Quotes by Croatian Authors

There are roads where people go, and where they should arrive is their mission.
Eraldo Banovac
In reality, commissions rarely solve complicated problems. Therefore, the following question arises: what is worse – to establish a commission knowing it cannot solve a complicated problem, or to believe that the commission will truly solve such a problem?
Eraldo Banovac
The practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance.
Miroslav Volf
Knowledge is a unique kind of property, indeed: you can share it with others, while still possessing it.
Eraldo Banovac
This isn't the end, and a beginning looks different. This is the moment in between, when everything still looks possible.
Zoran Drvenkar
Don't be too enthusiastic when choosing a profession – think of earningfor life too.
Eraldo Banovac
A moral foreign policy means your positions on certain matters are clear no matter what, and that you won't forget about them when it's convenient.
Garry Kasparov
Nothing is more important than a great idea that influenced thedevelopment of civilization.
Eraldo Banovac
Adapting to changes represents an important characteristic of human nature, essential for the development of human society.
Eraldo Banovac
And then came the pain. First in her leg, as if something had sunk its teeth into it. A huge beast, a dog, maybe. It locked its jaws onto her limb and tore at the muscles with its teeth. She screamed, that was all she could do, scream. She could not describe the feeling of having her body ripped apart. She remembered her father's despair, his face as he leaned over her bed, and his words: What is it, tell me, what is it? As she writhed in pain, soaked in her own sweat, Don Guillermo, her kind, good father, waited for her to tell him. For an explanation. A meaningful verbalization of this horror, so that he could understand what was happening to his child. Otherwise, how could he help her? Because her frenzied cries were not enough. Pain needs to be articulated, communicated. It needs a kind of dialogue. It needs words. But only screams and shrieks of pain escaped from the child's lips.
Slavenka Drakulić
We are intelligent and compassionate creatures and we can make choices. We can fortify our hearts in goodness and do the right things. Or we can turn our heads the other way and pretend again that bad things are not happening. That they will disappear because they have nothing to do with us, because we are not accountable. Well, this is also our choice. But in that case, I am afraid, this world will be lost for us.
Bernard Jan
Thinking differently is the key to improvement.
Eraldo Banovac
Information and communication technologies have changed the way of life completely. Nowadays, many people reach for their smart phones and/or turn their computers on as soon as they wake up. They look at the news on social networks and check e-mails, before they get dressed or have breakfast.
Eraldo Banovac
I know now that everything after the accident was merely a tactic to indulge in escapism and self-delusion. When you are hit by a streetcar that almost smashes you to a pulp, when you experience your own end...there is no recovery, only temporary respite, she thought.Pain made me aware of my body. My body made me aware of deterioration and death. That awareness made me old. My death sentence may have been deferred, but I now had to live with a twofold realization. Not only was I going to die—there was nothing unusual about that except that I was made to realize it at a tender age—but I knew exactly what that meant. Because I had already been through it. Unlike other condemned people for whom death is an abstraction because they have no idea what really awaits them, my stay of death came with a constant reminder, the presence of pain.
Slavenka Drakulić
The essence of coexistence is quite simple: live and respect how others live.
Eraldo Banovac
A man of knowledge can certainly offer some reasonable options to solve a problem – the question is why such a man is not always included in problem solving
Eraldo Banovac
It is absolutely certain that we must act to protect nature much more efficiently than ever before. Tomorrow – when mankind will step forward to a totally uncertain future – will be too late.
Eraldo Banovac
There’s no reason to cry over spilled milk. People cannot change the things that have already happened.
Eraldo Banovac
You should be aware of fake friends because it is the hardest to be aware of.
Eraldo Banovac
The age of ex cathedra culture in education is definitely finished. Thesedays, we use modern teaching methods in line with advances in technologythat changes culture and even society itself. However, the biggest challenge for a modern education system is how to prepare new generations for living in a highly competitive world full of uncertainties.
Eraldo Banovac
Openness to change is key to implementing new knowledge. That is why one who is indifferent to change is not a friend of knowledge.
Eraldo Banovac
Success is relative, but happiness is absolute.
Eraldo Banovac
Do you want to resolve a conflict successfully? Don't wait, start a conversation.
Eraldo Banovac
A wise manager knows that it is sometimes more important to listen than to talk.
Eraldo Banovac
It is not acceptable that election winners interpret history. History should be left to historians who have a difficult task. They should try to avoid a one-sided or personal interpretation of history. Furthermore, some collective factors (such as national enthusiasm) may influence objectivity that is crucial for the interpretation of historical events.
Eraldo Banovac
It’s like a domino effect. After all the time of neatly putting the pieces together, one wrong move, one moment of distraction, and all of it comes falling down. The same happens to us. While ignoring all those moments that happened, all the situations when we wanted to do something, make a move and let our impulses take over, we put them neatly one behind other and now it comes crashing down around us.
