Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Russia
11 Dec 1918 // 3 Aug 2008
Writer

Quotes



Every man always has handy a dozen glib little reasons why he is right not to sacrifice himself.
Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.
It is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions.
Only those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a man with a career.
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.
Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.
Thus it is that no cruelty whatsoever passes by without impact. Thus it is that we always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap.
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays