Throughout human history, hate was not viewed as generally abnormal or anti-social. It was just another emotion that, along with anger, despair or love, had a place in human relationships.

What is national identity? An experience of a nation, its history, its personalities, its reputation, self-esteem, and the vision it has for its future.

The founders of the Council of Europe saw the need for an international organisation dedicated to protecting human rights. But there were other options back then, and there surely are now.

In The Crowd, Le Bon warns that when ideals are erased, cohesion is lost, individual characters weaken and develop excessive egoism, and, as their capacity for self-sufficiency diminishes, they become increasingly reliant on the government to direct them.

It is not activists’ sincere belief in the harm caused by ‘wrong words’ that is the problem, but their ill-founded hubris—their self-assumed role of holy avengers bringing the world to the ‘right side of history.’

It is no wonder that the countryside and small towns have always remained a bastion of traditionalism, naturally suspicious of progress and resistant to change.

Acceptable forms of sacrifice may change throughout time, but its essence remains. It is based on the deeply rooted sense of something more important than oneself: a deity, a family, a nation, or the entire world.

The establishment’s cowardice leaves no place for honesty. It is a safe, risk-averse, and timid strategy for those without guiding principles or will to follow them. As Mikhail Bulgakov once wrote, “cowardice is the most terrible of vices.”

A common sentiment among the population is that Ukrainians cannot afford to indulge in woe but should do their best to rebuild, regain lost wealth, and live on.

Universalism is forced to coexist with diversity and inclusion; one has to agree that patriarchy, aristocracy and capitalism were evil unless they are not white. But deeper divides force progressives to either keep their eyes shut or risk becoming the oppressors.

Children must not be shielded from struggle. This is, perhaps unexpectedly, among the few advantages of educating children in schools rather than at home, for there they have the chance to experience struggle as a part of life and to learn how to do it with courage and kindness.

The novel treats Britain’s past with the utmost respect it deserves; the regency world is presented to the reader in all its glory. Susanna Clarke does not betray its spirit by infusing it with modern culture, unlike so many other representations of the period.