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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNFor us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while, for many people in the West, it is still a living lion.
More Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes
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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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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.
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The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.
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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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When truth is discovered by someone else, it loses something of its attractiveness.
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Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.
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The name of ‘reform’ simply covers what is latently a process of the theft of the national heritage.
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Human beings yield in many situations, even important and spiritual and central ones, as long as it prolongs one’s well-being.
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Of course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God.
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If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?
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A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.
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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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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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The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature.
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How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand one who’s cold?
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