I know that I am leaving the winning side for the losing side, but it is better to die on the losing side than to live under Communism.
Whittaker ChambersRead
Experience had taught me that innocence seldom utters outraged shrikes. Guilt does. Innocence is a mighty shield, and the man or woman covered by it, is much more likely to answer calmly: 'My life is blameless. Look into it, if you like, for you will find nothing.' That is the tone of innocence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Innocence offers calmness and confidence, while guilt provokes defensiveness.
Whittaker Chambers reflects on the contrasting behaviors of innocent and guilty individuals. He posits that those who are innocent project a sense of peace and openness, inviting scrutiny and having nothing to hide, whereas guilt breeds defensiveness and agitation, causing people to react strongly when questioned about their actions.
Themes
InnocenceGuiltCalmnessDefensivenessTruth
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a discussion about integrity and honesty.
More from Whittaker Chambers
All quotes →Men who sincerely abhorred the word Communism in the pursuit of common ends found that they were unable to distinguish Communists from themselves…. For men who could not see that what they firmly believed was liberalism added up to socialism could scarcely be expected to see what added up to Communism. Any charge of Communism enraged them precisely because they could not grasp the differences between themselves and those against whom it was made.
Whittaker ChambersRead
On that road of the informer, it is always night. I cannot ever inform against anyone without feeling something die within me. I inform without pleasure, because it is necessary.
Whittaker ChambersRead
At issue was the question whether this man's faith could prevail against a man whose equal faith it was that this society is sick beyond saving, and that mercy itself pleads for its swift extinction and replacement by another.
Whittaker ChambersRead
Life is not worth living for which a man is not prepared to die at any moment.
Whittaker ChambersRead
The rub is that the pursuit of happiness, as an end in itself, tends automatically, and widely, to be replaced by the pursuit of pleasure with a consequent general softening of the fibers of will, intelligence, spirit.
Whittaker ChambersRead
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