Vasil Kolev

“What in Britain is called the Special Relationship, in Germany is called treason.”
― John le Carré, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life: NOW A MAJOR APPLE TV MOTION PICTURE

“We are not afraid of death,” the suicide bombers say to show their superiority to ordinary people. But they are afraid of life, constantly trampling on it, slandering it, destroying it, and training children still in their cradles for martyrdom. Observers have noted that the photos of terrorists taken a few hours before they made their attacks show people who are serene and at peace. They have eliminated doubt: they know. It is the paradox of open societies that they seem to be disordered, unjust, threatened by crime, loneliness, and drugs because they display their indignity before the whole world, never ceasing to admit their defects, whereas other, more oppressive societies seem harmonious because the press and the opposition are muzzled.
“Where there are no visible conflicts, there is no freedom,” Montesquieu said.”
― Pascal Bruckner, The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism

“What distinguished whistleblowers from their peers was intolerance of belief without action. There was black and there was white and they refused to avert their eyes, even—or especially—if others would not let themselves see. Going public followed inevitably. Whatever else drove Ellsberg and Snowden, their zeal was sincere.”
― Barton Gellman, Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State

“Fire-priests have an uncomplicated theology; immolating people purifies them from sin, so the more people you burn to death the less sin there is in the world, and the more holy you are for doing it”
― Graydon Saunders, The March North