“The rule of the game was never assume that anybody, however honorable, would be able to stand up under torture.”

—  Abraham Pais

On life in hiding from Nazi authorities during World War II, p. 48
To Save a Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue (2000)
Context: I lived altogether in nine different places while in hiding, because whenever something happened, either someone betrayed the place or something happened to someone who knew where I was, I had to move. The rule of the game was never assume that anybody, however honorable, would be able to stand up under torture. If Mr. X, who knew where I was, was caught for some reason, I should move.

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 "The rule of the game was never assume that anybody, however honorable, would be able to stand up under torture." by Abraham Pais?
Abraham Pais photo
Abraham Pais19
American Physicist 1918–2000

Related quotes

Woody Allen photo

“Never shoot up in the air when you're standing under it.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Malcolm X photo

“I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.”

Malcolm X book The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), p. 22

“Rule #1: Never expect anything from anybody.”

Ralph Smart

“Coyote never loses. Because I change the rules of the games my enemies play. What are the rules of your game?”

Patricia Briggs book Frost Burned

Source: Frost Burned

Johann Georg Hamann photo

“Let us assume that we invited an unknown person to a game of cards. If this person answered us, “I don’t play,” we would either interpret this to mean that he did not understand the game, or that he had an aversion to it which arose from economic, ethical, or other reasons. Let us imagine, however, that an honorable man, who was known to possess every possible skill in the game, and who was well versed in its rules and its forbidden tricks, but who could like a game and participate in it only when it was an innocent pastime, were invited into a company of clever swindlers, who were known as good players and to whom he was equal on both scores, to join them in a game. If he said, “I do not play,” we would have to join him in looking the people with whom he was talking straight in the face, and would be able to supplement his words as follows: “I don’t play, that is, with people such as you, who break the rules of the game, and rob it of its pleasure. If you offer to play a game, our mutual agreement, then, is that we recognize the capriciousness of chance as our master; and you call the science of your nimble fingers chance, and I must accept it as such, it I will, or run the risk of insulting you or choose the shame of imitating you.” … The opinion of Socrates can be summarized in these blunt words, when he said to the Sophists, the leaned men of his time, “I know nothing.””

Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788) German philosopher

Therefore these words were a thorn in their eyes and a scourge on their backs.
Socratic Memorabilia, J. Flaherty, trans. (Baltimore: 1967), pp. 165-167.

“How dreadful… to be caught up in a game and have no idea of the rules.”

Caroline Stevermer (1955) American writer

Source: Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. photo

“Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen everyday.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Source: Life's Little Instruction Book: 511 Suggestions, Observations, and Reminders on How to Live a Happy and Rewarding Life

David Graeber photo

“Honor is a zero sum game.”

David Graeber (1961) American anthropologist and anarchist

Source: Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Chapter Seven, "Honor and Degradation", p. 175

“Anybody who has had experience of poetesses knows that they may forgive a punch on the jaw, but never a suggestion that they would be wiser to give up versifying.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

A Curmudgeon (1961).

Casey Stengel photo

“This makes a man think. You look up and down the bench and you say to yourself, "Can't anybody here play this game?"”

Casey Stengel (1890–1975) American baseball player and coach

As quoted in Can't Anybody here Play This Game? (1963) by Jimmy Breslin; reproduced in "Rocene's Sport Jabs" by Ray Rocene, in The Missoulian (April 21, 1963), p. 11

Related topics