Ukraine Quotes

“Have we learned nothing from history? A tyrant only fears overwhelming military force.”
― Ken Poirot

“Get Together"
(originally by The Kingston Trio)

Love is but a song we sing
Fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why

Come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now

Some may come and some may go
He will surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment's sunlight
Fading in the grass

Come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now

Come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now

Come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now

If you hear the song I sing
You will understand, listen
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at your command

Come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now

Come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now

I said come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
Right now
Right now

The Youngbloods, The Youngbloods (1967)”
― The Youngbloods

“No matter how you may try to justify it. You can never justify war. On the other hand, you don’t need to justify peace – it is always beautiful.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya

“Dear God,
Look down from the heavens, and help the people of Ukraine. Let them find safety in the midst of this evil their suffering through. Surround their country with your mighty arms, and protect and defend them. Allow the wrongs placed upon them be punished with every breath they take. You’re the truth, the light and the way. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.”
― Ron Baratono

“Racism will continue to thrive until we see ourselves as one. Black people stuck in Ukraine are being subjected to racism even as they attempt to flee to safety in Poland during a time of war, Black people are treated with complete and utter contempt. We should all be condemning this.”
― Olawale Daniel

“The only thing to come out of war was casualties.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“He who has the heart for war, has no heart left for love.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Maybe 2022 is the year that we all learn that it's alright to fight back against dictators.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“The particular importance of the Ukrainian Orange Revolution is not, however, that it took place in such a large and important country in the former Soviet empire or that it inspired many countries still burdened with postcommunism, but in something perhaps even more significant: that revolution gave a clear answer to a still open question: where does one of the major spheres of civilization in the world today (the so-called West) end, and where does the other sphere (the so-called East, or rather Euro-Asia) begin? I recall — and I mentioned this during my meeting with Yuschenko — that an important American politician once asked me where Ukraine belongs. My impression is that it belongs to what we call the West. But that’s not what I said; I said that this was a matter for Ukraine to decide for itself.”
― Václav Havel, To the Castle and Back: Reflections on My Strange Life as a Fairy-Tale Hero

“She understood that unrequited love could break a heart, but there was nothing she could do about his sorrow.”
― Diana Stevan, Sunflowers Under Fire

“W Finlandii proletariat socjalistyczny miał już dominującą pozycję, dopóki walczył jako część zwartej, rewolucyjnej falangi Rosji; posiadał większość w parlamencie, w armii, doprowadził do całkowitej bezsilności burżuazji i był panem sytuacji w kraju. Rosyjska Ukraina była w początkach stulecia ostoją rosyjskiego ruchu rewolucyjnego, dopóki jeszcze nie wynaleziono błazeństw „ukraińskiego nacjonalizmu” z karbowańcami i „uniwersałami” oraz leninowskiego konika „samodzielnej Ukrainy”.”
― Róża Luksemburg, The Russian Revolution

“Nacjonalizm ukraiński był w Rosji, całkiem inaczej niż czeski, polski lub fiński, zwykłym kaprysem, błazenadą paru tuzinów drobnomieszczańskich inteligentów, bez najmniejszych korzeni w stosunkach gospodarczych, politycznych czy duchowych kraju, bez żadnej tradycji historycznej, ponieważ Ukraina nigdy nie wytworzyła narodu ani państwa, bez jakiejkolwiek kultury narodowej prócz reakcyjno-romantycznych wierszy Szewczenki. Wygląda to tak, jak gdyby pewnego pięknego ranka ci od wybrzeża aż do Fritza Reutera zapragnęli założyć nowy dolnoniemiecki naród i państwo. I tę zabawną farsę paru profesorów uniwersytetu i studentów Lenin i towarzysze rozdęli sztucznie do znaczenia czynnika politycznego swoją doktrynerską agitacją z „prawem do samookreślenia aż do itd.”. Użyczyli pierwotnej farsie znaczenia, aż wreszcie farsa stała się śmiertelnie poważna, nie stała się wprawdzie poważnym ruchem narodowym, bo nie ma dlań korzeni, ale stała się szyldem i wspólną flagą kontrrewolucji! Z tego jaja wylęgły się w Brześciu niemieckie bagnety.”
― Róża Luksemburg, The Russian Revolution

“Все, до чого ми байдужі, байдуже до нас. Через те ми такі й смертельно самотні. Хтось же й наше страждання дивиться, як серіал.”
― Ліна Костенко

“It’s amazing how easily the youth forget the
Holodomor. Soviets not only starved us to death, but enjoyed every second of the suffering they inflicted. You’re an idealist, Jan, and idealism feels nice to live by, but all it does for you is drop you in a grave thinking the guy who put you there isn’t so bad.”
― ian kirkpatrick, Boom, Boom, Boom

“Are you a spinster desiring to get married? Then pray to be as desirable as Ukraine is to Russia.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“the Hoover institution is Blocking my Youtube comments and spreading propaganda. Uh. Ya. No better than China. I mean, seriously.”
― Dmitry Dyatlov

“the US would never have said... oh Zelenskyy was bombing his own people... the way they said that about Gaddafi or Assad... the Hypocrisy is staggering.”
― Max Blumenthal

