Above all, the thrall in which an ideology holds a people is best measured by their collective inability to imagine alternatives.
Tony JudtWhat I am against is false optimism: the notion either that things have to go well, or else that they tend to, or else that the default condition of historical trajectories is characteristically beneficial in the long-run.
Tony JudtUnlike memory, which confirms and reinforces itself, history contributes to the disenchantment of the world.
Tony JudtWords can make the illness a subject I can master, and not one that one simply emotes over.
Tony JudtI worry that we have forgotten that the de-ideologized, de-politicized, uncontentious public space of the last 50 years as Europeans have experienced it is not the normal human condition. We shall be sorry to have abandoned a little too quickly the institutions that were set up by our parents and grandparents to protect themselves against a return of the bad old world. Because the bad old world can still come back to haunt you.
Tony Judt