Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes

294 quotes in 3214 categories

• Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.
• The demands of internal growth are incomparably more important to us...than the need for any external expansion of our power.
• Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction.
• ... direct [people] towards mutual affection. A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human beings can feel affection for each…
• 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…
• 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…
• One word of truth outweighs the whole world.
• Even the most rational approach to ethics is defenseless if there isn't the will to do what is right.
• 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…
• 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…
• I am of course confident that I will fulfill my tasks as a writer in all circumstances - from my grave even more successfully and…
• 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…
• 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…
• There also exists another alliance - at first glance a strange one, a surprising one - but if you think about it, in fact, one…
• It is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions.
• The most intense patriotism always flourishes in the rear.
• 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…
• Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!
• If we live in a state of constant fear, can we remain human?
• 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…

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