People From St Petersburg

"Human Rights Without Frontiers, a Brussels-based NGO, appeals to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim A. A. Khan QC, to hold personally accountable and prosecute Vladimir Mikhaïlovitch Goundiaïev, known as Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia,"

"At the same time, Patriarch Kirill (as well as numerous bishops and priests in Russia) directly violate the norms of the Fundamentals of the Social Doctrine. In particular, this document clearly states that the Church cannot provide assistance to the state and cooperate with it if the state is waging an aggressive foreign war (III). Today, the actions of the Russian Federation against Ukraine are nothing but an aggressive foreign war. This fact is recognized by the whole world community. In particular, on March 2, 2022, 141 countries supported the resolution of the UN General Assembly condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. But both Patriarch Kirill and the numerous clergy in Russia continue to support the aggressive foreign policy of the Russian Federation. Thus, the position of the Moscow Patriarchate on the war against Ukraine does not correspond to the norms of Christian morality, or even to its own normative documents."

"The European Parliament,"

"Despite the fact that Patriarch Kirill for many years in his public statements (including during visits to Ukraine) stated that he considers the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine to be his flock for which he is responsible, today he directly blesses the physical destruction of this flock by Russians troops."

"Today, when Moscow Patriarch Kirill openly supports Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, we, the priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, have decided to appeal to the Council of Primates of the Ancient Eastern Churches against Patriarch Kirill."

"Go bravely to fulfill your military duty. And remember that if you lay down your life for your country, you will be with God in his kingdom, glory and eternal life."

"We, the priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, in these tragic days, when the brutal war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine continues, consider it our pastoral duty to address the fullness of World Orthodoxy."

"Unlike the West, which is already nervous about the arrival of refugees, Moscow alone has taken in more Muslims than the whole of Europe has done by now. And nobody in the world is aware of it. And there is no hysteria, no police, no gas, no physical clashes. Of course, problems do arise sometimes with people who arrive but these problems get solved within the law, and most importantly, the good Orthodox-Muslim relations are creating an atmosphere for Muslims here to live peacefully and for the Orthodox to treat Muslims respectfully, with tolerance, like brothers. You probably felt what remarkable, good relations have developed between the Orthodox people and Muslims in Russia. We are very glad that finally this big mosque has been built in the city of Moscow to become a place of prayer for many Muslims who live in Moscow and visit Moscow."

"If you cannot raise your child, whom you have given birth to or are ready to do it, – do not kill your child, give birth to him and give him to us, the Church, and we will do everything to raise and to help your child to stand on his own feet, and we will never prevent you, his mother, from visiting him, from feeling unity with your child. On the contrary, we will do everything to strengthen your family, albeit incomplete, but valuable for both God and for our entire Motherland."

"We are truly a free country. This is a real fact. I can imagine the types of reaction to my words from different corners, but I can prove that Russia today is the true leader of the free world. We are developing in accordance with our own path and, by God’s will, our path shall be successful."

"I take the suffering of people caused by the events taking place with deep and heartfelt pain. I call on all parties to the conflict to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties. I appeal to the bishops, pastors, monastics, and laity to provide all possible assistance to all victims, including refugees and people left homeless and without means of livelihood. The Russian and Ukrainian peoples have a common centuries-old history dating back to the Baptism of Rus’ by Prince St. Vladimir the Equal-to-the-Apostles. I believe that this God-given affinity will help overcome the divisions and disagreements that have arisen that have led to the current conflict. I call on the entire fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church to offer a special, fervent prayer for the speedy restoration of peace. May the All-merciful Lord, through the intercession of our Most Pure Lady the Theotokos and all the saints, preserve the Russian, Ukrainian, and other peoples who are spiritually united by our Church!"

"Pride parades are designed to demonstrate that sin is one variation of human behavior. That's why in order to join the club of those countries, you have to have a gay pride parade."

"The actions of Patriarch Kirill caused mass outrage among the clergy and the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. At least fifteen dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have already officially announced that they will stop commemorating Patriarch Kirill during Church services. We know that in many other dioceses the ruling bishops gave verbal permission to the clergy not to mention the name of Patriarch Cyril. Thus, bishops, priests, and ordinary parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church expressed their unequivocal distrust of Patriarch Kirill."

"The Patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy."

"On February 24, 2022, Russian troops invaded the territory of the sovereign Ukrainian state without declaring war. The military aggression has been going on for more than a month. Russian troops are systematically destroying not only military infrastructure, but also housing estates, civilian enterprises, schools, hospitals, theaters, etc. Ukraine’s economy is suffering heavy losses. But our greatest sorrow is that thousands of civilians have died during the war. The actions of the Russian army around Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Okhtyrka, Gostomel, Vorzel, and especially Mariupol and Bucha have obvious signs of genocide against the Ukrainian people and are causing outrage around the world."

"Moreover, since the beginning of the war, Patriarch Kirill has repeatedly made public statements that contained de facto support for the Russian Federation’s aggressive actions against Ukraine. On March 13, 2022, during the liturgy in the Church of Christ the Savior, Patriarch Kirill presented the Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard of the Russian Federation VV Zolotov with an icon of the Mother of God and gave his blessing to the employees of this state military organization. In his speech of thanks, VV Zolotov directly said that the troops of the National Guard of the Russian Federation are taking an active part in the war waged by Russia against Ukraine today. At the same time, he called the Armed Forces of Ukraine “Nazis.” After hearing Zolotov’s words, the patriarch did not object. Patriarch Kirill’s blessing of the Russian National Guard was an unequivocal endorsement of the war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine."

"We clearly state that it is impossible for us to continue to be in any form of canonical subordination to the Moscow Patriarch. This is what our Christian conscience dictates."

"..one should not depict an isolated building or a tree which may be very beautiful but which will be.. ..painting, will be aesthetics."

"[my goal is] to photograph not a factory but the work itself from the most effective point of view.. ..in order to show the grandness of a machine, one should photograph not all of it but give a series of snapshots."

"I reduced painting to its logical conclusion and exhibited three canvases: red, blue and yellow. I affirmed: it's all over. Basic colors. Every plane is a plane and there is to be no representation."

"One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again."

"If the proof is correct then no other recognition is needed."

"By the end of 2006 it was generally believed that Perelman’s proof was correct. That year, the journal Science named Perelman’s proof the “Breakthrough of the Year.” Like Smale and Freedman before him, the forty-year old Perelman was tapped to be a Fields Medals recipient for his contributions to the Poincaré conjecture (in fact, Thurston also received a Fields Medal for his work that indirectly led to the final proof). The countdown for the $1 million prize had begun (some wonder if Perelman and Hamilton will be offered the prize jointly)."

"Revolutions in mathematics are quiet affairs. No clashing armies and no guns. Brief news stories far from the front page. Unprepossessing. Just like the raw damp Monday afternoon of April 7, 2003, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Young and old crowded the lecture theater at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They sat on the floor and in the aisles, and stood at the back. The speaker, Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman, wore a rumpled dark suit and sneakers, and paced while he was introduced."

"I was one of the first guests at the hotel when it opened 30 years ago. Experiencing that warm, pared-back luxury with extraordinary architecture, generosity of space and supreme service… that was the beginning of my story with Aman."

"Airbnb is not our competitor."

"Wellness is not only related to the physical, but also to the strength of the connection between the body and mind."

"In any case, I am usually in bed by midnight."

"The Social Democratic movement need have no fear in regard to the political activity of Trotsky. On the contrary, he is more likely to give the death blow to the Communist movement outside Russia and to induce the Communist workers to return to Social Democracy than to strengthen any Communist Party or to weaken the Social Democrats in any way."

"By their critisism of the existing system, which repeats the Social-Democratic critisism almost word for word, the Bolshevik opposition is preparing minds ... for the acceptance of the positive platform of Social-Democracy. ... Not only among the mass of the workers, but among communist workers as well, the opposition is rearing the shoots of ideas and sentiments which, if skillfully tended, may easily bear social-democratic fruit."

"If a North Korean university professor is suspected of insufficient enthusiasm for the system, they will be gone without a trace very quickly. Even the memory of the unlucky victim would likely disappear, since such topics are best not discussed in North Korea."

"Right now, no sane and unbiased person would be so stupid as to doubt that the North Korean state is very repressive."

"Objectively speaking, the history of North Korean state has been one of an ambitious social if brutal experiment that ended in a very ugly disaster. Essentially, the 70 years of the Kim Family's rule have been the wasted years. The Kim family did not merely build one of the world’s most “perfect” Stalinist dictatorships, but also managed to transform into a basket case what once, in the 1940s, was the most advanced industrial economy of East Asia outside Japan. However, one should not expect that such a pessimistic, if honest, view of North Korea’s past, is going to be enthusiastically embraced by those North Koreans who bother to care about such matters."

"North Koreans now understand that South Korea is very rich. It is true, but there is a great difference between vaguely understanding something and having such graphic images of neighbors' prosperity flooding your daily life. As is usually the case, such pictures are liable to be exaggerated at first. An outsider in a rich country usually cannot immediately see the contradictions, problems and tensions that exist behind the sparking, glistening, glitzy facade. For the North Koreans, this picture of the South Korean prosperity would likely be seen as vivid proof of the complete failure of their leadership. The North Korean elite cannot even use the usual trick of putting the blame at the doors of their predecessors: This elite is hereditary, so the buck cannot be easily passed."

