...I would like to live a little bit longer in this beautiful concentration camp.
Imre KertszRead
You just sit there and tolerate it, the same way everything in this country is tolerated. Every deception, every lie, every bullet in the brains. Just as you are already tolerating bullets in the brains that will be implemented only after the bullet is put in your brains.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the passive acceptance of societal injustices and the pervasive nature of suffering and deception.
Imre Kertsz's quote critiques the tendency of individuals to resign themselves to the harsh realities of society. He illustrates that tolerating lies and violence leads to a desensitized acceptance of wrongdoing, suggesting that apathy can result in a cycle of suffering that ultimately impacts everyone. The use of violent imagery serves to emphasize how pervasive and fatalistic these attitudes can become, urging readers to acknowledge and confront the uncomfortable truths of their environment rather than merely tolerate them.
Themes
ToleranceDeceptionPassivityViolenceSocietal IssuesApathy
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a speech about social justice to highlight the need for action.
More from Imre Kertsz
All quotes →Similar quotes
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
Nothing is beautiful, only man: on this piece of naivete rests all aesthetics, it is the first truth of aesthetics. Let us immediately add its second: nothing is ugly but degenerate man - the domain of aesthetic judgment is therewith defined.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the establishment and nothing more corrupting.
A. J. P. TaylorRead
The human race has improved everything, but the human race.
Adlai E. StevensonRead
When I was younger, I could do something useful just by being free for half a day, but now I need five days to get the world I've left out of my head and ten days or a fortnight not talking to anyone to hold what I need to hold inside my head.
Tom StoppardRead
Coastal sailing as long as it is perfectly safe and easy commands no magic. Overseas expeditions are invariably bound up with ceremonies and ritual. Man resorts to magic only where chance and circumstances are not fully controlled by knowledge.
Bronislaw MalinowskiRead