There is Auschwitz, and so there cannot be God.
Primo LeviRead
Our ignorance allowed us to live, as you are in the mountains, and your rope is frayed and about to break, but you don't know it and feel safe.
Interpretation
Ignorance can sometimes provide a false sense of security, masking potential dangers.
This quote by Primo Levi reflects on the idea that ignorance can offer comfort and peace of mind, even when one is in precarious situations. By comparing it to being in the mountains with a frayed rope, Levi suggests that unawareness of risks may lead us to perceive a situation as safe, though it is actually fraught with danger, highlighting the importance of awareness and understanding in life.
In practice
During a lecture on the importance of awareness in personal safety.
There is Auschwitz, and so there cannot be God.
The bond between a man and his profession is similar to that which ties him to his country; it is just as complex, often ambivalent, and in general it is understood completely only when it is broken: by exile or emigration in the case of one's country, by retirement in the case of a trade or profession.
To destroy a man is difficult, almost as difficult as to create one: it has not been easy, nor quick, but you Germans have succeeded. Here we are, docile under your gaze; from our side you have nothing more to fear; no acts of violence, no words of defiance, not even a look of judgment.
They sensed that what had happened around them and in their presence, and in them, was irrevocable. Never again could it be cleansed; it would prove that man, the human species - we, in short - had the potential to construct an enormity of pain, and that pain is the only force created from nothing, without cost and without effort. It is enough not to see, not to listen, not to act.
I live in my house as I live inside my skin: I know more beautiful, more ample, more sturdy and more picturesque skins: but it would seem to me unnatural to exchange them for mine.
Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habits, his clothes, in short, of everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often loses himself.
If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.
Memories which someday will become all beautiful when the last annoyance that encumbers them shall have faded out of our minds.
I am proud to be part of a species where a subset of its members willingly put their lives at risk to push the boundaries of our existence.
Use memories. Do not let memories use you.
So as grave and learned men may doubt, without any imputation to them; for the most learned doubteth most, and the more ignorant for the most part are the more bold and peremptory.
Some people wanted champagne and caviar when they should have had beer and hot dogs.
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