Khmer Rouge

One might think that a period which, in a space of fifty years, uproots, enslaves, or kills seventy million human beings should be condemned out of hand. But its culpability must still be understood... In more ingenuous times, when the tyrant razed cities for his own greater glory, when the slave chained to the conqueror's chariot was dragged through the rejoicing streets, when enemies were thrown to the wild beasts in front of the assembled people, the mind did not reel before such unabashed crimes, and the judgment remained unclouded. But slave camps under the flag of freedom, massacres justified by philanthropy or by a taste for the superhuman, in one sense cripple judgment. On the day when crime dons the apparel of innocence — through a curious transposition peculiar to our times — it is innocence that is called upon to justify itself.
Albert Camus, The Rebel


They're in love. Fuck the war.
Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow


When we think about the present, we veer wildly between the belief in chance and the evidence in favor of determinism. When we think about the past, however, there is no more doubt; it seems obvious that everything happened in the way it was intended.
Michel Houllebecq, The Elementary Particles


It was raining. Gigantic ferns leaned over us. The forest drifted down a hill. I could hear a creek rushing down among the rocks.
And you, you ridiculous people, you expect me to help you.
Denis Johnson, Jesus' Son


Happiness is a new idea in Europe.
Saint-Just