Staying Human Is What's Important

"It's not enough to stay alive. It's staying human that is important."
--Winston, in Orwell's 1984

"It is beyond dispute that the state exercises very great power over human life  and it always shows a tendency to go beyond the limits laid down for it."
--Nicolas Berdyaev, Slavery and Freedom

"All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do."
--Leo Tolstoy, The Law of Love and the Law of Violence

"Can a man who's warm understand one who's freezing?"
--Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

So many roads, so much at stake
Too many dead ends, I'm at the edge of the lake
Sometimes I wonder what it's gonna take
To find dignity
--Bob Dylan, Dignity

For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
    the more knowledge, the more grief.
--Ecclesiastes 1:18