Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quotes

A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
For a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power - he's free again. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being? View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes... we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions - especially selfish ones. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
For us in Russia communism is a dead dog. For many people in the West, it is still a living lion. (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
I can say without affectation that I belong to the Russian convict world no less than I do to Russian literature. I got my education there, and it will last forever. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Can a man who's warm understand one who's freezing? View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Beat a dog once and you only have to show him the whip. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The clock of communism has stopped striking. But its concrete building has not yet come crashing down. For that reason, instead of freeing ourselves, we must try to save ourselves from being crushed by its rubble. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
A genius doesn't adjust his treatment of a theme to a tyrant's taste. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you - you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
When you're cold, don't expect sympathy from someone who's warm. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Yes, you live with your feet in the mud and there's no time to be thinking about how you got in or how you're going to get out. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Our envy of others devours us most of all. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Someone that you have deprived of everything is no longer in your power. He is once again entirely free. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn