Primo Levi's most important quotes (with the book they come from)
The top 3 according to 23 votes from people: Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous; more dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to obey. · It easily happens to someone who has lost everything to lose himself. · The conviction that life has a purpose is rooted in every fibre of man; it is a property of the human substance.. (Updated Jul 9, 2024.)
"Consider if this is a man", "If understanding is impossible, knowing is necessary" and "It happened, therefore it can happen again": the most quoted lines of Primo Levi, from If This Is a Man and The Truce to The Periodic Table and The Drowned and the Saved, with sources.
Automatically translated (original in Italiano). See the original
Top 17
-
1
Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous; more dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to obey.
Afterword to If This Is a Man (1976).
-
2
It easily happens to someone who has lost everything to lose himself.
If This Is a Man (1947), cap. II.
-
3
The conviction that life has a purpose is rooted in every fibre of man; it is a property of the human substance.
If This Is a Man (1947), cap. VII.
-
4
Consider if this is a man / who works in the mud / who does not know peace / who fights for a scrap of bread / who dies because of a yes or a no.
"Shema", the poem that opens If This Is a Man (1947).
-
5
If understanding is impossible, knowing is necessary.
Afterword to If This Is a Man (1976).
-
6
Woe to those who dream: the moment of consciousness that comes with waking is the sharpest suffering.
If This Is a Man (1947), cap. IV.
-
7
Every age has its own fascism.
L'asimmetria e la vita (2002).
-
8
Everyone is somebody's Jew.
If Not Now, When? (1982).
-
9
Nostalgia is a fragile and gentle suffering, essentially different, more intimate, more human than other pains.
The Truce (1963).
-
10
Among the things I had learned in Auschwitz, one of the most important was that you must always avoid being "a nobody".
The Truce (1963).
-
11
Loving your work (which unfortunately is the privilege of few) is the best concrete approximation to happiness on earth.
The Wrench (1978).
-
12
Meditate that this came about: / I commend these words to you. / Carve them in your hearts.
"Shema", the poem that opens If This Is a Man (1947).
-
13
Few are the men who know how to go to their death with dignity, and often they are not the ones you would expect.
If This Is a Man (1947), cap. I.
-
14
It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say.
The Drowned and the Saved (1986), Conclusion.
-
15
To destroy a man is difficult, almost as difficult as to create one: it has not been easy, nor quick, but you Germans have succeeded.
If This Is a Man (1947), cap. XVI.
-
16
Trouble does not come at a gallop, like the Huns, but quietly, stealthily, like epidemics.
The Periodic Table (1975), "Argento".
-
17
Distilling is beautiful. First, because it is a slow, philosophical and silent occupation, that keeps you busy but lets you think of other things.
The Periodic Table (1975), "Potassio".
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
Is something missing?
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first!