"The Balkans are Europe's ass." "The Romanian language has complete virtues, that is, it can be the vehicle of anything spiritual created by man. It is very hard to use. With it, one may become an eagle or a lectern singer. The Romanian language has all the axiological premises to become a universal language, but I don't know if this historic march is possible. If we had been a nation of conquerors… We, Romanians, do not mark universality anywhere. This turns us into skeptics. What we lack is boldness." "Macedo-Romanians are not Romanians, they are super-Romanians, absolute Romanians. So oppressed and hunted, their national instinct is that of a beaten beast. You and I, compared to them, have the domestic force of ducks. We quack. I was in prison with Macedo-Romanians. They would get beaten to death, but they did not confess. Their manliness is perfect." "I have always wanted to write a doctoral thesis on Pottering About. A Romanian Work Method." "To the fundamental questions 'Why?' and 'To what purpose?', the rural Romanian aporia answers: 'Because!'" "A Frenchman once came here with some machines, and one of them did not work as it should have. A Romanian said: 'That will do as well!' We've got to get rid of this 'that will do as well'." "When I was in prison, I demonstrated for two hours that the history of Romanians, devoid of the crosses on the shields of the kings, comes down to nothing. For the kings did not fight for higher living standards! History is made with the Church." "The Romanian people is in no way inferior to the German or French people. We don't have Goethe, but we have Eminescu. Politically speaking, the storms that raged in the region inhabited by Romanians prove that we are one of the great peoples of Europe. A chronicler, Costin if I remember well, says, haven't we stood 'in the way of evil'? Has any invasion managed to impose its style and faith here?" "To Romanians, stupidity is a felony; as they say, 'You may gallop around Bucharest for two hours and you won't find a fool.'" "Whenever I think in the spirit of the Romanian people, I move my hope, with all goods and chattels, to the future. A Greek once said, 'We are a thing of the past, but you, Romanians, have a future." "I spoke, in the Aiud prison yard, before six hundred people. Brothers, I said, if we are all going to die here, in striped clothes and chains, it is not we that pay tribute to the Romanian people by dying for it, it is the people that honors us by letting us die for it!" "In principle, I have no doubts about the invincibility of the Romanian people; as it pulled itself through with Ceausescu, so will it break any deadlock. As it accomplished the reunification of the Principalities, against three great powers, Ottoman, Austrian, and Russian, reuniting before Italy… This nation of ours is so vigorous that I have no doubt its virtues will pull it through. It's my belief. Its history provides me with arguments that the Romanian people cannot be defeated." "I once told a communist – it was during the Ceausescu regime: 'Look, our enemies could beat us with brooms in a future war, they wouldn't need any weapons! You stuck a rabbit skin on every citizen's back." "Vlad the Impaler has the merit of having enthroned in Moldavia the greatest Romanian voivode, Stephen the Great. By force of arms! He also has the merit of having defeated him. And, above all, the merit of having lowered absolute morals by sharp stakes thrust into asses at an absolute level. One slept with a bag of gold under one's head, for fear of stealing it from oneself. Without him, the history of Romanians is lambs in the meadows!" "I'm the biggest fool on earth. To spend 13 years in jail for a people of idiots! Only I was capable of such thing!" (after the 1990 elections) Humanitas, Bucharest, 2000
by Petre Ţuţea (1902-1991)
