“You do not realize your own situation. You are in PRISON. All you can wish for, if you are a sensible man, is to escape. But how escape? It is necessary to tunnel under a wall. One man can do nothing. But let us suppose there are ten or twenty men — if they work in turn and if one covers another they can complete the tunnel and escape. Fragments: Two

“Furthermore, no one can escape from PRISON without the help of those who have escaped before. Only they can say in what way escape is possible or can send tools, files, or whatever may be necessary. But one PRISONer alone cannot find these people or get into touch with them. An organization is necessary. Nothing can be achieved without an organization.” Fragments: Two

G. often returned afterwards to this example of “PRISON” and “escape from PRISON” in his talks. Sometimes he began with it, and then his favorite statement was that, if a man in PRISON was at any time to have a chance of escape, then he must first of all realize that he is in PRISON. So long as he fails to realize this, so long as he thinks he is free, he has no chance whatever. No one can help or liberate him by force, against his will, in opposition to his wishes. If liberation is possible, it is possible only as a result of great labor and great efforts, and, above all, of conscious efforts, towards a definite aim. Fragments: Two

“If a man could understand all the horror of the lives of ordinary people who are turning round in a circle of insignificant interests and insignificant aims, if he could understand what they are losing, he would understand that there can be only one thing that is serious for him — to escape from the general law, to be free. What can be serious for a man in PRISON who is condemned to death? Only one thing: How to save himself, how to escape: nothing else is serious. Fragments: Seventeen