Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNIf one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?
More Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes
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The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.
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A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.
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I 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.
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For us in Russia communism is a dead dog. For many people in the West, it is still a living lion.
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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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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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It would have been difficult to design a path out of communism worse than the one that has been followed.
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We have arrived at an intellectual chaos.
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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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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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Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.
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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 us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while, for many people in the West, it is still a living lion.
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A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.
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It is time in the West to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.
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When truth is discovered by someone else, it loses something of its attractiveness.
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Everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth.
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Man has set for himself the goal of conquering the world but in the processes loses his soul.
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Literature transmits incontrovertible condensed experience… from generation to generation. In this way literature becomes the living memory of a nation.
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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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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.
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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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First 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.
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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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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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