ليس في الإمكان قط أن نحدد بدقة إلى اي مدى تكون علاقاتنا بالآخرين هي حصيلة مشاعرنا، حبّنا أو لا حبّنا، رقتنا أو كراهيتنا، وإلى اي مدى تكون علاقاتنا مشرو… - Milan Kundera

We can regard the gulag as a septic tank used by totalitarian kitsch to dispose of its refuse.

Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out is mute. Only chance can speak to us. We read its message much as gypsies read the images made by coffee grounds at the bottom of the cup.

Yes, suddenly I saw it clearly: most people deceive themselves with a pair of faiths: they believe in eternal memory (of people, things, deeds, nations) and in redressibility (of deeds, mistakes, sins, wrongs). Both are false faiths. In reality the opposite is true: everything will be forgotten and nothing will be redressed. The task of obtaining redress (by vengeance or by forgiveness) will be taken over by forgetting. No one will redress the wrongs that have been done, but all wrongs will be forgotten.