Top quotes by 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. Votes: 22

Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation's heart, the excision of its memory. Votes: 21

Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. Votes: 19

When truth is discovered by someone else, it loses something of its attractiveness. Votes: 18

Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. Votes: 15

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. Votes: 13

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. Votes: 10

Literature transmits incontrovertible condensed experience... from generation to generation. In this way literature becomes the living memory of a nation. Votes: 10

You can build the Empire State Building. Train the Prussian army. Elevate the hierarchy of a totalitarian state higher than the throne of the Most High.But there are still people whose moral superiority defeats your own." Votes: 10

Religion always remains higher than everyday life. In order to make the elevation towards religion easier for people, religion must be able to alter its forms in relation to the consciousness of modern man. Votes: 9

The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man. Votes: 9

In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State. Votes: 9

First would be the literary side, then the spiritual and philosophical. The political side is required principally because of the necessity of the current Russian position. Votes: 8

Human beings yield in many situations, even important and spiritual and central ones, as long as it prolongs one's well-being. Votes: 7

Of course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God. Votes: 7

A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him. Votes: 7

The name of 'reform' simply covers what is latently a process of the theft of the national heritage. Votes: 6

That which is called humanism, but what would be more correctly called irreligious anthropocentrism, cannot yield answers to the most essential questions of our life Votes: 6

But nothing is all black in nature. Votes: 6

Cracks make caves collapse. Votes: 6

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. Votes: 5

The salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of all. Votes: 5

It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God's heaven. Votes: 5

The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature. Votes: 4

Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing. Votes: 3

Shall I describe the happiness it gave me to go into the classroom and pick up the chalk? ... It seemed to me the supreme, heartbreaking happiness to enter a classroom carrying a register as that bell rang, and start a lesson with the mysterious air of one about to unfold wonders. Votes: 3

How quickly a zek (a prisoner) gets cheeky-or, putting it in literary language, how quickly a man's requirements grow. Votes: 3

Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle. Votes: 2

Everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth. Votes: 2

Only those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a man with a career. Votes: 1

It is not our level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the kinship of heart to heart and the way we look at the world. Both attitudes lie within our power, so that a man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy, and no one can stop him. Votes: 0

Literature that is not the breath of contemporary society, that dares not transmit the pains and fears of that society . . . loses the confidence of its own people, and its published works are used as wastepaper instead of being read. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

For us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while, for many people in the West, it is still a living lion. Votes: 0

The revolution is an amalgam of former Party functionaries, quasi- democrats, KGB officers, and black-market wheeler-dealers, who are standing in power now and have represented a dirty hybrid unseen in world history Votes: 0

A strong man never loses his head in defeat or despondency. Votes: 0

When the whole discussion of "developing a national idea" hastily began in post-Soviet Russia, I tried to pour cold water on it with the objection that, after all the devastating losses we had experienced, it would be quite sufficient to have just one task: the preservation of a dying people. Votes: 0

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? Votes: 0

The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? Votes: 0

A drop in the ocean has no fear of a hurricane. Votes: 0

Patriotism means unqualified and unwavering love for the nation, which implies not uncritical eagerness to serve, not support for unjust claims, but frank assessment of its vices and sins, and penitence for them. Votes: 0

When I was young, the early death of my father cast a shadow over me - and I was afraid to die before all my literary plans came true. But between 30 and 40 years of age my attitude to death became quite calm and balanced. I feel it is a natural, but no means the final, milestone of one's existence. Votes: 0

It is time in the West to defend not so much human rights as human obligations. Votes: 0

It's an universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility. Votes: 0

One can build the Empire State Building, discipline the Prussian army, make a state hierarchy mightier than God, yet fail to overcome the unaccountable superiority of certain human biengs. Votes: 0

A fish does not campaign against fisheries-it only tries to slip through the mesh. Votes: 0

When I was in the gulag I would sometimes even write on stone walls. I used to write on scraps of paper, then I memorised the contents and destroyed the scraps. Votes: 0

The Gulag Archipelago, 'he informed an incredulous world that the blood-maddened Jewish terrorists had murdered sixty-six million victims in Russia from 1918 to 1957! Solzhenitsyn cited Cheka Order No. 10, issued on January 8, 1921: 'To intensify the repression of the bourgeoisie.' Votes: 0

I dedicate this to all those who did not live to tell it. And may they please forgive me for not having seen it all nor remembered it all, for not having divined all of it - from The Gulag Archipelago Votes: 0

Every man always has handy a dozen glib little reasons why he is right not to sacrifice himself. Votes: 0

A hard life improves the vision. Votes: 0

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, not between classes, nor between political parties, but through every human heart Votes: 0

The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. Votes: 0

Why should I trust you? We haven't drunk from the same bowl of soup. Votes: 0

... once you get up steam, you are carried helplessly along. Votes: 0

Violence, less and less embarrassed by the limits imposed by centuries of lawfulness, is brazenly and victoriously striding across the whole world, unconcerned that its infertility has been demonstrated and proved many times in history. What is more, it is not simply crude power that triumphs abroad, but its exultant justification. The world is being inundated by the brazen conviction that power can do anything, justice nothing. Votes: 0

An engineer cannot participate in irrationality ... Votes: 0

To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good, or else that it's a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions. Votes: 0

In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers . . . we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations. Votes: 0

The same old caveman feeling-greed, envy, violence, and mutual hate, which along the way assumed respectable pseudonyms like class struggle, racial struggle, mass struggle, labor-union struggle-are tearing our world to pieces. Votes: 0

