Hungary Quotes

“We should never forget that everything Adolph Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighers did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany.”
― Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Great revelations of nature, of course, never fail to impress in one way or another, and I was no stranger to moods of the kind. Mountains overawe and oceans terrify, while the mystery of great forests exercises a spell peculiarly its own. But all these, at one point or another, somewhere link on intimately with human life and human experience. They stir comprehensible, even if alarming, emotions. They tend on the whole to exalt.”
― Algernon Blackwood, The Willows

“Stencil had called from a Hungarian coffee shop on York Avenue known as Hungarian Coffee Shop”
― Thomas Pynchon, V.

“And thus to my final and most melancholy point: a great number of Stalin's enforcers and henchmen in Eastern Europe were Jews. And not just a great number, but a great proportion. The proportion was especially high in the secret police and 'security' departments, where no doubt revenge played its own part, as did the ideological attachment to Communism that was so strong among internationally minded Jews at that period: Jews like David Szmulevski. There were reasonably strong indigenous Communist forces in Czechoslovakia and East Germany, but in Hungary and Poland the Communists were a small minority and knew it, were dependent on the Red Army and aware of the fact, and were disproportionately Jewish and widely detested for that reason. Many of the penal labor camps constructed by the Nazis were later used as holding pens for German deportees by the Communists, and some of those who ran these grim places were Jewish. Nobody from Israel or the diaspora who goes to the East of Europe on a family-history fishing-trip should be unaware of the chance that they will find out both much less and much more than the package-tour had promised them. It's easy to say, with Albert Camus, 'neither victims nor executioners.' But real history is more pitiless even than you had been told it was.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“Magyarország a képzelet országa. Kitaláljuk magunknak az országot, függetlenül a reálisan létezőtől. Futballország volnánk, de sose nyertünk világbajnokságot; olvasom, hogy irodalmi nagyhatalom volnánk, és a kutya sem ismeri a világban az irodalmunkat, itt a két világháború közt úgy volt királyság, hogy király nem volt hozzá. A káprázat országa.”
― Péter Esterházy, A ​halacska csodálatos élete

“The camera only documented what had been there all along, a marriage whose foundations, constructed from the cheap materials of convention and fear, had been buckling for years.”
― Susan Faludi, In the Darkroom

“At a crucial point in my early twenties, being able to end a pregnancy had restored to me what I regarded as a normal life. I remember that it saved me.”
― Susan Faludi, In the Darkroom

“This is our homeland, our life, and since we don't have another one, we will fight for it until the very end and we will never give it up.”
― Viktor Orbán

“O Danúbio, pensei, era o Danúbio mas não era azul, era amarelo, a cidade toda era amarela, os telhados, o asfalto, os parques, engraçado isso, uma cidade amarela, eu pensava que Budapeste fosse cinzenta, mas Budapeste era amarela.”
― Chico Buarque, Budapeste

“Here was a Jewish man-turned-woman making fun of Jewish men for not being manly enough.”
― Susan Faludi, In the Darkroom

“Non numerantur, sed ponderantur”
― Paul Erdös

“Have you ever heard the Hungarian national anthem? No? Good for you! I wouldn’t recommend it at all. Unless you are looking for inspiration for your suicide attempt. If it is not just an attempt but you are deadly serious about your suicide then I strongly recommend you not only read the lyrics but listen to the music too. The most mournful funeral song sounds jolly compared to it. Other nations have inspiring anthems like ‘God Save the Queen’ or the ‘La Marseillaise’ or ‘The StarSpangled Banner’, and their lyrics are about victory and proudness like ‘Russia – our sacred homeland, Russia – our beloved country’ or ‘Germany, Germany above everything, Above everything in the world!’ But what about the Hungarian anthem? It starts with ‘O Lord, bless the Hungarian’ and then follow eight long and painful stanzas about our ‘slave yoke’ and ‘funeral urn’ and ‘the corpses of our defeated army’ and ‘groans of death, weeping’ and finally it finishes with ‘Pity, O Lord, the Hungarians they who have suffered for all sins of the past and of the future!’ Yes, of the future too.”
― Angela Kiss, How to Be an Alien in England: A Guide to the English

“Well, then. Hungary borders, in the south, on the Danube and Serbia... and the Rumanian... Dalmatian... and Serbia... and the capital of Serbia.., and the Serbia of capital...”
― Frigyes Karinthy, Please Sir!

“You cannot imagine, to give you another example, that you may have, one day, a prime minister (it would go against my modesty to breathe his name) who, one day, after announcing in Parliament, in a cool, impassive voice, that, as the result of a number of carefully thought out diplomatic manoeuvres he has refrained from discussing before (for he is not a man of many words), he has succeeded in annexing Britain as an ordinary colony of Hungary, and that he is taking this opportunity to apprise the House of the fact; - Well, as I say, after explaining this in a cool and impassive tone, ignoring the shouting, jubilant Members who want to carry him round on their shoulders, suddenly he takes up a fencing posture and, right there, on the premier's rostrum, employing a formidable, hitherto unknown jujitsu hold, floors the Australian world wrestling champion whom the British opposition treacherously hid under the rostrum in order to assassinate the greatest European.”
― Frigyes Karinthy, Please Sir!

