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A maxim for the twenty-first century might well be to start not by fighting evil in the name of good, but by attacking the certainties of people who claim always to know where good and evil are to be found.

— Tzvetan Todorov

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More quotes by Tzvetan Todorov

Pride is not a wise counselor. People who believe themselves to be the incarnation of good have a distorted view of the world.

Nothing is more commonplace than the reading experience, and yet nothing is more unknown. Reading is such a matter of course that at first glance it seems there is nothing to say about it.

Reading as Construction (1980)

Democracy brought to others through the barrel of a gun is not democracy; to impose it by force is to undermine it.

For evil to take place, the acts of a few people are not sufficient; the great majority also has to remain indifferent. That is something of which we are all quite capable.

American society has always exercised a stronger pressure on individual behavior than Western European societies; but in time of war this pressure is notched a few degrees, and starts to become quite alarming.

The New World Disorder: Reflections of a European (2005)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tzvetan Todorov (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.