I feel that we're living in an era that seems to have forgotten what can and will happen when fascism rears its head. I think we all need reminding of it in the face of those who either deny the past or never knew about it in the first place.

But the courage to go against a sweep of feeling, to be an awkward minority, to stand up and be counted, even when it makes one unpopular, is not as prevalent as it should be. We have a long way to go to achieve responsible citizenship and common self-respecting humanity.

سنصير شعباً حين ننسى ما تقولُ لنا القبيلة.... ,
حين يُعْلي الفرد من شأن التفاصيل الصغيرةْ

سنصير شعباً حين ينظر كاتبٌ نحو النجوم , ولا يقول:
بلادنا أَعلى ...وأجملْ !

- إن أردنا

Separated from National Socialism by time and luck, we find it easy to dismiss Nazi ideas without contemplating how they functioned. Our forgetfulness convinces us that we are different from Nazis by shrouding the ways that we are the same. —

We may often be of more consequence in our own eyes than in the eyes of our neighbours.

I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust…We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.

People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.

There's an old saying about those who forget history. I don't remember it, but it's good.

Our generation has forgotten that the system of private property is the most important guarantee of freedom.

We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too.

In the blood-heat of pursuing the enemy, many people are forgetting what we are fighting for. We are fighting for our hard-won liberty and freedom; for our Constitution and the due processes of our laws; and for the right to differ in ideas, religion and politics.

A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.

Religions and states and classes and tribes and nations do not have to work or argue for their adherents and subjects. They more or less inherit them. Against this unearned patrimony there have always been speakers and writers who embody Einstein's injunction to 'remember your humanity and forget the rest.' It would be immodest to claim membership in this fraternity/sorority, but I hope not to have done anything to outrage it. Despite the idiotic sneer that such principles are 'fashionable,' it is always the ideas of secularism, libertarianism, internationalism, and solidarity that stand in need of reaffirmation.

It is said that those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it. That’s not quite correct. We all forget history. The key is whether we have a way to go back to rediscover what we forget. More directly, the key is whether an objective past can keep us honest.