Two quotations

He was a prominent writer from Poland. He died last month, and this is my way of remembering him. I find these two texts very important; the first one directly describing the difference between Christians and Muslims, the other one pointing to the value of discernment.


Armenia and Armenians
A conversation in Stepanakert in Nagorno-Karabakh in the summer of 1990:

'Our question,' says one of those present, 'is, How do we survive? It has been weighing on Armenians for hundreds of years. For centuries we have had our own culture, our own language and alphabet. For seventeen centuries the Christian religion has been the national religion of Armenians. But our culture has a passive character, it is the culture of the ghetto, of a defensive fortification. We have never imposed our customs, our way of life upon others. A sense of mission or a desire to rule are foreign to us. But we find ourselves surrounded by people who, brandishing the banner of the Prophet, have always wanted to conquer this part of the world. In their eye, we are a poisoned thorn in the healthy body of Islam. They are thinking about how to remove this thorn, meaning, how to efface us from the surface of the earth.'

--Ryszard Kapuscinski, Imperium, 1993

'The Emperor, however, showing more perspicacity than his police, understood that sadness can drive one to thinking, disappointment, waffling, and shuffling, so he ordered distractions, merriment, festivities, and masquerades for the whole Empire. His Noble Majesty himself had the Palace illuminated, threw banquets for the poor, and incited people to gaiety. When they had guzzled and gamboled, they gave praise to their King. This went on for years, and the distractions so filled people's heads, so corked them up, that they could talk of nothing but having fun. Our feet are bare but we're debonair, hey ho! Only the thinkers, who saw everything getting grey, shrunken, mud-splashed, and moldy, skipped the jokes and the merriment. They became a nuisance. The unthinking ones were wiser; they didn't let themselves get taken in, and when the students started holding rallies and talking, the nonthinkers stuffed their ears and made themselves scarce. What's the use of knowing when it's better not to know? Why do it the hard way, when it can be easy?

--Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Emperor