... mutual lack of understanding carries the threat of imminent and violent destruction. Votes: 0

Let us not forget that violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone: it is necessarily interwoven with falsehood. Between them lies the most intimate, the deepest of natural bonds. Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence. Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose falsehood as his principle. Votes: 0

If... if... We didn't love freedom enough. And even more - we had no awareness of the real situation. We spent ourselves in one unrestrained outburst in 1917, and then we hurried to submit. We submitted with pleasure! ........... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward. Votes: 0

Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle. Votes: 0

A meek fellow ... is a real godsend in any gang. Votes: 0

Just as King Midas turned everything to gold, Stalin turned everything to mediocrity. Votes: 0

My wish for you... is that your skeptic-eclectic brain be flooded with the light of truth. Votes: 0

One cannot declare that only his faith is correct and all other faiths are not. God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God. One must not have any negative attitude to any religion but nonetheless the depth of understanding God and the depth of applying God's commandments is different in different religions. Votes: 0

As the old proverb says: "Well-fed horses don't rampage. Votes: 0

Let your memory be your travel bag. Votes: 0

The less you speak, the more you will hear. Votes: 0

If I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire 20th century... I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: Men have forgotten God. Votes: 0

The perception of the West as mostly a "knight of democracy" has been replaced with the disappointed belief that pragmatism, often cynical and selfish, lies at the core of Western policies. For many Russians it was a grave disillusion, a crushing of ideals. Votes: 0

Such as it is, the press has become the greatest power within the Western World, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and judiciary. One would like to ask; by whom has it been elected and to whom is it responsible? Votes: 0

Who has the skill to make a narrow, obstinate human being aware of others' far-off grief and joy, to make him understand dimensions and delusions he himself has never lived through? Propaganda, coercion, and scientific proofs are powerless. But happily, in our world there is a way. It is art, and it is literature. Votes: 0

The meaning of earthly existence lies not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering but in the development of the soul. Votes: 0

When I returned to Russia in 1994, the Western world and its states were practically being worshipped. Admittedly, this was caused not so much by real knowledge or a conscious choice, but by the natural disgust with the Bolshevik regime and its anti-Western propaganda. Votes: 0

A man used to riding in a car cannot understand a pedestrian. Votes: 0

It is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions. Votes: 0

The communist regime in the East could stand and grow due to the enthusiastic support from an enormous number of Western intellectuals who felt a kinship and refused to see communism's crimes. When they no longer could do so, they tried to justify them. Votes: 0

Thus it is that no cruelty whatsoever passes by without impact. Thus it is that we always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap. Votes: 0

The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. "One word of truth outweighs the world. Votes: 0

A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy. Votes: 0

There are a lot of clear thinkers everywhere. Votes: 0

The great truth for Innokenty used to be that we are given only one life.Now, with the new feeling that had ripened in him, he became aware of another law: that we are given only one conscience, too.A life laid down cannot be reclaimed, nor can a ruined conscience. Votes: 0

Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty. Votes: 0

It's true that private enterprise is extremely flexible, But its only good within very narrow limits. If private enterprise isn't held in an iron grip it gives birth to people who are no better than beasts, those stock-exchange people with greedy appetites beyond restraint. Votes: 0

Violence does not necessarily take people by the throat and strangle them. Usually it demands no more than an ultimate allegiance from its subjects. They are required merely to become accomplices in its lies. Votes: 0

You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me. Votes: 0

Satiety depends not at all on how much we eat, but on how we eat. It's the same with happiness, the very same...happiness doesn't depend on how many external blessings we have snatched from life. It depends only on our attitude toward them. There's a saying about it in the Taoist ethic: 'Whoever is capable of contentment will always be satisfied. Votes: 0

Scientific research? Only when not at the cost of ethics-and first of all, those of the researchers themselves. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

During my time in the camps, I had got to know the enemies of the human race quite well: they respect the big fist and nothing else; the harder you slug them, the safer you will be. Votes: 0

Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words. Votes: 0

Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The next war... may well bury Western civilization forever. Votes: 0

Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them Votes: 0

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being? Votes: 0

Our government declared that it is conducting some kind of great reforms. In reality, no real reforms were begun and no one at any point has declared a coherent programme. Votes: 0

Today when we say the West we are already referring to the West and to Russia. We could use the word 'modernity' if we exclude Africa, and the Islamic world, and partially China. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Man has set for himself the goal of conquering the world but in the processes loses his soul. Votes: 0

It would have been difficult to design a path out of communism worse than the one that has been followed. Votes: 0

For us in Russia communism is a dead dog. For many people in the West, it is still a living lion. Votes: 0

You must understand, the leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of human remorse. It cannot be overstated. Bolshevism committed the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant and uncaring about this enormous crime is proof that the global media is in the hands of the perpetrators. Votes: 0

The strength or weakness of a society depends more on the level of its spiritual life than on its level of industrialization. Neither a market economy nor even general abundance constitutes the crowning achievement of human life. If a nation's spiritual energies have been exhausted, it will not be saved from collapse by the most perfect government structure or by any industrial development. A tree with a rotten core cannot stand. Votes: 0

Human rights' are a fine thing, but how can we make ourselves sure that our rights do not expand at the expense of the rights of others. A society with unlimited rights is incapable of standing to adversity. If we do not wish to be ruled by a coercive authority, then each of us must rein himself in...A stable society is achieved not by balancing opposing forces but by conscious self-limitation: by the principle that we are always duty-bound to defer to the sense of moral justice. Votes: 0