“Dear God,
Look down from the heavens, and help the people of Ukraine. Let them find safety in the midst of this evil their suffering through. Surround their country with your mighty arms, and protect and defend them. Allow the wrongs placed upon them be punished with every breath they take. You’re the truth, the light and the way. In Jesus name we pray. Amen”
― Ron Baratono

“Racism will continue to thrive until we see and threat ourselves as humans. Black people stuck in Ukraine are being subjected to racism even as they attempt to flee to safety in Poland during a time of war. Black people are treated with complete and utter contempt by white supremacists all over the world. We should all be condemning this barbaric act.”
― Olawale Daniel

“In the 21st century where is the justification for war?”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“War just kills me!”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“No war is good!”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“If we do nothing, then democracy dies in vain.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“It's when we stand back and watch that we have already chosen which side that we are on.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“The bear seeks fire from above as he cowers under his umbrella of deceit.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“War may separate friends, but it can also unite enemies.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Although the rise of Galicia was a clear indication of the growing importance of the borderlands, its union with Volhynia bore the promise of greater, even epochal consequences for all of Eastern Europe. The man who brought about this union was Roman Mstyslavych (1173-1205) of Volhynia. Immersed in political struggles from early youth, Roman was chosen as prince by the Novgorodians in 1168 to defend their city against Suzdal's aggressive designs in the north, while his father, Mstyslav of Volhynia, competed with Andrei Bogoliubsky of Suzdal for control of Kiev in the south. After his father's death in 1173, Roman took over and reconstituted the fragmented, neglected family holdings in Volhynia. In 1188, the Galician boyars invited him to rule their land, but princely rivals and unfriendly boyar factions prevented him from doing so. Only in 1199 was he able to return to Galicia and unite it with Volhynia, thus creating a new, imposing conglomerate on the political map of Eastern Europe with an energetic, forceful prince of great ability at its head.

In his domestic policies Roman concentrated on expanding his princely power: that is, on undermining the boyars, many of whom he either exiled or executed. "You can't enjoy the honey without killing the bees" was one of his favorite sayings. As was often the case elsewhere in Europe, the prince's allies in the struggle with the oligarchy were the townsmen and minor boyars.”
― Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History

“For millennia Ukraine had been the crucible of mighty political conglomerates such as the Scythian, Sarmatian, and Kievan realms. Its inhabitants controlled their own destinies and influenced, sometimes decisively, those of their neighbors. The civilizations that were based in Ukraine stood in the forefront of the cultural and socioeconomic developments in all of Eastern Europe. But after the decline of Galicia-Volhynia, an epochal transformation occurred. Henceforth, Ukrainian lands would no longer form the core of important
political entities and, except for a few brief moments of self-assertion, the fate of Ukraine's inhabitants would be decided in far-off capitals such as Warsaw, Moscow, or Vienna.*

In cultural and economic terms as well, the status of Ukraine would decline to that of an important but peripheral province whose elites identified with foreign cultures and political systems. No longer dominant but dominated, the natives of Ukraine would have to struggle not only for their political selfdetermination but also for their existence as a separate ethnic and national entity. This effort became - and remains to this day - one of the major themes of Ukrainian history.

* During the Polish-Lithuanian period, Ukrainians called themselves Ruthenians (Rusyny), a name derived from Rus'. Belorussians were also called by this name. At this time, Russians were generally called Muscovites.”
― Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History

“Nonetheless, Kiev was still an alluring prize. Whoever acquired it not only enjoyed the prestige of ruling "the mother of Rus' cities," but could also lay claim to being the senior member of the Riurikid dynasty. Because
it was the home of the metropolitan and the site of the major churches and monasteries, the city remained the undisputed cultural and religious, if not political, center of all Rus'. Even with the decline in its population and territory, Kiev and its lands were still among the most developed and populous in all of Ukraine.

Kiev's assets were also its liabilities, however. Princely competition for the city continued unabated. The Ukrainian historian Stefan Tomashivsky calculated that between 1146 and 1246, twenty-four princes ruled in Kiev on forty-seven separate occasions. Of these, one ruled seven separate times, five ruled three times each, and eight occupied the throne twice each. Significantly, thirty-five princely tenures lasted for less than a year each.? One prince took a rather drastic approach in dealing with the problem of Kiev. In 1169, unsure of his ability to retain control of the city once he had won it and unwilling to have it overshadow his growing domains in the northeast, Andrei Bogoliubsky, the prince of Vladimir-Suzdal and a forerunner of the princes of Moscow, attacked Kiev and savagely sacked it. It never completely recovered from this destructive raid.”
― Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History

“In terms of its political organization, it is simpler to establish what Kievan Rus was not rather than what it was. Kievan Rus' was not a state in the modern sense of the word. To view it as such would be to ascribe to it a
much higher degree of political organization than it actually possessed. There was no centralized government, no encompassing specialized bureaucracy. The only contact that existed between rulers and ruled, especially as far as the nonurban population was concerned, was the revenue-collecting process.

Personal or dynastic interests motivated princely politics, while institutional or societal concerns were often ignored. Political relationships were loose, fluid, and ill defined. And political problems were often dealt with by means of force. Nonetheless, there was a growing degree of political, social, and economic order and cultural achievement in the society of Kievan Rus' and the goal of this chapter is to survey its major features.”
― Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History