"North Korea is a problem, not only because of its fast advancing nuclear and missile program but also because of the sorry state of the country’s economy and its abysmal human rights record. It is a problem for us outsiders, but it is an even greater problem for the North Korean people themselves. As people are fond of saying in such situations that "something has to be done." But what exactly?"

"[T]here has been little, if any, doubt that nothing short of a massive regime collapse, or (even more violent and bloody) full-scale war, will ever produce a non-nuclear North Korea. The regime is run by cold-minded and rational people who cannot afford to be emotional..."

"The North Korean elite does have some sources of hope. The elite itself remains, on the surface at least, remarkably united. The lack of a civil society and very strong social control makes the emergence of resistance difficult."

"The unavoidable spread of South Korean capital and information will put the North Korean government in a tight spot, to put it mildly."

"For the average North Korean over the last two decades, the times of Kim Il Sung have often been seen as a lost era of order and stability, in which everyone could be sure that twice a month they would receive food rations sufficient for survival, and essentially free of charge. This was also a time when corruption was kept under control and was largely invisible, material inequality was also almost unnoticeable. Objectively speaking, it was Kim Il Sung’s policies that made the disaster of the 1990s unavoidable. But this had little impact on public perception, and he continues to be held in high esteem by many. Remarkably, such sentiments toward the late Generalissimo are even expressed by refugees – not usually known for their sympathies for the North Korean system and its embodiment, the Kim family. Thus, it is that Kim Il Sung remains venerated, and due to the luck of dying in time, has a remarkably good reputation in death. The opposite is very much the case with his unfortunate son, Kim Jong Il, who inherited power in 1994 and reigned for 17 turbulent years, till 2011."

"The great famine of 1994-98 was to a large extent the inviolable result of the policies that Kim Il Sung had pursued for decades. The famine was brought about by Kim Il Sung’s fanatical belief in a hyper-centralized, state-managed agriculture, as well as an excessive reliance on (unacknowledged) foreign aid, not to mention militarization run amok. However, if the mine was planted (unintentionally, of course) by Kim Il Sung, it went off under the rule of his son. Hence, most North Koreans blame Kim Jong Il, rather than his father, for the economic disasters of the 1990s."

"Neuhaus summed him up rather well when he called him the poor man's Prokofiev or Shostakovich. I knew him, but it would never have occured to me to play his threatbare music. (...) K. was a true intellectual, someone who was genuinely cultured, but as a person he was compromised, and deeply unpleasant."

"You can't think you can write a pop song with your left foot or with whatever hand but if there is a symphony you need to sit behind the table, to think. You need to think about the pop song. If you don't think about it then it turns out to be trash and vulgarity, of which there are plenty now on the air. And the second conclusion is this: if you like light music this is completely natural. For example, if I didn’t like light music I wouldn't have written the music for Anton Ivanovich Is Angry. But if you like only light music then you are a poor fellow."

"It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for it to abolish itself from below."

"The loneliness of despotism, or the fear of violent death."

"Ah! that was a fine Emperor."

"Anyone who dared to depart from the conventional path was bound to incur his [Lyadov's] wrath. Thrusting his hands into his pockets and swaying back and forth... , he [Lyadov] would say, ‘I cannot understand why you bother to study with me. Go to Richard Strauss, go to Debussy.’ He might as well have said, ‘Go to the devil.’"

"At first we got along very well. Esipova even boasted outside the class that she had pupils who wrote sonatas (I completed Sonata, Op. 1, and played it to Esipova, who took it home and inserted pedaling). But before long trouble began. Esipova’s method of teaching was to try to fit everyone into a standard pattern. True, it was a very elaborate pattern, and if the pupil’s temperament coincided with her own, the results were admirable. But if the pupil happened to be of an independent cast of mind Esipova would do her best to suppress his individuality instead of helping to develop it. Moreover, I had great difficulty in ridding myself of careless playing, and the Mozart, Schubert and Chopin which she insisted on were somehow not in my line. At that period I was too preoccupied with the search for a new harmonic idiom to understand how anyone could care for the simple harmonies of Mozart."

"I was interested in making a different kind of instrument. And I wanted, of course, to make an apparatus that would be controlled in space, exploiting electrical fields, and that would use little energy. Therefore I used electronic technology to create a musical instrument that would provide greater resources."

"I wanted to invent some kind of an instrument that would not operate mechanically, as does the piano, or the cello and the violin, whose bow movements can be compared to those of a saw. I conceived of an instrument that would create sound without using any mechanical energy, like the conductor of an orchestra."

"I need your help. The abstruse nature of the subject requires not only concentrated reading, not alone clear understanding, but co-operation with the author. For that which could easily be made comprehensible by personal contact and demonstration, must of necessity depend on mere words and intellectual concepts. Many of the questions that may arise in your mind during or after reading of each chapter can best be answered through the practical application of the exercises prescribed herein. Unfortunately, there is no other way to co-operate: the technique of acting can never be properly understood without practicing it."