I hope that no one present will suspect me of offering my personal criticism of the Western system to present socialism as an alternative. Having experienced applied socialism in a country where the alternative has been realized, I certainly will not speak for it. The well-known Soviet mathematician Shafarevich, a member of the Soviet Academy of Science, has written a brilliant book under the title Socialism; it is a profound analysis showing that socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death. Votes: 0

We hear a constant clamor for rights, rights, always rights, but so very little about responsibility. And we have forgotten God. The need now is for selflessness, for a spirit of sacrifice, for a willingness to put aside personal gains for the salvation of the whole Western world. Votes: 0

When we feel that we are not sufficiently respected, we should ask ourselves whether we are living as we should. Votes: 0

To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good... Ideology - that is what gives devildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors. Votes: 0

You're sincere, but in order not to upset your views you avoid talking with people who think differently. You pick your thoughts from conversations with people like yourself, from books written by people like yourself. In physics they call it resonance. You start out with modest opinions, but they match and build each other up to a scale ... Votes: 0

The simple act of an ordinary courageous man is not to take part, not to support lies! Let that come into the world and even reign over it, but not through me. Writers and artists can do more: they can vanquish lies! ... Lies can stand up against much in the world, but not against art. Votes: 0

Without any censorship, in the West fashionable trends of thought and ideas are carefully separated from those which are not fashionable; nothing is forbidden, but what is not fashionable will hardly ever find its way into periodicals or books or be heard in colleges. Legally your researchers are free, but they are conditioned by the fashion of the day. Votes: 0

... people don't know what they are striving for. They waste themselves in senseless thrashing around for the sake of a handful of goods and die without realizing their spiritual wealth. Votes: 0

To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good. Votes: 0

On the way from the Renaissance to our days we have enriched our experience, but we have lost the concept of a Supreme Complete Entity which used to restrain our passions and our irresponsibility. We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life. In the East, it is destroyed by the dealings and machinations of the ruling party. In the West, commercial interests tend to suffocate it. This is the real crisis. Votes: 0

To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots. Votes: 0

Freedom! To fill people's mailboxes, eyes, ears and brains with commercial rubbish against their will, television programs that are impossible to watch with a sense of coherence. Freedom! To force information on people, taking no account of their right not to accept it or their right of peace of mind. Freedom! To spit in the eyes and souls of passersby with advertisements. Votes: 0

Here again we witness the single outcome of a worldwide process, with East and West yielding the same results, and once again for the same reason: Men have forgotten God. Votes: 0

Human nature is full of riddles; . . . one of those riddles is: how is it that people who have been crushed by the sheer weight of slavery and cast to the bottom of the pit can nevertheless find strength in themselves to rise up and free themselves first in spirit and then in body while those who soar unhampered over the peaks of freedom suddenly lose the taste of freedom, lose the will to defend it, and, hopelessly confused and lost, almost begin to crave slavery?' Votes: 0

Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words…By means of art were are sometimes sent - dimly, briefly - revelations unattainable by reason. Votes: 0

With such global events looming over us like mountains, nay, like entire mountain ranges, it may seem incongruous and inappropriate to recall that the primary key to our being or non-being resides in each individual human heart, in the heart's preference for specific good or evil. Yet this remains true even today, and it is, in fact, the most reliable key we have. The social theories that promised so much have demonstrated their bankruptcy, leaving us at a dead end. Votes: 0

Human nature is full of riddles and contradictions; its very complexity engenders art-and by art I mean the search for something more than simple linear formulations, flat solutions, oversimplified explanations. Votes: 0

To reject this inhuman Communist ideology is simply to be a human being. Such a rejection is more than a political act. It is a protest of our souls against those who would have us forget the concepts of good and evil. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

A storm breaks trees. It only bends grass. Votes: 0

You should rejoice that you're in prison. Here you have time to think about your soul. Votes: 0

He who knows how to be content will be content with little. Votes: 0

Your friend will argue with you. Votes: 0

A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage . . . . Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elite, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society. Votes: 0

A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. Votes: 0

Should one point out that from ancient times decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end? Votes: 0

I am a frail vessel full of errors. Votes: 0

If you want to change the world, who do you begin with, yourself or others? I believe if we begin with ourselves and do the things that we need to do and become the best person we can be, we have a much better chance of changing the world for the better. Votes: 0

Good or evil-you cannot build your life apart from this distinction. Votes: 0

I insist on believing that beauty elevates human beings. Votes: 0

...skepticism can never provide firm ground under a man's feet. And perhaps, after all, we need firm ground. Votes: 0

Socialism of any type leads to a total destruction of the human spirit. Votes: 0

Too much art was no art at all. Like candy instead of bread! Votes: 0

We always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap. Votes: 0

Even the most rational approach to ethics is defenseless if there isn't the will to do what is right. Votes: 0

We are so attached to the earth, and yet we are incapable of holding onto it. Votes: 0

It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life. Votes: 0

Education doesn't make you smarter. Votes: 0

You know the words from the Bible: 'Build not on sand, but on rock....' Tyrant leaders respect only firmness...and laugh at persons who give in to them. Votes: 0

The one who doesn't pull his weight is not asked to pull, while the one who does, pulls for two. Votes: 0

