“The politics of inevitability is an intellectual coma we put ourselves in.” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“What matters is that this spectacular act of terror initiated the politics of emergency. Gazing” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do.” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“If young people do not begin to make history, politicians of eternity and inevitability will destroy it. And” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“In the politics of eternity, the seduction by a mythicized past prevents us from thinking about possible futures. The habit of dwelling… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“The point of politics is to keep multiple and irreducible goods in play, rather than yielding to some dream, Nazi or otherwise,… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“Soviet state destruction made the political perspective of people who had been marginal right-wing national terrorists seem like the mainstream. Lithuanians” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“WE TEND TO assume that institutions will automatically maintain themselves against even the most direct attacks. This was the very mistake that… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“The capacity for trust and learning can make life seem less chaotic and mysterious, and democratic politics more plausible and attractive.” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do. The… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“Extremism' certainly sounds bad, and governments often try to make it sound worse by using the word 'terrorism' in the same sentence.… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“When politicians today invoke terrorism they are speaking, of course, of an actual danger. But when they try to train us to… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“What the great political thinker Hannah Arendt meant by totalitarianism was not an all-powerful state, but the erasure of the difference between… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“The most intelligent of the Nazis, the legal theorist Carl Schmitt, explained in clear language the essence of fascist governance. The way… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“When we take an active interest in matters of doubtful relevance at moments that are chosen by tyrants and spooks, we participate… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“The second antihistorical way of considering the past is the politics of eternity. Like the politics of inevitability, the politics of eternity… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“When Americans think of freedom, we usually imagine a contest between a lone individual and a powerful government. We tend to conclude… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“Both of these positions, inevitability and eternity, are antihistorical. The only thing that stands between them is history itself. History allows us… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“We share Hitler's planet and several of his preoccupations; we have changed less than we think. We like our living space, we… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“The president is a nationalist, which is not at all the same thing as a patriot. A nationalist encourages us to be… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“Political calculation and local suffering do not entirely explain the participation in these pogroms. Violence against Jews served to bring the Germans… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“The politics of inevitability is a self-induced intellectual coma. So long as there was a contest between communist and capitalist systems, and… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share Image
“Nationalism is relativist, since the only truth is the resentment we feel when we contemplate others.” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,/That ever I was born to set it right!” Thus Hamlet. Yet he concludes: “Nay, come,… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“the democracies that arose after the First World War (and the Second) often collapsed when a single party seized power in some combination of… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“salami tactics—slicing off layers of opposition one by one. Most people were distracted, some were imprisoned, and others were outmatched.” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“We allowed ourselves to accept the politics of inevitability, the sense that history could move in only one direction: toward liberal democracy...We imbibed the… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“The key to this translation of ideology to politics in both cases was an effective appeal to human experience at the crucial time.” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“Both of these positions, inevitability and eternity, are antihistorical. The only thing that stands between them is history itself. History allows us to see… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“The whole notion of disruption is adolescent: It assumes that after the teenagers make a mess, the adults will come and clean it up.… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“As she observed, “the first essential step on the road to total domination is to kill the juridical person in man.” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“The first mode is the open hostility to verifiable reality, which takes the form of presenting inventions and lies as if they were facts.” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“Once we subliminally accept that we are watching a reality show rather than thinking about real life, no image can actually hurt the president… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“Confidence in duration is the antidote to panic and the tonic of demagogy.” — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do. The minor choices… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
“Extremism' certainly sounds bad, and governments often try to make it sound worse by using the word 'terrorism' in the same sentence. But the… — Timothy Snyder Copy Share
