom to the realm of slavery. Life is freedom, and dying is a gradual denial of freedom. Consciousness first weakens and then disappears. The life-processes – respiration, the metabolism, the circulation – continue for some time, but an irrevocable move has been made towards slavery; consciousness, the flame of… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share
“Life was terrible. It was as though they could understand, as though they could read in one another’s eyes, that the power which had… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share Image
“She's got legs like a stork, no arse worth speaking of, and great cow-like eyes. call that a woman?' 'You just like big tits',… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share Image
“The true champions of a nation's freedom are those who reject the limitations of stereotypes and affirm the rich diversity of human nature to… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share Image
I don't want you to be young and beautiful. I only want one thing. I want you to be kind-hearted - and not just… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share Image
“My faith has been tempered in Hell. My faith has emerged from the flames of the crematoria, from the concrete of the gas chamber. I have seen that it is not man who is impotent in the struggle against evil, but the power of evil that is impotent in the struggle against man. The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness,… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share
“Another fact that allowed Fascism to gain power over men was their blindness. A man cannot believe that he is about to be destroyed.… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share Image
Chekhov said: let's put God - and all these grand progressive ideas - to one side. Let's begin with man; let's be kind and attentive to the individual man - whether he's a bishop, a peasant, an industrial magnate, a convict in the Sakhalin Islands, or a waiter in a restaurant. Let's begin with respect, compassion, and love for the… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share
“Before the war Sofya Levinton had once said to Yevgenia Nikolaevna Shaposhnikova, 'If one man is fated to be killed by another, it would… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share Image
“Freedom is the direct opposite of necessity; freedom is necessity overcome.” — Vasily Grossman Copy Share Image
There's nothing more difficult than saying goodbye to a house where you've suffered. — Vasily Grossman Copy Share Image
“The travelers emerged into a spacious square. In the middle of this square were several dozen people on a wooden bandstand like in a public park. They were the members of a band, each of them as different from one another as their instruments. Some of them looked round at the approaching column. Then a grey-haired man in a colorful… — Vasily Grossman Copy Share
