Quotes from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

It is a brave man who is the first to sit down during a standing ovation.

...skepticism can never provide firm ground under a man's feet. And perhaps, after all, we need firm ground.

In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.

The one who doesn't pull his weight is not asked to pull, while the one who does, pulls for two.

I have always had that inner drive, since my birth. And I have always devoted myself gladly to work - to work and to the struggle.

The fewer limitations the artist imposes on his work, the less chance he has for artistic success.

We never know beforehand how new posts or new work will change us.

Work is what horses die of

Too much art was no art at all. Like candy instead of bread!

The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature.

We will die, but art will remain.

Anything too far out of tune with our attitude is lost, either in the ears themselves or somewhere beyond, but it is lost.

Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction.

I will tell you something else: it is a major responsibility not only of portraiture but of all human communication for each of us to help everyone else discover the best that is in him.

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

Should one point out that from ancient times decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end?

A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today.

If one is forever cautious can one remain a human being?

Not all of me shall die.

Not death itself, but only the moral preparation for it, holds terrors.

Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.

To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.

Education doesn't make you smarter.

On our crowded planet there are no longer any internal affairs!