The God That Failed (2)

The God That Failed (2)
Andre Gide, Richard Wright, Ignazio Silone, Stepehen Spender, Arthur Koestler, Louis Fischer
New York: Bantam Books
1950

Sample Ideas from the Book

"Their conversion [to Communism] ...was rooted in despair--a despair of Western values." There is attraction in struggling beside people who seek the ideals you do. "For some, Western democracy still means quite simply white ascendancy." " A faith is not acquired by reasoning." "To say that one had 'seen the light' is a poor description of the mental rapture which only the convert knows." "Love your comrade, but don't trust him an inch." "...few suicides are committed for adult motives...." "We sold the World Revolution like vacuum cleaners." Conditions in Soviet Russia: "...the apathy of the crowds in the streets, tramways and railway stations; the incredible housing conditions...two or three couples sharing one room divided by sheets hanging from wash lines...the fact that the price of one kilogram of butter...equaled the average worker's monthly wage, the price of a pair of shoes two months' wages."

"Work is a potent drug." "No movement, party or person can claim the privilege of infallibility." "An earthquake achieves what the law promises but does not in practice maintain--the equality of all men." Young people do not join the Communist Party to achieve comfort--they join it to achieve social justice, no matter the danger and sacrifice. "The Revolution, which had extinguished its enemies, began to devour its favorite sons." "If you possess enough courage to speak out what you are, you will find that you are not alone." "The party's always facing a crisis." "...but whenever I heard news of the Party's inner life, it was of charges and counter-charges, reprisals and counter-reprisals."

"...happiness of man does not consist in liberty but in the acceptance of duty." "The triumph of the individual...is in the renouncing of individualism." "Each human being who has only himself for aim suffers from a horrible void." "Believe, obey and fight." "There can be no question of harmony when the whole choir sings in unison...." "A man cannot be reformed from the outside--a change of heart is necessary...." "Humanity is complex and not all of a piece--that must be accepted--and every attempt at simplification and regimentation, every effort from the outside to reduce everything and everyone to the same common denominator, will always be reprehensible, pernicious and dangerous." "Culture will always be in peril where criticism cannot be freely practiced."

You can't change a religious point of view because of logic. "The Soviets knew the hypnotic effect of the great dream...." In focusing on material progress, was I not forgetting the human being? "The Bolsheviks had spent the spiritual heritage of the Revolution." "If Trotsky was a Fascist and Ivan the Terrible a Soviet hero, all fixed standards of judgment vanished and nobody knew what to believe." "It was a Spanish woman who said, 'We would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.' " "The Soviet-Nazi pact was the gravestone of Bolshevik internationalism and the cornerstone of Bolshevik imperialism." "Immoral means produce immoral ends--and immoral persons--under Bolshevism and under capitalism."

Quote: "The highest mark of culture is the ability to live in peace with persons who are different from ourselves."

Quote: "Although I never have agreed with the views of such as Aldos Huxley that all power corrupts, I think that power is only saved from corruption if it is humanized with humility. Without humility, power is turned to persecutions and executions...."

Quote: "The freedom of art speaks for the individuality of each human being."