Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin responding to a threat from Senator Joe Biden to cut off aid to Israel, June 22, 1982
Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were being evicted from our homes and lands. We will stand by our principles. If needed, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.
Milan Kundera, Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts
Man proceeds in the fog. But when he looks back to judge people of the past, he sees no fog on their path. From his present, which was their faraway future, their path looks perfectly clear to him, good visibility all the way. Looking back, he sees the path, he sees the people proceeding, he sees their mistakes, but not the fog.
African proverb, from the Shona tribe
The axe forgets but the tree remembers.