In the political jargon of those days, the word "intellectual" was an insult. It indicated someone who did not understand life and was cut off from the people. All the Communists who were hanged at the time by other Communists were awarded such abuse. Unlike those who had their feet solidly on the ground, they were said to float in the air. So it was fair, in a way, that as punishment the ground was permanently pulled out from under their feet, that they remained suspended a little above the floor.

Speak truth to power.

What does it mean to live in truth? Putting it negatively is easy enough: it means not lying, not hiding, and not dissimulating.

Pain doesn't listen to reason, it has it's own reason, which is not reasonable

Love is a battle, and I plan to go on fighting. To the end.

There is no perfection only life

There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting.