Europe

  1. The model citizen was one who appeared out of nowhere, with neither memory nor traditions. An ancestor - not a matter of choice, after all - be he rabbi, apartment-house owner or miller, was no asset; he inspired fear and could bring on death or misfortune.
    Czesław Miłosz
  2. It was only with hindsight that I could appreciate how ironic nationalistic Europe seems to those who, thanks to just such an ancestor, had been expose to and old-fashioned way of thinking far more humane than the new way, with its fanatical discrimination.
    Czesław Miłosz
  3. Undoubtedly I could call Europe my home, but it was a home that refused to acknowledge itself as a whole; instead, as if on the strength of some self-imposed taboo, it classified its population into two categories: members of the family (quarrelsome but respectable) and poor relations.
    Czesław Miłosz
  4. .. I genuinely believe that the absolutely fundamental difference between the European tradition and other cultures lies in the different notions of time and that it is fundamental source of the European idea of development and progress. Other cultures, on the contrary, honor the status quo, quietude, leaving things in place, etc., etc.
    Václav Havel