Quote

Nothing can be said: nothing sure, nothing probable, nothing honest. Better to err through omission than through commission: better to refrain from steering the fate of others, since it is already so difficult to navigate one's own.

Primo Levi

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Primo Levi
Age: 67 †
Born: 1919
Born: July 31
Died: 1987
Died: April 11
Author
Autobiographer
Chemist
Novelist
Philosopher
Poet
Politician
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Turin
Italy
Already
Honest
Omission
Since
Steering
Sure
Probable
Difficult
Commission
Others
Navigate
Better
Refrain
Nothing
Fate

More quotes by Primo Levi

Image
Each of us bears the imprint of a friend met along the way In each the trace of each.
Primo Levi
Image
Everybody is somebody's Jew.
Primo Levi
Image
We will not return No one must leave here and so carry to the world, together with the sign impressed on his skin, the evil tidings of what man's presumption made of man in Auschwitz
Primo Levi
Image
A man who would mutilate himself is well damned, isn't he?
Primo Levi
Image
The living are more demanding the dead can wait.
Primo Levi
Image
If it is true that there is no greater sorrow than to remember a happy time in a state of misery, it is just as true that calling up a moment of anguish in a tranquil mood, seated quietly at one's desk, is a source of profound satisfaction.
Primo Levi
Image
It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that this is a war without end.
Primo Levi
Image
Perfection belongs to narrated events, not to those we live.
Primo Levi
Image
We must be listened to: above and beyond our personal experience, we have collectively witnessed a fundamental unexpected event, fundamental precisely because unexpected, not foreseen by anyone. It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.
Primo Levi
Image
There is Auschwitz, and so there cannot be God.
Primo Levi
Image
Perhaps Kafka laughed when he told stories [. . . ] because one isn't always equal to oneself.
Primo Levi
Image
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.
Primo Levi
Image
The work of bestial degradation, begun by the victorious Germans, had been carried to its conclusion by the Germans in defeat.
Primo Levi
Image
We collected in a group in front of their door, and we experienced within ourselves a grief that was new for us, the ancient grief of the people that has no land, the grief without hope of the exodus which is renewed in every century.
Primo Levi
Image
Those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake it.
Primo Levi
Image
I am not even alive enough to know how to kill myself
Primo Levi
Image
Dawn came on us like a betrayer it seemed as though the new sun rose as an ally of our enemies to assist in our destruction.
Primo Levi
Image
To give a name to a thing is as gratifying as giving a name to an island, but it is also dangerous: the danger consists in one's becoming convinced that all is taken care of and that once named, the phenomenon has also been explained.
Primo Levi
Image
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 Levi
Image
He could hardly read or write but his heart spoke the language of the good
Primo Levi