“We would only multiply the number of victims. Our duty is to strengthen the state and defend the people, why, then, should we publish your book.”

1960s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We would only multiply the number of victims. Our duty is to strengthen the state and defend the people, why, then, sho…" by Vasily Grossman?
Vasily Grossman photo
Vasily Grossman 22
Soviet writer and journalist who originally trained as an e… 1905–1964

Related quotes

Patrick Nielsen Hayden photo

“If our “sole interest” was “instant profit,” not only would we never do any number of the things we actually do every day, we probably wouldn’t be in book publishing at all.”

Patrick Nielsen Hayden (1959) American science fiction editor, fanzine publisher, essayist, reviewer, anthologist, and teacher

A simple, mildly incredulous philippic http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/012308.html#012308, in Making Light, April 7, 2010.
Context: Book publishing was never a heaven “run by editors”, and it is by no means today a hell “run by accountants.” If our “sole interest” was “instant profit,” not only would we never do any number of the things we actually do every day, we probably wouldn’t be in book publishing at all.

Vasily Grossman photo

“Why should we add your book to the atomic weapons arrayed against us by our enemies. Publication of your book would help our enemies.”

Vasily Grossman (1905–1964) Soviet writer and journalist who originally trained as an engineer

1960s

James D. Watson photo

“I have always fiercely defended the position that we should base our view of the world on the state of our knowledge, on fact, and not on what we would like it to be.”

James D. Watson (1928) American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist.

To question genetic intelligence is not racism (2007)
Context: Science is no stranger to controversy. The pursuit of discovery, of knowledge, is often uncomfortable and disconcerting. I have never been one to shy away from stating what I believe to be the truth, however difficult it might prove to be. This has, at times, got me in hot water.
Rarely more so than right now, where I find myself at the centre of a storm of criticism. I can understand much of this reaction. For if I said what I was quoted as saying, then I can only admit that I am bewildered by it. To those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief.
I have always fiercely defended the position that we should base our view of the world on the state of our knowledge, on fact, and not on what we would like it to be. This is why genetics is so important. For it will lead us to answers to many of the big and difficult questions that have troubled people for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
But those answers may not be easy, for, as I know all too well, genetics can be cruel. My own son may be one of its victims. Warm and perceptive at the age of 37, Rufus cannot lead an independent life because of schizophrenia, lacking the ability to engage in day-to-day activities.

Ratko Mladić photo
Vasily Grossman photo

“We should not underestimate the harm it would bring should it be published.”

Vasily Grossman (1905–1964) Soviet writer and journalist who originally trained as an engineer

1960s

Thomas Brooks photo
Eugéne Ionesco photo

“We are all Victims of Duty.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

Victimes du Devoir [Victims of Duty] (1953)

Vyacheslav Molotov photo
Vasily Grossman photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

Related topics