14 Quotes by Varlam Shalamov

I'm dressed appropriate for the season mama, I'm dressed appropriately for the season.

If bones could freeze, then the brain could also be dulled and the soul could freeze over. And the soul shuddered and froze- perhaps to remain frozen forever.

Все же с горки дальше видно,Шире кругозор...Как равнине ни обидно,Это – свойство гор.

Le poète se mourait depuis si longtemps qu'il avait cessé de comprendre que c'était la mort. Parfois, une idée simple et forte se frayait un chemin à travers son cerveau, douloureuse et presque palpable : qu'on lui avait volé le pain qu'il avait mis sous sa tête.

There is a much that a man should not see, should not know, and if he should see it, it is better for him to die.

I discovered that the world should be divided not into good and bad people but into cowards and non-cowards. Ninety-five percent of cowards are capable of the vilest things, lethal things, at the mildest threat.

Nothing could be avoided, and nothing could be foreseen. What was the point of unnecessary fear?

Friendship is not born in conditions of need or trouble. Literary fairy tales tell of ‘difficult’ conditions which are an essential element in forming any friendship, but such conditions are simply not difficult enough. If tragedy and need brought people together and gave birth to their friendship, then the need was not extreme and the tragedy not great. Tragedy is not deep and sharp if it can be shared with friends.

A human being survives by his ability to forget. Memory is always ready to blot out the bad and retain only the good.