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 SOLZHENITSYNHow can you expect a man who’s warm to understand one who’s cold?
More Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes
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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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Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words.
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Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.
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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 man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.
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We have arrived at an intellectual chaos.
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Justice 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.
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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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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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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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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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How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand one who’s cold?
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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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If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?
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There are a lot of clear thinkers everywhere.
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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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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.
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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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Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing.
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Everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth.
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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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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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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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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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