There are people whose souls have just withered, people who are willing to go along with anything evil - anything so as not to be suspected of disagreeing with whoever is in power.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the danger of conformity and the moral decay that can result from loyalty to corrupt power.
Vasily Grossman's quote reflects on the moral compromise individuals may face when they choose to align themselves with corrupt or evil powers rather than stand for their beliefs. It suggests that a person's soul can wither in the process of surrendering to the pressures of conformity, failing to disagree even in the face of wrongdoing, which ultimately erodes their integrity and humanity.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of standing up for one's beliefs, this quote could serve as a powerful reminder.
And in this silence of the dumb and these speeches of the blind, in this medly of people bound together by the same grief, terror and hope, in this hatred and lack of understanding between men who spoke the same tongue, you could see much of the tragedy of the twentieth century.
Why do people have memories? It would be easier to die - anything to stop remembering.
Good men and bad men alike are capable of weakness. The difference is simply that a bad man will be proud all his life of one good deed - while an honest man is hardly aware of his good acts, but remembers a single sin for years on end.
No healthy Christian ever chooses suffering; he chooses God's will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not.
Black men and women were not allowed to register to vote. My own mother, my own father, my grandfather and my uncles and aunts could not register to vote because each time they attempted to register to vote, they were told they could not pass the literacy test.
It's a lose-lose situation to get in a confrontation on the street. If you can break contact and get away, break contact and get away. That's what you should learn self-defense for.
People always seem to assume that we have a full, back-up support team - make-up, costume and a driver - but usually, in a war zone, there's only me and the cameraman.
What they forget is that, from Ancient Greece on, the people who returned from battle were either dead on their shields or stronger, despite and because of their scars.
In spite of our agonizing history, Native American people find much to celebrate. The songs, the dances, the culture and traditions surrounding planting and harvests, the prayers that are sent upward for healing and peace, and the welcoming of children into our families, are all reasons for us to keep moving forward with optimism.
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