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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNOur 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.
More Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes
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In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.
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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.
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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.
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Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle.
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The next war… may well bury Western civilization forever.
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Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.
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The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.
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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.
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Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.
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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.
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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.
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A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.
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If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?
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The salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of all.
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The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature.
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