“Islam will aim to establish itself as the majority in France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Any country, in which they successfully establish themselves will serve as their primary base for the invasion of neighbouring countries (such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Denmark, Hungary and the Mediterranean)”
― Anita B. Sulser PhD, We Are One

“It is not American Jews who have betrayed their Israeli cousins. It is the Netanyahu-led Israeli government that has betrayed Jews outside Israel, by aligning itself with nationalist parties in countries like Poland and Hungary, who are hostile to the ideals that make it possible for Jews in the diaspora to live free of persecution.”
― Adam Serwer, The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump's America

“Why don't we like them?" Katalin asked.
"Because they don't treat us right."
After Zoltán said it, he marveled at the realization that in trying to clarify years of abuses and lists of grievances, that in trying to make oppression understandable for a child, he had reduced the horror of Soviet domination to one simple, honest statement of fact: The Russians didn't treat the Hungarians right.”
― Doris Mortman, The Wild Rose

“If Recsk had taught him anything, it was that for those intent on killing, life was the ultimate revenge.”
― Doris Mortman, The Wild Rose

“Life without tears is like goulash without paprika.”
― Margaret McMullan, Where the Angels Lived: One Family's Story of Exile, Loss, and Return

“Két napja a sivatagban még simán le tudtad rajzolni Laffénak Kis-Magyarországot, aztán szülőföld okán egy búsat, magyarosat sóhajtva a nagyot is, mert legalább itt, a világ végén, ahol a közelben lakó Úristenen, meg egy beduinon kívül senki se látja, legalább itt nem hagyod a történelmi realitásérzéked meg vérontásfóbiád a nagy nemzetbarát fölé kerekedni. Igaz, az valahogy még most se jut eszedbe, hogy néped megőrzése fontosabb a morális univerzáliáknál. Hogy ez így választható lenne: népem, vagy morál. Szóval tegnapelőtt már-már megesküdtél volna, hogy a nyelvi akadály egy humbug. Hogy kézzel-lábbal, angolul meg homokba rajzolva bármit el lehet, még egy viccet is. Most viszont egy befőttesüveggel az öledben rádöbbensz, hogy Magyarországot igen, a Közel-Keletet igen, engem is, téged igen, talán még Istent is lerajzolhatod. A kovászt soha.”
― Attila Bartis, A Lázár apokrifek

“Eszembe jut, ahogy megpendítette ezeket a mi tragikus bohózatba illő hadüzeneteinket - például az oroszoknak meg az amerikaiaknak. Hogy azt hitték a politikusaink, elég csupán hepciáskodva hadat üzenniük, a győzelmet meg majd vívják ki nekünk ezek a szorgos németek.
És a dolog csak húzódik, nyúlik a végtelenségbe. Meddig kell ezt még bírni, Artúr?, kérdi Heltai. Meddig kell bírni még a zsidóságot, a hideget, az éhezést, az elsötétítést, a bombázást, a hajléktalanságot, a munkátlanságot, a szegénységet, a betegséget meg a poloskát? És mindezt csak azért, mert - pusztán a németek iránti udvariasságból - megüzentük Amerikának és Oroszországnak a háborút. A háború pedig nem üzent vissza, hanem személyesen idejött. Senki sem gondolt arra, hogy ez lehetséges lesz. Mindenki azt hitte, hogy ezt a németek elintézik, ők harcolnak majd, mi pedig a tribünről, páholyból drukkolunk nekik.”
― Pál Závada, Hajó ​a ködben

“A sarokban a tűzifahalomnál öregember ült. Egymásra szorított tenyérrel alig hallhatóan, ismeretlen szavakat mormolva imádkozott. Világított a szeme. Z. félt tőle. Nálunk bújik a bácsi, súgta az apja. Mikor évekkel később beszélgettek a háborúról, megkérdezte apját, mi lett a bácsival, aki a pincénkben bújt el. Nem tudom, mondta az apja. Zsidó volt, üldözték őket. A kórházban is voltak zsidó orvos barátaim, elvitték, megölték őket
hagytátok?”
― Iván Sándor, Amit a szél susog

“Our neighbor, Jokai Neni, had two sons who were both locomotive engineers. They were my heroes, and I always ran out to greet them when they came home with their oily, sooty faces.”
― John Czingula, From Utopia to The American Dream

