Timothy D. Snyder quotes

Timothy D. Snyder is an American historian and author, recognized for his work on Eastern European history and totalitarianism. His books, such as "Bloodlands" and "On Tyranny," have influenced public and academic discussions on war, genocide, and democracy. He is a professor at Yale University and a prominent commentator on modern political issues. Here are 37 of his quotes:

If we don't have access to facts, we can't trust each other. Without trust, there's no law. Without law, there's no democracy.

Timothy D. Snyder

The Belarusian failure therefore provides a useful test. Here we have an "ethnic group” which is the largest by far in the area in question. According to the Russian imperial census of 1897, more people spoke Belarusian in Vil'na province than all other languages combined. In Vil'na, Minsk, Grodno, Mogilev, and Vitebsk provinces, contiguous territories of historic Lithuania, speakers of Belarusian were three quarters of the population. In the twentieth century, this "ethnic group” did not become a modern nation. In combination with Lithuanian and Polish successes, this Belarusian failure helps us to perceive what national movements actually need.

Timothy D. Snyder

To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.

Timothy D. Snyder

Totalitarianism is not about some state that appears out of nowhere and suddenly is all-powerful. There can't be any such thing. Totalitarianism starts when the difference between your public life and your private life is effaced.

Timothy D. Snyder

The 20th century shows that the form of government that we take for granted, a constitutional democratic republic with checks and balances and a rule of law - that form of government is usually temporary.

Timothy D. Snyder

Most Americans are exceptionalists; we think we live outside of history.

Timothy D. Snyder

Brittle masculinity, in the right setting, becomes political atrocity. Strength brings problems; weakness brings others, but weakness posing as strength is the most dangerous of all.

Timothy D. Snyder

For the Russians, the displacement of the Holocaust is calculated and cynical. It's not emotional; they don't care about the Holocaust one way or another. They only care about it insofar as they can use it to manipulate a German sense of guilt.

Timothy D. Snyder

Modern tyrants are terror managers. Do not allow your shock to be turned against your freedom.

Timothy D. Snyder

We can only see as much and we can only go as far as our languages take us.

Timothy D. Snyder

I thought I was going to grow up and become a diplomat and negotiate nuclear arms.

Timothy D. Snyder

Getting out to protest, this is something real and, I would say, something patriotic. Part of the new authoritarianism is to get people to prefer fiction and inaction to reality and action.

Timothy D. Snyder

When a terrorist attack comes, you will not necessarily know who did it. What you can know is that certain kinds of leaders will use that to suspend your rights.

Timothy D. Snyder

Get the screens out of your room and surround yourself with books.

Timothy D. Snyder

The Constitution is worth saving, the rule of law is worth saving, democracy is worth saving, but these things can and will be lost if everyone waits around for someone else.

Timothy D. Snyder

If you want to avoid criticism, then you shouldn't be a historian, because historians are trying to understand and explain. If you're trying to please people, then you should go into the fashion business, or the candy business.

Timothy D. Snyder

There's a basic problem with the history of the Holocaust. The people who do it don't know the necessary languages.

Timothy D. Snyder

The premise of Russian foreign policy to the West is that the rule of law is one big joke; the practice of Russian foreign policy is to find prominent people in the West who agree.

Timothy D. Snyder

Republics, like other forms of government, exist in history and can rise and fall.

Timothy D. Snyder

The aspiring tyrants of today have not forgotten the lesson of 1933: that acts of terror - real or fake, provoked or accidental - can provide the occasion to deal a death blow to democracy.

Timothy D. Snyder

Trump bankrupted six companies but succeeded on the biggest of stages. He is the champion of failures.

Timothy D. Snyder

I worry about global anti-Semitism - not just as a bad idea that originates from bad people, but also as something that arises as a challenge to global order.

Timothy D. Snyder