It would have been difficult to design a path out of communism worse than the one that has been followed. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on design
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. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on education
Literature transmits incontrovertible condensed experience... from generation to generation. In this way literature becomes the living memory of a nation. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on experience
The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on experience
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. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on failure
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 Solzhenitsyn on freedom
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. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on god
The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on good
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 Solzhenitsyn on government
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 on government
I 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 Solzhenitsyn on legal
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 on power
Of course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on religion
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. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on religion
I 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 Solzhenitsyn on society
Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on travel
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. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on truth
Everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on truth
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on war
The next war... may well bury Western civilization forever. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on war