Ryszard Kapuściński quotes

Ryszard Kapuściński was a renowned Polish journalist, writer, and reporter, celebrated for his literary approach to journalism. His insightful coverage of international affairs, especially in Africa, made a significant impact on reportage. He became famous for blending vivid storytelling with deep political analysis in his works. Here are 44 of his quotes:

Money changes all the iron rules into rubber bands.

Ryszard Kapuściński

The extent of one man's guilt may be defined by how much of it is experienced by the party he injured.

Ryszard Kapuściński

In the First World War, there was the sudden passion of nationalism, and the killing took place because of these emotions. But the Soviet case is different, because you had systematic murder, like the Holocaust.

Ryszard Kapuściński

My writing is a combination of three elements. The first is travel: not travel like a tourist, but travel as exploration. The second is reading literature on the subject. The third is reflection.

Ryszard Kapuściński

It is authority that provokes revolution.... This occurs when a feeling of impunity takes root among the elite: We are allowed anything, we can do anything. This is a delusion, but it rests on a certain rational foundation. For a while it does indeed look as if they can do whatever they want. Scandal after scandal and illegality after illegality go unpunished. The people remain silent...They are afraid and do not yet feel their own strength. At the same time, they keep a detailed account of the wrongs, which at one particular moment are to be added up. The choice of that moment is the greatest riddle of history.

Ryszard Kapuściński

Readership was high, and very attentive. It was people's only source of knowledge about the world.

Ryszard Kapuściński

Literature seemed to be everything then. People looked to it for the strength to live, for guidance, for revelation.

Ryszard Kapuściński

The experience was an exciting one for me. It illustrated that writing was about risk-about risking everything. And that the value of the writing is not in what you publish but in its consequences. If you set out to describe reality, then the influence of the writing is upon reality.

Ryszard Kapuściński

Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.

Ryszard Kapuściński

I remember in 1978 meeting two Ugandan captains in the hotel talking Russian. They had been educated in Moscow and since they came from different Ugandan peoples, it was the only way they could understand one another.

Ryszard Kapuściński

Amin knew that neither West nor East would criticize him for fear that he would support the other side. He felt he was untouchable and he said so openly.

Ryszard Kapuściński

I remember that during the period leading up to independence in Angola in 1975, I was the only correspondent there at all for three months.

Ryszard Kapuściński

In modern Russia, you have no official, formal assessment of this past. Nobody in any Russian document has said that the policy of the Soviet government was criminal, that it was terrible. No one has ever said this.

Ryszard Kapuściński

Amin hid nothing. Everybody knew everything. Yet the American Senate only introduced a resolution breaking off trade with Amin three months before his overthrow.

Ryszard Kapuściński

This is the most intimate relationship between literature and its readers: they treat the text as a part of themselves, as a possession.

Ryszard Kapuściński

In the Russian experience, although the Russian state is oppressive, it is their state, it is part of their fabric, and so the relation between Russian citizens and their state is complicated.

Ryszard Kapuściński

He killed his enemies because he was afraid they would kill him. Amin ordered entire tribes to be put to death, because he feared they would rebel.

Ryszard Kapuściński

Do not be misled by the fact that you are at liberty and relatively free; that for the moment you are not under lock and key: you have simply been granted a reprieve.

Ryszard Kapuściński

In order to feel contempt, you generally need to cherish some kind of feelings.

Ryszard Kapuściński

Most correspondents came from the former colonial powers - there were British, French, and a lot of Italians, because there were a lot of Italian communities there. And of course there were a lot of Russians.

Ryszard Kapuściński

The Cold War in Africa is one of the darkest, most disgraceful pages in contemporary history, and everybody ought to be ashamed.

Ryszard Kapuściński

The Cold War was waged in a particularly brutal and cynical way in Africa, and Africa seemed powerless to do anything to stop it.

Ryszard Kapuściński