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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNFor 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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNWoe 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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNFor us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while, for many people in the West, it is still a living lion.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNEverything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNJustice 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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNThe 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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNBlow 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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNWhen truth is discovered by someone else, it loses something of its attractiveness.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNReligion 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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNI 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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNThe next war… may well bury Western civilization forever.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNHuman beings yield in many situations, even important and spiritual and central ones, as long as it prolongs one’s well-being.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNHow can you expect a man who’s warm to understand one who’s cold?
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNFirst 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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNViolence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNTalent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN