Quote

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

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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
Give
Convinced
Care
Danger
Gratifying
Giving
Becoming
Explained
Thing
Dangerous
Named
Name
Island
Names
Islands
Taken
Consists
Also
Phenomenon

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Today I think that if for no other reason than that an Auschwitz existed, no one in our age should speak of Providence.
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Perhaps Kafka laughed when he told stories [. . . ] because one isn't always equal to oneself.
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The sea's only gifts are harsh blows and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I too entered the Lager as a nonbeliever, and as a nonbeliever I was liberated and have lived to this day.
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There is Auschwitz, and so there cannot be God.
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The work of bestial degradation, begun by the victorious Germans, had been carried to its conclusion by the Germans in defeat.
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Perfection belongs to narrated events, not to those we live.
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I am not even alive enough to know how to kill myself
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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.
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Those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake it.
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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.
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I am constantly amazed by man's inhumanity to man.
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Monsters exist, but they are too few in numbers to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are…the functionaries ready to believe and act without asking questions.
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A man who would mutilate himself is well damned, isn't he?
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Everybody is somebody's Jew.
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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
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