A great writer is, so to speak, a secret government in his country Votes: 0

We particularly like people who value us highly. Votes: 0

Modern society is hypnotized by socialism. It is prevented by socialism from seeing the mortal danger it is in. And one of the greatest dangers of all is that you have lost all sense of danger, you cannot even see where it's coming from as it moves swiftly towards you. Votes: 0

Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul. Votes: 0

In our age, when technology is gaining control over life, when material well-being is considered the most important goal, when the influence of religion has been weakened everywhere in the world, a special responsibility lies upon the writer. Votes: 0

I had grown up among engineers, and I could remember the engineers of the twenties very well indeed: their open, shining intellects, their free and gentle humor, their agility and breadth of thought, the ease with which they shifted from one engineering field to another, and, for that matter, from technology to social concerns and art. Then, too, they personified good manners and delicacy of taste; well-bred speech that flowed evenly and was free of uncultured words; one of them might play a musical instrument, another dabble in painting; and their faces always bore a spiritual imprint. Votes: 0

A great disaster had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened. Votes: 0

Who will dare say he has defined art? Votes: 0

This deliberately nurtured hatred then spreads to all that is alive, to life itself, to the world with its colors, sounds, and shapes, to the human body. The embittered art of the twentieth century is perishing as a result of this ugly hate, for art is fruitless without love. In the East art has collapsed because it has been knocked down and trampled upon, but in the West the fall has been voluntary, a decline into a contrived and pretentious quest where the artist, instead of attempting to reveal the divine plan, tries to put himself in the place of God. Votes: 0

When you're cold, don't expect sympathy from someone who's warm. Votes: 0

Morality is always higher than law and we cannot forget this ever. Votes: 0

... direct [people] towards mutual affection. A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human beings can feel affection for each other, and this is the highest achievement they can aspire to. Votes: 0

The generation now coming out of Western schools is unable to distinguish good from bad. Even those words are unacceptable. This results in impaired thinking ability. Votes: 0

Was it Gorky who said: "If your children are no better than you are, you have fathered in vain, indeed you have lived in vain. Votes: 0

Only the first swath cut by the scythe is difficult. Votes: 0

Everyone is guilty of something or has something to conceal. All one has to do is look hard enough to find what it is. Votes: 0

Someone that you have deprived of everything is no longer in your power. He is once again entirely free. Votes: 0

The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things. Votes: 0

Pride grows in the human heart like lard on a pig. Votes: 0

And keep as few things as possible, so that you don't have to fear for them. Give them up without a struggle-because otherwise the humiliation will poison your heart. They will take them away from you in a fight, and trying to hold onto your property will only leave you with a bloodied mouth ... But by owning things and trembling about their fate aren't you forfeiting the rare opportunity of observing and understanding? Votes: 0

At what point, then, should one resist? When one's belt is taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one crosses the threshold of one's home? An arrest consists of a series of incidental irrelevancies, of a multitude of things that do not matter, and there seems no point in arguing about one of them individually...and yet all these incidental irrelevancies taken together implacably constitute the arrest. Votes: 0

It is within the power of writers and artists to do much more: to defeat the lie! Votes: 0

A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. Votes: 0

It makes me happier, more secure, to think that I do not have to plan and manage everything for myself, that I am only a sword made sharp to smite the unclean forces, an enchanted sword to cleave and disperse them. Grant, O Lord, that I may not break as I strike! Let me not fall from Thy hand! Votes: 0

There also exists another alliance - at first glance a strange one, a surprising one - but if you think about it, in fact, one which is well grounded and easy to understand. This is the alliance between our Communist leaders and your capitalists. This alliance is not new. ... We observe continuous and steady support by the businessmen of the West of the Soviet Communist leaders. Votes: 0

If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible what was the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men had forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.' Votes: 0

There are defendants whom the judges are afraid of. Votes: 0

Lord, give me the strength to accomplish what You've given me to do and the faith to trust You that what I haven't been able to accomplish You've already assigned to someone else. Votes: 0

... any country that is not careful can be seized. Votes: 0

The foundation stones of a great building are destined to groan and be pressed upon; it is not for them to crown the edifice. Votes: 0

The one and only substitute for experience which we have not ourselves had is art, literature. We have been given a miraculous faculty: Despite the differences of language, customs and social structure we are able to communicate life experience from one whole nation to another, to communicate a difficult national experience many decades long which the second of the two has never experienced. Votes: 0

I would rather have the United States as the world's policeman than the Soviet Union as the world's jailer. Votes: 0

Many of you have already found out, and others will find out in the course of their lives, that truth eludes us if we do not concentrate our attention totally on it's pursuit. But even while it eludes us, the illusion of knowing it still lingers and leads to many misunderstandings. Also, truth seldom is pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter. Votes: 0

European democracy was originally imbued with a sense of Christian responsibility and self-discipline, but these spiritual principles have been gradually losing their force. Spiritual independence is being pressured on all sides by the dictatorship of self-satisfied vulgarity, of the latest fads, and of group interests. Votes: 0

We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. Votes: 0

It is unthinkable in the twentieth century to fail to distinguish between what constitutes an abominable atrocity that must be prosecuted and what constitutes that "past" which "ought not to be stirred up. Votes: 0

Truth seldom is pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter. Votes: 0

A human being is all hope and impatience. Votes: 0

Oh, how hard it is to part with power! This one has to understand. Votes: 0

... it is a major responsibility ... of all communication for each of us to help everyone else discover the best that is in him. Votes: 0

The price of cowardice will only be evil. We shall reap courage and victory only when we dare to make sacrifices. Votes: 0

Communist propaganda would sometimes include statements such as "we include almost all the commandments of the Gospel in our ideology". The difference is that the Gospel asks all this to be achieved through love, through self-limitation, but socialism only uses coercion. This is one point. Votes: 0

If you ever get twenty-five years for nothing, if you find yourself wearing four number patches on your clothes, holding your hands permanently behind your back, submitting to searches morning and evening, working until you are utterly exhausted, dragged into the cooler whenever someone denounces you, trodden deeper and deeper into the ground-from the hole you're in, the fine words of the great humanists will sound like the chatter of the well-fed and free. Votes: 0

...it's only on a black day that you begin to have friends. Votes: 0

Freedom or prison--what's the difference? A man must develop unwavering will power subject only to his reason. Votes: 0

Voting for impersonal parties and their programmes is a false substitute for the only true way to elect people's representatives: voting by an actual person for an actual candidate. Votes: 0

We have been fortunate enough to live at a time when virtue, though it does not triumph, is nonetheless not always tormented by attack dogs. Beaten down, sickly, virtue has now been allowed to enter in all its tatters and sit in the corner, as long as it doesn't raise its voice. Votes: 0

Evil people always support each other; that is their chief strength. Votes: 0

Our envy of others devours us most of all. Votes: 0

Work was like a stick. It had two ends. When you worked for the knowing you gave them quality; when you worked for a fool you simply gave him eyewash. Votes: 0

We have to condemn the very idea that some people have the right to repress others. Votes: 0

Happiness doesn't depend on the actual number of blessings we manage to scratch from life, only our attitude towards them.... Votes: 0

I dare hope that all the peoples who have lived through communism will understand that communism is to blame for the bitter pages of their history. Votes: 0

Like a bicycle, like a wheel that, once rolling, is stable only so long as it keeps moving but falls when its momentum stops, so the game between a man and woman, once begun, can exist only so long as it progresses. If the forward movement today is no more than it was yesterday, the game is over. Votes: 0

People who are at ease with their consciences always look happy. Votes: 0

We are all human, and our senses are quicker to prompt us than our reason. Every man gives off a scent, and that scent tells you how to act before your head does. Votes: 0

How can you expect a man who's warm to understand one who's cold? Votes: 0

Anything too far out of tune with our attitude is lost, either in the ears themselves or somewhere beyond, but it is lost. Votes: 0

Only an extraordinary person can turn opportunity into reality. Votes: 0

Every human act can be disguised with a coating of gilt. Votes: 0

Our 20th Century has proved to be more cruel than preceding centuries, and the first fifty years have not erased all its horrors; our world is rent asunder by those same old cave-age emotions of greed, envy, lack of control, mutual hostility which have picked up in passing respectable pseudonyms like class struggle, radical conflict, struggle of the masses, trade-union disputes. Votes: 0

I am deeply convinced that God is present both in the lives of every person and also in the lives of entire nations. Votes: 0

When one is already on the edge of the grave, why not resist? Votes: 0

Truth must be told-and things must change! If words are not about real things and do not cause things to happen, what is the good of them? Votes: 0

Violence does not and cannot flourish by itself; it is inevitably intertwined with lying. Votes: 0

It was wrong to be too pragmatic, to judge people solely by results; it was more humane to judge by intentions. Votes: 0

He had drawn many a thousand of these rations in prisons and camps, and though he'd never had an opportunity to weight them on scales, and although, being a man of timid nature, he knew no way of standing up for his rights, he, like every other prisoner, had discovered long ago that honest weight was never to be found in the bread-cutting. There was short weight in every ration. The only point was how short. So every day you took a look to soothe your soul - today, maybe, they haven't snitched any. Votes: 0

Power is a poison well known for thousands of years. If only no one were ever to acquire material power over others! But to the human being who has faith in some force that holds dominion over all of us, and who is therefore conscious of his own limitations, power is not necessarily fatal. For those, however, who are unaware of any higher sphere, it is a deadly poison. For them there is no antidote. Votes: 0

A work of art contains its verification in itself: artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the test of being turned into images; they fall to pieces, turn out to be sickly and pale, convince no one. Works which draw on truth and present it to us in live and concentrated form grip us, compellingly involve us, and no one ever, not even ages hence, will come forth to refute them. Votes: 0

As for Europe, its claims towards Russia are fairly transparently based on fears about energy, unjustified fears at that. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

To stand up for truth is nothing. For truth, you must sit in jail. Votes: 0

Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. Use your memory! Use your memory! It is those bitter seeds alone which might sprout and grow someday. Look around you - there are people around you. Maybe you will remember one of them all your life and later eat your heart out because you didn't make use of the opportunity to ask him questions. And the less you talk, the more you'll hear. Votes: 0

I think the gap between rich and poor is an extremely dangerous phenomenon and needs the immediate attention of the state. Votes: 0

Human nature, if it changes at all, changes not much faster than the geological face of the earth. Votes: 0

Economic growth is not only unncessary, but ruinous. Votes: 0

Nowadays we don't think much of a man's love for an animal; we laugh at people who are attached to cats. But if we stop loving animals, aren't we bound to stop loving humans too? Votes: 0

Of course, my views developed in the course of time. But I have always believed in what I did and never acted against my conscience. Votes: 0

Each person has his special moment of life when he unfolded himself to the fullest, felt to the deepest, and expressed himself to the utmost, to himself and to others. Votes: 0

