"In history as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour."
"Of course, in the reality of history, the Machiavellian view which glorifies the principle of violence has been able to dominate.Not the compromising conciliatory politics of humaneness, not the Erasmian, but rather the politics of vested power which firmly exploits every opportunity, politics in the sense of the "Principe," has determined the development of European history ever since."
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Source: Stefan Zweig (2008). “The Post-office Girl”, New York Review of Books
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"Truth to tell, we are all criminals if we remain silent."
"It is never until one realizes that one means something to others that one feels there is any point or purpose in one's own existence."
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"All I know is that I shall be alone again. There is nothing more terrible than to be alone among human beings."