In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNI 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.
More Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes
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Everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN -
Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN -
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.
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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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN -
Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN -
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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN -
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN -
Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN -
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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN -
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.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN -
It would have been difficult to design a path out of communism worse than the one that has been followed.
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.
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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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How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand one who’s cold?
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN -
The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN