582 Quotes by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Where did this wolf-tribe appear from among our people? Does it really stem from our own roots? Our own blood? It is our own. And just so we don't go around flaunting too proudly the white mantle of the just, let everyone ask himself: "If my life had turned out differently, might I myself not have become just such an executioner?" It is a dreadful question if one really answers it honestly.

Even a strong man had no way left him to fight the prison machine, except perhaps suicide. But is suicide really resistance? Isn't it actually submission?

Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing.

Where an open war is impossible, oppression can continue quietly behind the scenes. Terrorism. Guerrilla warfare, violence, prisons, concentration camps. I ask you: Is this peace?The true antipode of peace is violence. And those who want peace in the world should remove not only war from the world but also violence. If there is no open war but there is still violence, that is not peace.

The earlier, the more fun. Why put it off? It’s the atomic age!

Wherever they went—Moscow, Tehran, the Syrian coast, Switzerland—a furnished house, villa, or apartment awaited the young couple. And their philosophies of life were the same: "We have only one life!" So take everything life can give, except one thing: the birth of a child. For a child is an idol who sucks dry the juices of your being without any return for your sacrifices, not even ordinary gratitude.

That was the price you had to pay. Once a single passion got a grip on you it ousted all others.

It’s not the sea that drowns you-it’s the puddle.

Душа болит за производство, а ноги тянут в санчасть - The soul hurts for production, and the legs are pulled to the medical unit