The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was... The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.

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Merely by being born intelligent, you right away find yourself in absolute exile.

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Beauty is a rebellion against time.

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The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

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In the realm of totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions.

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The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past.

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When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.

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People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It's not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past.

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a man possessed with peace is always smiling.

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To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace.

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