Een prachtig boek dat mij zeer heeft geïnspireerd. Het is voor mij een voorbeeld van leiderschap vanuit intrinsieke waarden, de veerkracht van de mens en het verschil tussen vechten tegen een groep en vechten tegen het systeem van de groep.

Ik heb een aantal citaten opgeschreven:

“An educated man cannot be oppressed, for he can think for himself. He does not need someone else to think for him.”

“I was the symbol of justice in the court of the oppressor, the representative of the great ideals of freedom, fairness and democracy in a society that dishonored those virtues. I realized then and there that I could carry on the fight even within the fortress of the enemy.”

“It is easier to educate a man who wants to learn.”

“All men, even the most seemingly coldblooded, have a core of decency, and if their hearts are touched, they are capable of changing. Ultimately, men are not evil; inhumanity had been folded upon them by an inhuman system. They behaved like brutes because they were rewarded for brutish behavior.”

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

“Any house in which a man is free is a castle when compared with even the plushest prison.”

“Each side discovered that the other did not have horns.”

“To make peace with an enemy, one must work with that enemy, and that enemy becomes your partner.”

“The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

“A man who takes away another man his freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.”