Solzhenitsyn quotes

Solzhenitsyn audio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62TthXBIl2U

Mozart's Requiem
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A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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

First would be the literary side, then the spiritual and philosophical. The political side is required principally because of the necessity of the current Russian position. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

For a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I can say without affectation that I belong to the Russian convict world no less than I do to Russian literature. I got my education there, and it will last forever. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being? Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

It would have been difficult to design a path out of communism worse than the one that has been followed. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Man has set for himself the goal of conquering the world but in the processes loses his soul. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Of course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Our government declared that it is conducting some kind of great reforms. In reality, no real reforms were begun and no one at any point has declared a coherent programme. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Religion always remains higher than everyday life. In order to make the elevation towards religion easier for people, religion must be able to alter its forms in relation to the consciousness of modern man. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The name of "reform" simply covers what is latently a process of the theft of the national heritage. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The next war... may well bury Western civilization forever. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

There are a lot of clear thinkers everywhere. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Today when we say the West we are already referring to the West and to Russia. We could use the word "modernity" if we exclude Africa, and the Islamic world, and partially China. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn