Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes & Sayings

“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”

“The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.”

“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.”

“Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.”

“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.”

“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.”

“The name of 'reform' simply covers what is latently a process of the theft of the national heritage.”

“Literature transmits incontrovertible condensed experience... from generation to generation. In this way literature becomes the living memory of a nation.”

“A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.”

“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.”