When man meets an obstacle he can't destroy, he destroys himself. Ryszard Kapuscinski More Quotes by Ryszard Kapuscinski More Quotes From Ryszard Kapuscinski My writing is a combination of three elements. The first is travel: not travel like a tourist, but travel as exploration. The second is reading literature on the subject. The third is reflection. Ryszard Kapuscinski reading writing travel A journey, after all, neither begins in the instant we set out, nor ends when we have reached our door step once again. It starts much earlier and is really never over, because the film of memory continues running on inside of us long after we have come to a physical standstill. Indeed, there exists something like a contagion of travel, and the disease is essentially incurable. Ryszard Kapuscinski journey running memories Pack the one bag. Unpack it, pack it, unpack it, pack it: passeport, ticket, book, taxi, airport, check-in, beer, announcement, stairs, airplane, fasten seat-belt, air born, flight, rocking, sun, stars, space, hips of strolling stewardesses, read, sleep, clouds, falling engine speed, descent, circling, touch down, earth, unfasten seat-belt, stairs, airport, immunization book, visa, customs, questions, taxi, streets, houses, people, hotel, key, room, stuffiness, thirst, otherness, foreignness, loneliness, fatigue, life. Ryszard Kapuscinski stars loneliness book First you destroy those who create values. Then you destroy those who know what the values are, and who also know that those destroyed before were in fact the creators of values. But real barbarism begins when no one can any longer judge or know that what he does is barbaric. Ryszard Kapuscinski real judging doe There aren't many such enthusiasts born. The average person is not especially curious about the world. He is alive, and being somehow obliged to deal with this condition, feels the less effort it requires, the better. Whereas learning about the world is labor, and a great all-consuming one at that. Most people develop quite antithetical talents, in fact - to look without seeing, to listen without hearing, mainly to preserve onself within oneself. Ryszard Kapuscinski effort average people In Poland a man must be one thing: white or black, here or there, with us or against us -- clearly, openly, without hesitations. . . . We lack the liberal, democratic tradition rich in all its gradations. We have instead the tradition of struggle: the extreme situation, the final gesture. Ryszard Kapuscinski struggle white men Although a system may cease to exist in the legal sense or as a structure of power, its values (or anti-values), its philosophy, its teachings remain in us. They rule our thinking, our conduct, our attitude to others. The situation is a demonic paradox: we have toppled the system but we still carry its genes. Ryszard Kapuscinski teaching attitude philosophy A population weakened and exhausted by battling against so many obstacles - whose needs are never satisfied and desires never fulfilled - is vulnerable to manipulation and regimentation. The struggle for survival is, above all, an exercise that is hugely time-consuming, absorbing and debilitating. If you create these ''anti-conditions,'' your rule is guaranteed for a hundred years. Ryszard Kapuscinski struggle exercise years How do cultures differ from one another? Above all, in their customs. Tell me how you dress, how you act, what are your habits, which gods you honor, and I will tell you who you are. Man not only creates culture, he carries it around with him. Man is culture. Ryszard Kapuscinski honor dresses men Our salvation is in striving to achieve what we know we'll never achieve. Ryszard Kapuscinski strive achieve salvation Photographing expresses human desire to preserve passing time. It is like a man struggling with time that elapses, and in general - a desire to preserve oneself. Ryszard Kapuscinski struggle desire men More than anything, one is struck by the light. Light everywhere. Brightness everywhere. Everywhere, the sun. Ryszard Kapuscinski brightness light sun The continent is too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say 'Africa'. In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist. Ryszard Kapuscinski ocean doe reality There is a lack of critical assessment of the past. But you have to understand that the current ruling elite is actually the old ruling elite. So they are incapable of a self-critical approach to the past. Ryszard Kapuscinski assessment self past In order to feel contempt, you generally need to cherish some kind of feelings. Ryszard Kapuscinski feelings order needs In a society of little economic development, universal inactivity accompanies universal poverty. You survive not by struggling against nature, or by increasing production, or by relentless labor; instead you survive by expending as little energy as possible, by striving constantly to achieve a state of immobility. Ryszard Kapuscinski development energy struggle I remember that during the period leading up to independence in Angola in 1975, I was the only correspondent there at all for three months. Ryszard Kapuscinski independence three months The extent of one man's guilt may be defined by how much of it is experienced by the party he injured. Ryszard Kapuscinski party guilt men Money changes all the iron rules into rubber bands. Ryszard Kapuscinski rubber iron band if reason ruled the world would history even exist? Ryszard Kapuscinski ifs reason world