“It was well after midnight when I put the thick document called ‘Invitation to Tender for a concession to provide GSM services in Hungary’ on my bedside cabinet. The document had been reissued on October 15, 1992. I had quickly scanned, and hopefully absorbed, the main points. The tender was organized as a beauty contest and the winning consortia would be allowed to participate in the auction to be held next year. There were two concessions up for grabs, one that would surely go to the existing NMT operator Westel (US West & Bell Atlantic) and one for a new party. It was shut eye time now, I was tired. The flight to Budapest would leave early in the morning, so I had only a few hours to rest.”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“The former banker helped us with the financial plans, figuring out how much we could afford to bid in the auction. We concluded that we could certainly bid USD 45 million for a 20-year license in Hungary. Swedish Telecom was very confident, their CEO had said in radio interviews that he thought that 1 in 4 people would have a mobile phone by the year 2000. This was overly optimistic according to the other consortium partners. They were more conservative and we had difficulty persuading them to put up more money”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“The Uskoks – like reformed alcoholics brought face to face with row upon row of brightly coloured liqueur miniatures – were simply unable to avoid helping themselves to passing Venetian Christian ships.”
― Simon Winder, Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe

“We were watching videos at night on her Samsung tablet or my company iPad. She showed me the Silvano Agosti 1983 Italian interview with a little Italian boy called “D'Amore si vive, We Live of Love.” The boy was so cute, and his thoughts seemed similar to mine and Martina's. I was so deeply in love with her. The boy on the interview was just like what our own child would be, and we agreed and laughed. “We Live of Love.” What a coincidence! Living. By: Love. I knew the interview from before and she was surprised at how I knew about it. I showed her on my Instagram a picture of the boy I had recently taken a screenshot of and posted. With the subtitle at the right moment under his face: “Descubrir a la vida.” To discover life. Together. With his one and only girlfriend, as the boy explains.
I told her multiple times that I was still unsure if she was real, or if it was all a dream; if I had only dreamed of her one night in the dark; if Pinto and I had invented her in my mind.
She was a big fan of space, but I thought she liked the mystery behind the endless space with all its questions and secrets for us humans. I thought she liked the sky and space because she recently flew from Argentina to land in my arms.
Martina and I were obsessed with Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy; we both knew all their stand-up comedies by heart. We kept replaying the best moments or faces that Chris or Eddie made. We had so much fun watching the same videos over and over that I couldn't believe it. Nobody else ever found the same moments or the same stand-ups as funny as Martina and I did. Nobody before or after found it so amusing. If I showed it to someone, they didn't understand why I was so excited about it or why racist jokes were so funny for an hour from one black comedian to the next. We were obsessed the way Eddie spoke about the „Zebra-Bitch of her dreams, her dream-wife who doesn’t know the concept of money”, saying “she should have an afro, like Angela Davis goes 'God damn it.'“ We were laughing so much. Sometimes I tickled her flat belly or her ribs and she was laughing so sweetly and so much that she couldn't stop. She was begging me to stop tickling her when I barely touched her. She said “No, no, no, no” so many times so quickly and cutely that I had to stop and kiss her; I couldn't resist her lips or her person, I had to kiss and hug her.

We laughed so much at particular parts of Chris Rock's stand-up comedies that we could barely stop, almost as if we were tickling each other. We were laughing when Chris Rock was mocking Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony for singing ‘Welfare chariots’ such as „The First of the Month” or when he explained that the government hates rappers, but „only the good rappers get gunned down. They could find Saddam Hussein in a cave in Iraq but couldn't arrest anyone related to Tupac Shakur’s assassination, which didn't happen in a cave in Iraq but in Las Vegas, on the Strip, not one of those side streets, but in front of Circus Circus, after a Mike Tyson fight. Now how many witnesses do you need, to arrest somebody?”

We were fascinated with Eddie Murphy, Charlie Murphy, and Chris Rock, but when I showed her Richard Prior, Doug Stanhope, Aries Spears, or George Carlin, she was no longer so impressed for some reason.

Her favorite part perhaps was when Chris Rock talked about love and relationships. He said that „you never really been in love unless you have contemplated murder; unless you have practiced your alibi in front of the mirror, staring at a can of rat poison for 45 minutes straight, you haven't been in love. And the only thing preventing you from killing your significant other was an episode of CSI.” He said that relationships are hard and that in order for them to work, both people need to have the same focus, which is all about: her.”
― Tomas Adam Nyapi

“There’s something about border towns that tastes like spilt liquor and cigarette ash. They rarely greet you with a smile. More like a shrug, a raised eyebrow, maybe a tax. And crossing from Slovakia into Hungary felt exactly like that: like the end of a party we were never really invited to. Gone were the manicured roads and apologetic drivers of the West. In their place: cracked tarmac, sun-faded billboards, and a lingering Cold War hangover you couldn’t quite shake off. It was perfect.”
― Tom Cartledge, SaddleSore: From England to India