Serbia Quotes

“When these people, my mother and people like her, came out here it was like leaving a reality; leaving a planet; turning your back. I guess we don’t appreciate it was such a big deal that they may never come back, never see their family again. – John Savić”
― Peter Brune, Suffering, Redemption and Triumph: The first wave of post-war Australian immigrants 1945-66

“Europeans the Poles or Balts coming in here … we brought here knowledge with us and our culture with us, but we assimilated … assimilated is not one way, it’s a two-way street. - Fred Ritzkowski, German”
― Peter Brune, Suffering, Redemption and Triumph: The first wave of post-war Australian immigrants 1945-66

“I like it! I liked it when man to man no matter whether he is boss or he is ordinary worker, but in meantime they go to the pub, they drink beer together and call by first name. I like that. After few years, I think that Queensland is the best place in Australia … I am Queenslander! – Alex Sucharsky, Ukranian”
― Peter Brune, Suffering, Redemption and Triumph: The first wave of post-war Australian immigrants 1945-66

“Playing pool with Korean officials one evening in the Koryo Hotel, which has become the nightspot for foreign businessmen and an increasing number of diplomats (to say nothing of the burgeoning number of spies and journalists traveling under second identities), I was handed that day's edition of the Pyongyang Times. At first glance it seemed too laughable for words: endless pictures of the 'Dear Leader'—Little Boy's exalted title—as he was garlanded by adoring schoolchildren and heroic tractor drivers. Yet even in these turgid pages there were nuggets: a telegram congratulating the winner of the Serbian elections; a candid reference to the 'hardship period' through which the country had been passing; an assurance that a certain nuclear power plant would be closed as part of a deal with Washington. Tiny cracks, to be sure. But a complete and rigid edifice cannot afford fissures, however small. There appear to be no hookers, as yet, in Pyongyang. Yet if casinos come, can working girls be far behind? One perhaps ought not to wish for hookers, but there are circumstances when corruption is the only hope.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

“Europe, he says, is frightened that an influx of foreigners will erode European values. But what values will there to be uphold if we abandon our duty to protect those less fortunate than ourselves? Wat incentive do we give to refugees to maintain the fabric of our society if that fabric is so ragged in the first place? "If Europe is not able to show a better way of life to them, then they will think that their morality is better than ours."

"They need to face some higher standards of morality, " he says. "If not, they will set their own."

[Quoting Serbian priest Tibor Varga]”
― Patrick Kingsley, The New Odyssey: The Story of Europe's Refugee Crisis

“For as long as anyone can remember, the history of Kosovo has been a battlefield pitting Serbs against Albanians. Each believes different things because each has been taught different things, and as they reach further back into time it becomes easier to argue whatever they want in order to find support for their view of the present.”
― Tim Judah, Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know

“Yet it is also a tonic and an antidote to dullness to be with the Serbs. They possess the irresponsible gaiety that we traditionally connect with the Irish, with whom they have often been compared. Other less convenient sides of the Irish character are also typical in the Serbs, such as a cheerful contempt for punctuality in daily life and a ready willingness, arising clearly from politeness and good nature, to make promises that are not always fulfilled. But perhaps the most pronounced of these similarities is to be found in the songs of Serbia and Ireland. With both peoples the historic songs about the past are songs of sorrow, or noble struggles against overwhelming odds, of failure redeemed by unconquerable resolve. There is nothing strange in this combination of laughing gaiety and profound melancholy. It is often only those who are truly capable of the one emotion who also have the faculty for the other.”
― R.G.D. Laffan

“....in Bosnia, mass rape was a policy of the war, systematically carried out, implicating neighbors, paramilitaries, soldiers.”
― Ausma Zehanat Khan, The Unquiet Dead

“It’s funny – you Irish are so like the Serbs.”
― Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

“-the apartment had been directly in the sight line of a Serb sniper across the river. Teta-Jozefina was a devout Catholic, but she somehow managed to believe in essential human goodness, despite all the abundant evidence to the contrary surrounding her. She felt that the sniper was essentially a good man because during the siege, she said, he had often shot over her and her husband's heads to warn them that he was watching and that they shouldn't move so carelessly in their own apartment.”
― Aleksandar Hemon, The Book of My Lives

“U begu od nesreće, doživljavao sam skup razočarenja koji su je svojom snagom prevazilazili, čak i u toj meri da mi se činilo da je bolje da sam nesreću sačekao raširenih ruku. Ali, kako da se predam zlu kad osećam da postoji dobro?”
― Slaviša Pavlović

“Moji suborci i ja nismo pravili razliku između ljudi koje smo branili, a ja nisam ni znao tko je Srbin, a tko Hrvat. Nikome od nas to nije bilo važno niti smo o tome pričali. Dok se srpski civili prijavljuju vojsci da su Srbi, usput nas prokazuju, a najgore od svega je to što optužuju bez razloga izmišljajući nebulozne zločine.”
― Vilim Karlović, Preživio sam Vukovar i Ovčaru

“Jedino kad žmurim
Ne brojim ti poglede
Poklonjene drugima,
A ne meni.”
― Đorđe Simić, Pitomi vulkan

