“Milena among the saviors! Milena who is constantly discovering in herself that the only way to save another person is by being there and nothing else. Moreover, she has already saved me once with her presence and now, after the fact, is trying to do so with other, infinitely smaller means. Naturally, saving someone from drowning is a great deed, but what good is it if the savior then sends the saved a gift-certificate for a swimming course?” (31 July 1920) Letters To Milena

“It is the nature of men to be bound by the benefits they confer as much as by those they receive.” The Prince

“For he alone, and no other initiate, knew how easy it was to starve. It was the easiest thing in the world. He did not keep this fact a secret, but no one believed him.”  A Hunger Artist

[..] the values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed