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Ten hostages is terrorism;
A million, and it's strategy.
To ban books is fanaticism;
To threaten in totality
All culture and all civilization,
All humankind and all creation,
This is a task of decorous skill
And needs high statesmanship and will.

— Vikram Seth The Golden Gate (1986)

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More quotes by Vikram Seth

Is it not love that knows how to make smooth things rough and rough things smooth?

An Equal Music (1999)

In the strict ranks of Gay and Straight
What is my status: Stray? Or Great?

What is the difference between my life and my love? One gets me low, the other lets me go.

An Equal Music (1999)

In life's brief game to be a winner
A man must have...oh yes, above
All else, of course, someone to love.

The Golden Gate (1986)

All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hands to left or right,
And emptiness above—
Know that you aren’t alone.
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.

All Vikram Seth quotes →

Attribution

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