“The social conditions that nourished and made use of this ideology can still revive; perhaps - who knows? - the virus is dormant, waiting for the next opportunity. Dreams about the perfect society belong to the enduring stock of civilization.”
LK
“A modern philosopher who has never once suspected himself of being a charlatan must be such a shallow mind that his work is probably not worth reading.”
Leszek Kołakowski
“We learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are.”
Leszek Kołakowski
“...shall we say that the difference between a vegetarian and a cannibal is just a matter of taste?”
Leszek Kołakowski
“Communism was not the crazy fantasy of a few fanatics, nor the result of human stupidity and baseness; it was a real, very real part of the history of the twentieth century, and we cannot understand t...”
Leszek Kołakowski
“When I collect my experiences, I notice that fascist is a person who holds one of the following beliefs (by way of example): 1) That people should wash themselves, rather than go dirty; 2) that freedo...”
Leszek Kołakowski