““...the rightist totalitarian program was exceptionally poor. The only gratification it offered came from collective warmth: crowds, red faces, mouths open in a shout, marches, arms brandishing sticks; but little rational satisfaction. Neither racist doctrines, not hatred of foreigners, not the glorification of one’s own national traditions could efface the feeling that the entire program was improvised to deal with the problems of the moment.”
— Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind, page 8
“The man of the East cannot take Americans seriously because they have never undergone the experiences that teach men how relative their judgements and thinking habits are. Their resultant lack of imagination is appalling. Because they were born and raised in a given social order and in a given system of values, they believe that any others order must be ‘unnatural,’ and that it cannot last because it is incompatible with human nature. ”
— Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind, page 29
“Wherever there is a crisis, the ruling classes take refuge in fascism as a safeguard against the revolution of the proletariat.”
— Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind, page 30
“Whoever would take the measure of intellectual life in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe from the monotonous articles appearing in the press or the stereotyped speeches pronounced there, would be making a grave error. Just as theologians in periods of strict orthodoxy expressed their views in the rigorous language of the Church, so the writers of the people’s democracies make use of an accepted special style, terminology, and linguistic ritual. What is important is not what someone said but what he wanted to say...”
— Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind, page 78-79
“The reader of today is in search of hope, and he does not care for poetry that accepts the order of things as permanent.”
