
“A man's greatness is determined by his heart not by the caste and the lineage he brings.”
मुनामदन (Munamadan)
Source: A Time of Changes (1971), Chapter 40 (p. 142)
“A man's greatness is determined by his heart not by the caste and the lineage he brings.”
मुनामदन (Munamadan)
“The man in ecstasy and the man drowning—both throw up their arms.”
Source: Blue Octavo Notebooks
Other Inquisitions (1952), The Modesty of History
Context: Only one thing is more admirable than the admirable reply of the Saxon king: that an Icelander, a man of the lineage of the vanquished, has perpetuated the reply. It is as if a Carthaginian had bequeathed to us the memory of the exploit of Regulus. Saxo Grammaticus wrote with justification in his Gesta Danorum: "The men of Thule [Iceland] are very fond of learning and of recording the history of all peoples and they are equally pleased to reveal the excellences of others or of themselves."
Not the day when the Saxon said the words, but the day when an enemy perpetuated them, was the historic date. A date that is a prophecy of something still in the future: the day when races and nations will be cast into oblivion, and the solidarity of all mankind will be established.
“You try to save a drowning man without prior authorization.”
Statement on UN Operations in Congo before the General Assembly, 17 October 1960.
“A drowning man does not complain about the size of a life preserver. ”
“The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.”
“the poisonous world flows into my mouth like water into that of a drowning man”
Source: Diaries of Franz Kafka