Pramoedya Ananta Toer Quotations

Every good teaching may still end up producing evil bandits who have no principles whatsoever, an outcome even more likely when the teacher is also a bandit.

A mother knows what her child's gone through, even if she didn't see it herself.

Pity is the feeling of well-intentioned people who are unable to act.

I don't write to give joy to readers but to give them a conscience.

Capital dictates the fate of humanity.

Every award for me is important because it means a slap against militarism and fascism in Indonesia.

I will not close my eyes, neither those in my head nor those in my soul, as the ship carries me away, along with my future, my dreams, and my beliefs. Buru Island is no happy land somewhere; it's but a way station on my journey in life—though to believe even that much will require no small measure of hope.

Painting is literature in colors. Literature is painting in language.

Every book that is banned is a badge of honor.

I did not succeed in everything I did. And even where it did seem I was succeeding it was not always the case. The human heart has a million facets.