What is the most precious thing in the world? I see now that it is the knowledge that you have no part in injustice. Injustice is stronger than you, it always was and always will be, but let it not be done through you. Votes: 0

The task of the artist is to sense more keenly than others the harmony of the world, the beauty and the outrage of what man has done to it, and poignantly to let people know. Votes: 0

One world, one mankind cannot exist in the face of six, four or even two scales of values: We shall be torn apart by this disparity of rhythm, this disparity of vibrations. Votes: 0

If we look far into the future, one can see a time in the 21st century when both Europe and the USA will be in dire need of Russia as an ally. Votes: 0

If we could all take a sober look at our history, then we would no longer see this nostalgic attitude to the Soviet past that predominates among the less affected part of our society. Votes: 0

I have grown used to the fact that public repentance is the most unacceptable option for the modern politician. Votes: 0

The "October Revolution" is a myth generated by the winners, the Bolsheviks, and swallowed whole by progressive circles in the West. Votes: 0

If you wanted to put the world to rights, who should you begin with: yourself or others? Votes: 0

But what can you say in a letter? Votes: 0

It's not the sea that drowns you-it's the puddle. Votes: 0

The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow. Votes: 0

For a country to have a great writer is to have another government. Votes: 0

A poet cannot be a Party member ... without paying the price. Votes: 0

There is eternal simplicity to a solution once it has been discovered! Votes: 0

On our crowded planet there are no longer any internal affairs! Votes: 0

If one is a professional soldier, it is part of one's job to die sooner or later. Votes: 0

Submissiveness to fate, the total abdication of your own will in the shaping of your life, the recognition that it was impossible to guess the best and the worst ahead of time but that it was easy to take a step you would reproach yourself for-all this freed the prisoner from any bondage, made him calmer, and even ennobled him. Votes: 0

Let all of us who shared the prison soup meet again in better times! Votes: 0

Woe to that nation whose literature is disturbed by the intervention of power. Because that is not just a violation against "freedom of print", it is the closing down of the heart of the nation, a slashing to pieces of its memory. The nation ceases to be mindful of itself, it is deprived of its spiritual unity, and despite a supposedly common language, compatriots suddenly cease to understand one another Votes: 0

In military science there is a principle more important than "Forward": it is that the task should be proportionate to the means. Votes: 0

Mourn if you must, but don't stop fighting. Votes: 0

I cannot suggest political ways out, that is the task of politicians, so it is simply that those who accuse me of this do not know how to read. Votes: 0

Art thaws even the frozen, darkened soul, opening it to lofty spiritual experience. Votes: 0

... a man can safely sacrifice a great deal as long as he clings to the essential. Votes: 0

Let us drive away those cruel, greedy oppressors, governments, and the new ones, having just laid aside grenades and rifles, will be just and understanding. Far from it. Votes: 0

Every act of perception has an emotional coloring. Votes: 0

There is a law of time, a law of oblivion: glory to the dead; life to the living. Votes: 0

It takes a fool to rush off to war! Votes: 0

Any fool can bomb a train, but just try sorting out the mess. Votes: 0

A whole week, a single campaign, a month, a week, even a day was far more than enough to cut a company or platoon to ribbons or cripple a man for life: it needed only a quarter of an hour. Votes: 0

A forest doesn't weep over one tree. Votes: 0

Even the most broad-minded of us can embrace only that part of truth into which our own snout has blundered. Votes: 0

To taste the sea all one needs is one gulp. Votes: 0

If it goes well with you, then all is well. Votes: 0

It's quite enough to show a well-beaten dog the whip. Votes: 0

The secret is that when you've been pitched head first into hell you just write about it Votes: 0

The one who pulls is the one they urge on. Votes: 0

To preserve his life, should a man pay everything that gives it color, scent and excitement? Votes: 0

Only a magician can fix a head on a body, but any fool can lop it off. Votes: 0

... some kind of clean, pure feeling does live within us, existing apart from all our convictions. Votes: 0

... scientists have made no clear effort to become an important, independently active force of mankind. Whole congresses at a time, they back away from the suffering of others; it is more comfortable to stay within the bounds of science. Votes: 0

No one can bar the road to truth, and to advance its cause I am prepared to accept even death. Votes: 0

If we live in a state of constant fear, can we remain human? Votes: 0

Bless you, prison, for having been in my life! Votes: 0

The most intense patriotism always flourishes in the rear. Votes: 0

If state, party and social policy will not be based on morality, then mankind has no future to speak of. Votes: 0

Sometimes I feel quite distinctly that what is inside me is not all of me. There is something else, sublime, quite indestructible, some tiny fragment of the Universal spirit.Don't you feel that? Votes: 0

A genius doesn't adjust his treatment of a theme to a tyrant's taste Votes: 0

Why can't you understand? The stars fall down now and then. The gaps have to be filled. Votes: 0

To coexist with communism on the same planet is impossible. Either it will spread, cancer-like, to destroy mankind, or else mankind will have to rid itself of communism (and even then face lengthy treatment for secondary tumors). Votes: 0

Nothing is more boring than a man with a career. Votes: 0

All classifications in this world lack sharp boundaries, and all transitions are gradual. Votes: 0

We will die, but art will remain. Votes: 0

When you're young, you haven't the experience, when you're old you haven't the strength. Votes: 0

What would things been like [in Russia] if during periods of mass arrests people had not simply sat there, paling with terror at every bang on the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but understood they had nothing to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people? Votes: 0

