There is Auschwitz, and so there cannot be God.
Primo LeviRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the complex nature of humanity and the challenges of destruction versus creation.
Primo Levi highlights the significant difficulty in both creating and destroying a human being, emphasizing the resilience and submissiveness of those who have been oppressed. By acknowledging that the Germans have succeeded in subduing his people without fear of retaliation, Levi critiques the moral complexities of power and compliance in the face of oppression, suggesting that through brutality or manipulation, humanity can be subdued, yet its intricate essence remains challenging to extinguish.
Themes
HumanityOppressionPowerSubjugationResilience
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the effects of tyranny on society, one might quote this to illustrate the struggles of the oppressed.
More from Primo Levi
All quotes →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.
Primo LeviRead
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.
Primo LeviRead
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.
Primo LeviRead
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.
Primo LeviRead
The living are more demanding; the dead can wait.
Primo LeviRead
Similar quotes
Freedom from labor itself is not new; it once belonged among the most firmly established privileges of the few. In this instance, it seems as though scientific progress and technical developments had been only taken advantage of to achieve something about which all former ages dreamed but which none had been able to realize.
Hannah ArendtRead
The sinner is not the one who uses a lot of grace... The saint burns grace like a 747 burns fuel on take off.
Dallas WillardRead
Ah, Misha, he has a stormy spirit. His mind is in bondage. He is haunted by a great, unsolved doubt. He is one of those who don't want millions, but an answer to their questions.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
My thesis topic was 'The value of a human life.' I asked people a question: 'Suppose you had some risk, a one in a thousand risk of dying - how much would you pay to eliminate it?'
Richard ThalerRead
I am optimistic when I consider the spiritual dimension which the scientist's discipline forces him to ignore.
William GoldingRead
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
Joseph BrodskyRead