Timothy Snyder

We are free only when it is we ourselves who draw the line between when we are seen and when we are not seen.

totalitarianism was not an all-powerful state, but the erasure of the difference between private and public life.

We are free only insofar as we exercise control over what people know about us, and in what circumstances they come to know it.

Totalitarianism removes the difference between private and public not just to make individuals unfree, but also to draw the whole society away from normal politics and toward conspiracy theories.

Rather than defining facts or generating interpretations, we are seduced by the notion of hidden realities and dark conspiracies that explain everything.

A nationalist encourages us to be our worst, and then tells us that we are the best.

A patriot, by contrast, wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves.