“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”

— Primo Levi · Wisdom quote

Italian Jewish chemist and writer · 1919 – 1987

Italian Jewish chemist and writer who survived Auschwitz; his memoir If This Is a Man is a classic of Holocaust literature.

Source: The Drowned and the Saved · ✓ Source verified

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The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

Ideals are an imaginative understanding of that which is desirable in that which is possible.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity; more than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.

We are all something, but none of us are everything.