Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes

108 Sourced Quotes

The inexorable lesson of centuries: suffering must be borne; there is no way out.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
If you wanted to put the world to rights, who should you begin with: yourself or others?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
It was wrong to be too pragmatic, to judge people solely by results; it was more humane to judge by intentions.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Let us drive away those cruel, greedy oppressors, governments, and the new ones, having just laid aside grenades and rifles, will be just and understanding. Far from it.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Any fool can bomb a train, but just try sorting out the mess.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
If so far we have been unable to see clearly or to reflect the eternal lineaments of truth, is it not because we too are still moving towards some end-because we are still alive?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
We are so attached to the earth, and yet we are incapable of holding onto it.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Only a magician can fix a head on a body, but any fool can lop it off.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
One world, one mankind cannot exist in the face of six, four or even two scales of values: We shall be torn apart by this disparity of rhythm, this disparity of vibrations.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Everyone is guilty of something or has something to conceal. All one has to do is look hard enough to find what it is.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
There are all kinds of engineers. Some of them here have built successful careers selling soda water.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
You took my freedom away a long time ago and you can't give it back because you haven't got it yourself.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The price of cowardice will only be evil. We shall reap courage and victory only when we dare to make sacrifices.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Nowadays we don't think much of a man's love for an animal; we laugh at people who are attached to cats. But if we stop loving animals, aren't we bound to stop loving humans too?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Surely people should eventually cease to be surprised at anything? And yet they continue to be.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
When you're young, you haven't the experience, when you're old you haven't the strength.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
All classifications in this world lack sharp boundaries, and all transitions are gradual.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn