quote · Legacy record
Knowing someone’s name meant knowing that the other person was a human being and not “the enemy.” Knowing someone’s name transformed him into a unique and special individual, with a past and a future, with ancestors and possibly descendants, a person who has known triumphs and failures. People are their names; they’re proud of them; they repeat them thousands of times in their lifetime and identify with them. It’s the first word they learn after “Daddy” and “Mummy.
Knowing someone’s name meant knowing that the other person was a human being and not “the enemy.” Knowing someone’s name transformed him into a unique and special individual, with a past and a future, with ancestors and possibly descendants, a person who has known triumphs and failures. People are their names; they’re proud of them; they repeat them thousands of times in their lifetime and identify with them. It’s the first word they learn after “Daddy” and “Mummy.
Approximate author period: c. 1947 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Paulo Coelho
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1947 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from documented birth year 1947; activity date not established; Wikidata Q12881, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12881 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided quotation collection
Supplied reference C; CSV row 245772; supplied attribution, independently unverified
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.