I understood that the most terrible thing in life is complete hopelessness.. To cross out all the 'maybes' and give up the fight when you still have strength for it is the most terrible form of suicide. It's almost unbearable to watch it happening in others. Unjustified hope - salvation for the weak in spirit and intellect - irritates me. But the loss of hope is the paralysis, even the death, of the soul. Sveta, let us hope, while we still have strength to hope. Orlando Figes
About This Quote

Sveta is a Russian female name. The quote is taken from the book "Darkness at Noon" , which is about the life of writer Arthur Koestler during his imprisonment in 1930’s Soviet Union.

Source: Just Send Me Word: A True Story Of Love And Survival In The Gulag

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  1. I understood that the most terrible thing in life is complete hopelessness.. To cross out all the 'maybes' and give up the fight when you still have strength for it is the most terrible form of suicide. It's almost unbearable to watch it happening in...
  2. Political indoctrination was geared towards producing activists. The propaganda image of the ideal child was a precocious political orator mouthing agitprop. Communism could not be taught from books, educational thinkers maintained. It had to be instilled through the whole life of the school, which was...
  3. There is no sadder symbol of the crippling poverty in which millions of peasants were forced to live than the image of a peasant and his son struggling to drag a plough through the mud.
  4. Lenin was always prone to overestimate the physical danger to himself: in this respect he was something of a coward.
  5. Their notion of training was to march the men up and down in parades and reviews: these were nice to look at and gave them the impression of military discipline and precision, but as a preparation for a modern war they had no value whatsoever.
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