Quotes from work

Dirty Hands

“It is the good children, Madame, who make the most terrible revolutionaries. They say nothing, they do not hide under the table, they eat only one sweet at a time, but later on, they make Society pay dearly for it!”

“They made me take cod liver oil: that is the height of luxury: a medicine to make you hungry while the others, in the street, would have sold themselves for a beefsteak. I saw them passing my window with their signs: “Give me bread.””

“I do not give a damn about the dead. They died for the [Communist] Party and the Party can decide what it wants. I practice a live man’s politics, for the living.”

“You take souls for vegetables…. The gardener can decide what will become of his carrots but no one can choose the good of others for them.”

“Listen to me: a family man is never a real family man. An assassin is never entirely assassin. They play a role, you understand. While a dead man, he is really dead. To be or not to be, right?”

“As for us, my little friend, we entered [the Communist Party] because we were tired of dying of hunger.”

“In any case, if you ever leave me with a handsome man, do not tell me that you trust me because, let me warn you: that is not what will prevent me from deceiving you, if I want to. On the contrary.”

“What do you want to do with the [Communist] Party? A racing stable? What good is it to sharpen a knife every day if you never use it for slicing? A party is never more than a means. There is only one objective: power.”

“I say a murder is abstract. You pull the trigger and after that you do not understand anything that happens.”

“The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.”

“I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary.”

“Politics is a science. You can demonstrate that you are right and that others are wrong.”

“The [Communist] Party has one objective: the creation of a socialist economy; and one means: the utilization of the class struggle.”

“I respect orders but I respect myself too and I do not obey foolish rules made especially to humiliate me.”

“I entered the [Communist] Party because its cause was just and I will leave it when it ceases to be just.”

“Intellectuals cannot be good revolutionaries; they are just good enough to be assassins.”

“I was your luxury. For nineteen years I have been put in your man’s world and was forbidden to touch anything and you made me think that all was going very well and that I did not have to worry about anything but putting flowers in vases. Why did you lie to me? Why did you keep me ignorant, if it was to admit to me one day that this world is cracking and that you are all powerless and to make me choose between a suicide and a murder?”

“It is the same thing: killing, dying, it is the same thing: one is just as alone in each. He is lucky, he will only die once. As for me, for ten days I have been killing him at every minute.”

“Karsky: I met your father last week. Are you still interested in hearing how he is doing?
Hugo: No.
Karsky: It is very probable that you will be responsible for his death.
Hugo: It is virtually certain that he is responsible for my life. We are even.”