Ivo Andrić

SIGNS BY THE ROADSIDE

(Several examples)

From everything that man erects and builds in his urge for living nothing is in my eyes better and more valuable than bridges. They are more important than houses, more sacred than shrines. Belonging to everyone and being equal to everyone, useful, always built with a sense, on the spot where most human needs are crossing, they are more durable than other buildings and they do not serve for anything secret or bad.

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It seems to me that if people knew how very difficult living was for me, they would more easily forgive me all the evil things that I did and all the good things that I missed to do and they might even feel sorry for me.

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I knew a man who succeeded in finding an evil word for everything he didn’t have and everything he didn’t understand.

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Being afraid of people means doing wrong to God. The fear of people might have its source in our former sin to God’s principle. A man with a living soul logically shouldn’t be afraid of people or anything human.