“Until the war had broken out, there had been some sort of order in the strange and complex mixture of the four disparate peoples crowded into the little valley, all calling themselves Bosnians. They celebrated separate holidays, ate different foods, feasted and fasted on different days, yet all depended on one another, but never admitted it. They had lived amidst an ever present, if dormant, mixture of hatred and love for each other. The Muslims with their Ramadan, the Jews with Passover, the Catholics with Christmas, and the Serbs with their Slavas- each of them tacitly tolerated and recognised the customs and existence of others. With suckling pigs turned on spits in Serbian houses, giving off a mouth-watering fragrance, kosher food would be eaten in Jewish homes, and in Muslim households, meals were cooked in suet. There was a certain harmony in all this, even if there was no actual mixing. The aromas had long ago adjusted to one another and had given the city its distinctive flavor. Everything was "as God willed it." But it was necessary to remove only one piece of that carefully balanced mosaic and that whole picture would fall into its component parts which would then, rejoined in an unthinkable manner, create hostile and incompatible entities. ‏Like a hammer, the war had knocked out one piece, disrupting the equilibrium.”
― Gordana Kuić, Miris kiše na Balkanu

“I think of myself as a political idiot. Idiot, in ancient Greece, denoted a common person without access to knowledge and information--all women, by definition, and most men. I am unable to make judgments. I see no options I can identify with. Is that normal?”
― Jasmina Tešanović, The Diary of a Political Idiot: Normal Life in Belgrade

“Do you know what we call windows in Belgrade?' she asked. All our windows are broken and crisscrossed with scotch tape. 'Windows 99.”
― Jasmina Tešanović

“Apart from the Croat-Muslim unifying narrative, the Ustashe also used overtly anti-Serb propaganda. They banned the Cyrillic alphabet, which is the Serb national alphabet, on April 25, 1941, and on May 3, 1941 passed legislation that viewed religious conversion for the Orthodox as the only way to grant them equal rights before the law.”
― Fotini Christia, Alliance Formation in Civil Wars

“Praktično, nema srpskog političara koji ne misli da su Srbi stoka. Teorijski, nema Srbina koji ne misli da su ovdašnji političari prva generacija svojih porodica kojima je otpao rep. Svi su u pravu.”
― Aleksandar Tijanić

“We had watched the Sacramento Kings, my favorite NBA team, playing the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers had won but it was still fun, especially since we had tickets for the third row. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Vlade Divac and Predrag Stojakovic, two Serbs playing in the Kings, waving at me and saying hello. They recognized the jersey of Divac's former team from Belgrade that I had been wearing.”
― Savo Heleta, Not My Turn to Die: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia

“Vremenom
Naučili smo
I skrštenih ruku
Pogledima da
Grlimo se na sav glas
Čak i kada ćutimo.”
― Đorđe Simić, Pitomi vulkan

“Ma koliko nežan,
Tvoj je dodir neiskren.
Zagrljajem
Želiš me smrskati.”
― Đorđe Simić, Pitomi vulkan

“Svud po meni
Cvetaju
Tvojih prstiju tragovi.
Suzama
Zalivam im korenje.”
― Đorđe Simić, Pitomi vulkan

“Nežna kao ruža,
Tvoja koža
Pod moje se prste
Do kostiju pribola.
Svaki trn joj volim.”
― Đorđe Simić, Pitomi vulkan

“Kad god se sretnemo,
Mirišeš na cimet
I tuđe ruke.
Niko ne oseti,
Samo moja krv.”
― Đorđe Simić, Pitomi vulkan

“Pune su mi oči smeha
Dok čekam,
Usana svežih
Meni da se vratiš
I dodirom
Sve moje smrti
U sekundi ozdraviš.”
― Đorđe Simić, Pitomi vulkan

“Нек над Србијом божур цвета
на грани ветра на руци лета
нек се злато проспе низ вече
нек четврта Морава потече”
― Manojle Gavrilović, Словенска роса

“Until the war had broken out, there had been some sort of order in the strange and complex mixture of the four disparate peoples crowded into the little valley, all calling themselves Bosnians. They celebrated separate holidays, ate different foods, feasted and fasted on different days, yet all depended on one another, but never admitted it. They had lived amidst an ever present, if dormant, mixture of hatred and love for each other. The Muslims with their Ramadan, the Jews with Passover, the Catholics with Christmas, and the Serbs with their Slavas- each of them tacitly tolerated and recognised the customs and existence of others. With suckling pigs turned on spits in Serbian houses, giving off a mouth-watering fragrance, kosher food would be eaten in Jewish homes, and in Muslim households, meals were cooked in suet. There was a certain harmony in all this, even if there was no actual mixing. The aromas had long ago adjusted to one another and had given the city its distinctive flavor. Everything was "as God willed it." But it was necessary to remove only one piece of that carefully balanced mosaic and that whole picture would fall into its component parts which would then, rejoined in an unthinkable manner, create hostile and incompatible entities. ‏Like a hammer, the war had knocked out one piece, disrupting the equilibrium. Wartime turned differences into outright hatred and instead of blaming the foreign enemy for all their hardships, people blamed their nearest neighbours, which, in turn, represented an invaluable favour to the true enemy of all.”
― Gordana Kuić, Miris kiše na Balkanu

“Једва чекам да научим српски, ваљда ће ми многе ствари бити јасније. Међутим, неки искуснији пријатељи ми кажу да сам оптимиста и да са Србима још нико није нашао заједнички језик.”
― Bojan Ljubenović, Pisma iz Srbije

“You perhaps know that many people in Styria, in Moravia, in Serbia, in Poland, and even in Russia, believe in vampires.
[Chapter 6 A Bath Of Blood]”
― Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

“Naši odani i plemeniti saveznici, Francuzi i Englezi, hitaju nam u pomoć, i već su i sami glasovi o njihovom dolasku udvostručili snagu i hrabrost naših vojnika pa ipak, oni možda neće stići na vreme da nam obezbede pobedu. Kao na Kosovu polju, sada se borimo u suštini sami.”
― Svetlana Milovanović, Heroine Velikog rata