He was not trying to convince me of anything. He spoke with sorrow about people’s reluctance to follow life’s most important law—that you should wish for others what you wish for yourself; that you should wish good to others without exception, regardless of their nationality, of their wealth or poverty, of their faith or lack of faith, regardless of whether or not they are Party members. If you don’t wish yourself harm, if you don’t do harm to yourself, then you shouldn’t wish or do harm to others.
–Vasily Grossman, An Armenian Sketchbook
It’s Simple