Nowhere on the planet, nowhere in history, was there a regime more vicious, more bloodthirsty, and at the same time more cunning than the Bolshevik, the self-styled Soviet regime. Votes: 0

Communism will never be halted by negotiations or through the machinations of detente. It can only be halted by force from without or by disintegration from within. Votes: 0

If a person can build a fence around himself, he is bound to do it. Votes: 0

The earlier, the more fun. Why put it off? It’s the atomic age! Votes: 0

We have arrived at an intellectual chaos. Votes: 0

Prayers are like those appeals of ours. Either they don't get through or they're returned with 'rejected' scrawled across 'em. Votes: 0

[He] understood the people in a new way...The people is not everyone who speaks our language, nor yet the elect marked by the fiery stamp of genius. Not by birth, not by the work of one's hands, not by the wings of education is one elected into the people. But by one's inner self. Everyone forges his inner self year after year. One must try to temper, to cut, to polish one's soul so as to become a human being. And thereby become a tiny particle of one's own people. Votes: 0

Work is what horses die of Votes: 0

Literature cannot develop between the categories "permitted"—"not permitted"—"this you can and that you can't." Literature that is not the air of its contemporary society, that dares not warn in time against threatening moral and social dangers, such literature does not deserve the name of literature; it is only a facade. Such literature loses the confidence of its own people, and its published works are used as waste paper instead of being read. -Letter to the Fourth National Congress of Soviet Writers Votes: 0

We didn't love freedom enough. Votes: 0

There is no point asserting and reasserting what the heart cannot believe. Votes: 0

The solemn pledge to abstain from telling the truth was called socialist realism. Votes: 0

This is a grave danger: the stoppage of information between the parts of the planet. Contemporary science knows that such stoppage is the way of entropy, of universal destruction. Votes: 0

After all, man is a complicated being, why should he be explainable by logic? Votes: 0

My friends! Let us try to be helpful, if we are worth anything. Votes: 0

You get no thanks from your belly-it always forgets what you've just done for it and comes begging again the next day. Votes: 0

Still, everybody wants to eat. Votes: 0

... human beings are better and lazier than their rules and instructions ... Votes: 0

History is too slow for our life, for our hearts. Votes: 0

... but food eaten quickly isn't food. Votes: 0

As the fathers live, so the children play. Votes: 0

The heart senses who is friend and who is no friend. Votes: 0

If someone asked you, why not help him out? Votes: 0

The intellectual is not defined by professional group and type of occupation. Nor are good upbringing and a good family enough in themselves to produce an intellectual. An intellectual is a person whose interest in and preoccupation with the spiritual side of life are insistent and constant and not forced by external circumstances, even flying in the face of them. An intellectual is a person whose thought is nonimitative. Votes: 0

Thus, literature, together with language, preserves and protects a nation's soul. Votes: 0

I refuse to see literature as amusement, as a game. I think that you ought not to approach literature without a moral responsibility for every word you write. Votes: 0

A leader should not be a man who arbitrarily imported his own ideas but the essential focal point for a group of people who trusted one another and worked for a common aim. Votes: 0

The essence of life will never be captured by even the greatest of formulas. Votes: 0

If so far we have been unable to see clearly or to reflect the eternal lineaments of truth, is it not because we too are still moving towards some end-because we are still alive? Votes: 0

What a force is laughter. Votes: 0

Justness exists, even if few people exist who feel it. Votes: 0

... We brush aside all scales not our own, as if they were follies or delusions. Votes: 0

... but it is human to be outraged by injustice, even to the point of courting destruction! Votes: 0

Once the fight is on-strike quickly and often. Votes: 0

We never know beforehand how new posts or new work will change us. Votes: 0

... that maxim of Descartes: "Question everything!" Question everything! Votes: 0

Not all of me shall die. Votes: 0

Not death itself, but only the moral preparation for it, holds terrors. Votes: 0

If there were no executioners, there would be no executions. Votes: 0

In every life there is one particular event that is decisive for the entire person-for his fate, his convictions, his passions. Votes: 0

Which of us can control his feelings? Votes: 0

In all probability an outburst of desperation in the midst of general submissiveness will always help. Votes: 0

When things are too clear, they are no longer interesting. Votes: 0

To his and everybody else's way of thinking, you should build a house with your own hands before you start talking about being an engineer. Votes: 0

People can live through hardship, but from hard feelings they perish. Votes: 0

One can build the Empire State Building, discipline the Prussian army, make a state hierarchy mightier than God, yet fail to overcome the unaccountable superiority of certain human beings. Votes: 0

You took my freedom away a long time ago and you can't give it back because you haven't got it yourself. Votes: 0

The task must be to banish from mankind's thought the idea that anybody has the right to use force against righteousness, against justice, against mutual agreements. Votes: 0

If decade after decade the truth cannot be told, each person's mind begins to roam irretrievably. One's fellow countrymen become harder to understand than Martians. Votes: 0

Generosity is a two-edged virtue for an artist - it nourishes his imagination but has a fatal effect on his routine. Votes: 0

The central government possesses no plan of finding the way out of this blind alley. Votes: 0

Macbeth's self-justifications were feeble - and his conscience devoured him. Yes, even Iago was a little lamb too. The imagination and the spiritual strength of Shakespeare's evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses. Because they had no ideology. Votes: 0

Surely people should eventually cease to be surprised at anything? And yet they continue to be. Votes: 0

Nothing worthy can be built on a neglect of higher meanings and on a relativistic view of concepts and culture as a whole. Indeed, something greater than a phenomenon confined to art can be discerned shimmering here beneath the surface - shimmering not with light but with an ominous crimson glow. Votes: 0

The fewer limitations the artist imposes on his work, the less chance he has for artistic success. Votes: 0

Some are bound to die young. By dying young a person stays young in people's memory. If he burns brightly before he dies, his brightness shines for all time. Votes: 0

In our country they do not permit any information to be X-rayed through and through, nor any discussion to encompass all the facets of a subject. All this is invariably suppressed at the very beginning, so no ray of light should fall on the naked body of truth. And then all this is piled up in one formless heap covering many years, where it languishes for whole decades, until all interest and all means of sorting out the rusty blocks from all this trash are lost. Votes: 0

But there are still people whose moral superiority defeats your own. Votes: 0

One drop of truth can outweigh an ocean of lies Votes: 0

Ideology - that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the neccessary steadfastness and determination... Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions. Votes: 0

If we don't know our own history, then we simply will have to endure all of the same mistakes, all of the same sacrifices, all of the same absurdities over again - times ten. Votes: 0

It is a brave man who is the first to sit down during a standing ovation. Votes: 0

Whenever the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relationships, this creates an atmosphere of spiritual mediocrity that paralyzes a person's noblest impulses. Votes: 0

Surrender one hair, and you'll end up beardless. Votes: 0

The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles. Votes: 0

Literature becomes the living memory of a nation. Votes: 0

We have ourselves to save. Votes: 0

The demands of internal growth are incomparably more important to us...than the need for any external expansion of our power. Votes: 0

Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction. Votes: 0

There can be no acceptable future without an honest analysis of the past. Votes: 0

One word of truth outweighs the whole world. Votes: 0

In the camp, this meant committing my verse-many thousands of lines-to memory. To help me with this I improvised decimal counting beads and, in transit prisons, broke up matchsticks and used the fragments as tallies. As I approached the end of my sentences I grew more confident of my powers of memory, and began writing down and memorizing prose-dialogue at first, but then, bit by bit, whole densely written passages. My memory found room for them! It worked. But more and more of my time-in the end as much as one week every month-went into the regular repetition of all I had memorized. Votes: 0

I am of course confident that I will fulfill my tasks as a writer in all circumstances - from my grave even more successfully and more irrefutably than in my lifetime. No one can bar the road to truth, and to advance its cause I am prepared to accept even death. But may it be that repeated lessons will finally teach us not to stop the writer's pen during his lifetime? At no time has this ennobled our history. Votes: 0

... the inexorable lesson of centuries: suffering must be borne; there is no way out. Votes: 0

If you live in a graveyard, you can't weep for everyone. Votes: 0

Beat a dog once and you only have to show him the whip. Votes: 0

The Communists have for decades loudly proclaimed their goal of destroying the bourgeois world, while the West merely smiled at what seemed to be an extravagant joke. Votes: 0

Call no day happy 'til it is done; call no man happy til he is dead. Votes: 0

In our village, folks say God crumbles up the old moon into stars. Votes: 0

It is almost always impossible to evaluate at the time events which you have already experienced, and to understand their meaning with the guidance of their effects. All the more unpredictable and surprising to us will be the course of future events. Votes: 0

A day without a dark cloud. Almost a happy day. There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail. Three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days. The three extra days were for leap years. Votes: 0

The one good thing about repeating your mistakes is that you know when to cringe Votes: 0

The Universe has as many different centers as there are living beings in it. Votes: 0

I leaf through the ancient philosophers and find my newest discoveries there. Votes: 0

What is an optimist? The man who says, "It's worse everywhere else. We're better off than the rest of the world. We've been lucky." He is happy with things as they are and he doesn't torment himself. What is a pessimist? The man who says, "Things are fine everywhere but here. Everyone else is better off than we are. We're the only ones who've had a bad break." He torments himself continually. Votes: 0

I am of course confident that I will fulfill my tasks as a writer in all circumstances -- from my grave even more successfully and more irrefutably than in my lifetime. Votes: 0

I was always optimistic. And I held to and was guided by my views. Votes: 0

I have always had that inner drive, since my birth. And I have always devoted myself gladly to work - to work and to the struggle. Votes: 0

There is something predetermined in the mutual attraction between Germany and Russia. Otherwise, this attraction would not have survived two ghastly World Wars. Votes: 0

When Russia started to regain some of its strength as an economy and as a state, the West's reaction - perhaps a subconscious one, based on erstwhile fears - was panic. Votes: 0

One should not ascribe the evil deeds of individual leaders or political regimes to an innate fault of the Russian people and their country. Votes: 0

We should clearly understand that only the voluntary and conscientious acceptance by a people of its guilt can ensure the healing of a nation. Unremitting reproaches from outside are counterproductive. Votes: 0

Periods of rapid and fundamental change were never favourable for literature. Significant works, have nearly always and everywhere been created in periods of stability, be it good or bad. Votes: 0

The term "national idea" is an unclear one. One might think of it as a widely shared understanding among a people as to the desired way of life in their country, an idea that holds sway over the population. A unifying concept like that can be useful, but should never be created artificially or imposed top-down by the powers-that-be. Votes: 0

Religion itself cannot but be dynamic. In order to combat modern materialistic mores, to fight nihilism and egotism, religion must also develop, must be flexible in its forms, and it must have a correlation with the cultural forms of the epoch. Votes: 0

For me faith is the foundation and support of one's life. Votes: 0