Anna B. Doe
A man's vanity often goes hand in hand with his lack of knowledge.
Eraldo Banovac
Motivating employees to work at their full potential is the main premise of successful management.
Eraldo Banovac
To live with integrity, it is important to know what's right and what's wrong, to be educated morally. However, merely KNOWING is not enough. Virtuous character matters more than moral knowledge. The reason is simple: like the self-confessing apostle Paul in Romans 7, most of those who do wrong know what's right but find themselves irresistibly attracted to its opposite. Faith idles when character shrivels
Miroslav Volf
Acquiring new knowledge has been crucial for survival over the millennia.
Eraldo Banovac
Knowledge is the key driver of the progress of civilization.
Eraldo Banovac
Successful people know how to share their own dreams with other people.
Eraldo Banovac
One should learn by considering one's own failures that are a part of life.
Eraldo Banovac
Solving a complicated problem can be frustrating. You can have good problem solving skills, but sometimes a problem seems like it has no solution. Nevertheless, never give up.
Eraldo Banovac
An incompetent person in a responsible position may cause huge damage. Such a person should act less and think more.
Eraldo Banovac
People should respect those who have the courage to go alone through life.
Eraldo Banovac
In the frame of a known phenomenon of life, a human could be defined as the only proven thinking creature.
Eraldo Banovac
I've had several work addiction cycles in my life. Those were situations when important tasks were assigned to me. I took into account that people should remember me based on what I did rather than based on what I failed to do.
Eraldo Banovac
Intellectual curiosity and the human brain are the root of science.
Eraldo Banovac
One may sleep as long as one prefers, but one should know that each hour of excess sleep is an hour lost for learning.
Eraldo Banovac
Knowledge is the most beautiful manifestation of the human mind.
Eraldo Banovac
Older people sometimes talk about the good old days when life was better. In fact, they talk nostalgically about their own youth that was irretrievably gone. The past century has made enormous progress in all fields. The standard of living, work environment, health care quality and mobility, and the availability of cultural programs, recreational activities and information – all that clearly speaks in favor of nowadays.
Eraldo Banovac
Our parents are always an important part of our inner life.
Eraldo Banovac
Yandex translation from Croatian to English: Nomadom was the time when the ratio of beauty began to think about how about love than between two parts, in which opposites attract only magical powers, and the same ratio is equal to the lords and architecture and nature.
Jasna Horvat
A lie distorts the image of reality. It is a delusion of the human mind which can disrupt an individual's sense of what is morally right or wrong.
Eraldo Banovac
The strictest judges are ignorant people.
Eraldo Banovac
There will come a time when people will realize the greatest mysteries of the universe: will a human then meet anything other than himself?
Eraldo Banovac
Nothing represents a man better than his ideas.
Eraldo Banovac
Every fool has an idea how to change the world. Wise people think about how to improve the world around them.
Eraldo Banovac
She was convinced the demonic pain she had suffered in her leg as a child had been in some sort of preparation for the accident. Engraved in her memory was how she had been left speechless by the first attack. She had yet to accept that pain cannot be expressed in words but only in inarticulate screams. It took time before she could put brush to canvas, and still more time before she could paint pictures that screamed. In place of the screams themselves. In place of verbal descriptions. She owed it to her father, she thought, to the frantic look in his eyes which she would never forget, and to his words: 'Tell me, tell me!
Slavenka Drakulić
Do not look for company at all costs, and especially do not allow loneliness to lead you to fickle love or false friendship.
Eraldo Banovac
Absolute hospitality would in no way amount to the absence of violence. To the contrary, it would enthrone violence precisely under the guise of nonviolence because it would leave the violators unchanged and the consequences of violence unremedied.
Miroslav Volf
Understanding how little we know is crucial to gaining knowledge.
Eraldo Banovac
It is impossible to avoid failures in life. Don't be afraid of them. Consider rather how to learn from your own failures.
Eraldo Banovac
Don't play any game if you don't understand the rules no matter how nice winners trophy looks like
Sonja Smolec
Open mind → Learning → Knowledge → Baseline for leadership
Eraldo Banovac
Curiosity is crucial for innovation. We are all born curious, but only a small number of people remain curious for a lifetime.
Eraldo Banovac
Look now,' Vesna's mother continued, 'what do you know, a civil war might break out any minute: Serbs would fight with Croats, Czechs would fight with Slovaks, Hungarians would fight with Jews. how can you be sure of anything?''But, Mother, if this happens, then it will such big trouble that nobody would think about a shortage of pantyhose,' protested Vesna.'You'd be surprised, my dear, to know that people have to live and survive during wars, too. Besides, how do you think we survived communism?
Slavenka Drakulić
Be patient in life, knowing that there is a real possibility that the desired outcome could happen without your direct involvement.
Eraldo Banovac
It can be accepted that there is a price for man's work, time spent or service done, but never for human dignity.
Eraldo Banovac