Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Quotes and Short Biography

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The term “GULAG” is an acronym for the brutal Soviet institution, Glavnoe Upravlenie ispravitel’no-trudovykh LAGerei, also known as the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps. The Gulag was a government agency in charge of the Soviet forced-labor camp system. The malevolent system was set up under Vladimir Lenin and reached its peak during the reign of Joseph Stalin between the 1930s and up into the early 1950s. It was primarily in criticism of this system where Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn came to become renowned.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a stark critic and prolific writer. He produced several significant works, among which are One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature because he used his words and his mind with intellectual and ethical force to expose the atrocities happening in his homeland. Solzhenitsyn was also given several other awards, among which are the Templeton Prize (1983), Lomonosov Gold Medal (1998), State Prize of the Russian Federation (2007), and the International Botev Prize (2008). 

Today most people have not heard of this genuinely amazing Russian writer. To introduce people to the words of his book and the weight of his message, I have compiled a list of 30 quotes that I think contain some of his best messages.

Below You, Will Find 30 Quotes Collected From The Major Works Of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

“At what point, then, should one resist? When one's belt is taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one crosses the threshold of one's home? An arrest consists of a series of incidental irrelevancies, of a multitude of things that do not matter, and there seems no point in arguing about one of them individually...and yet all these incidental irrelevancies taken together implacably constitute the arrest. ” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Freedom! To fill people's mailboxes, eyes, ears and brains with commercial rubbish against their will, television programs that are impossible to watch with a sense of coherence. Freedom! To force information on people, taking no account of their right not to accept it or their right of peace of mind. Freedom! To spit in the eyes and souls of passersby with advertisements.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“So in our own poor hides and from our miserable comrades we learn the nature of satiety. Satiety depends not at all on how much we eat, but on how we eat. It's the same with happiness, the very same...happiness doesn't depend on how many external blessings we have snatched from life. It depends only on our attitude toward them. There's a saying about it in the Taoist ethic: 'Whoever is capable of contentment will always be satisfied.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. ” ― Alexander Solzhenitsyn
“Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“The sole substitute for an experience we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“To stand up for truth is nothing. For truth, you must sit in jail.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Sometimes I feel quite distinctly that what is inside me is not all of me. There is something else, sublime, quite indestructible, some tiny fragment of the Universal spirit.Don't you feel that?” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.” ― Alexander Solzhenitsyn
“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. "One word of truth outweighs the world.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Only those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a man with a career.” ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
“When you're cold, don't expect sympathy from someone who's warm.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“You only have power over people as 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.” ― Alexander Solzhenitsyn
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
“It's an universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.” ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
“Thus it is that no cruelty whatsoever passes by without impact. Thus it is that we always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow.” ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
How can you expect a man who's warm to understand one who's cold?” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Our envy of others devours us most of all.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.” ― 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
“Let your memory be your travel bag.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“At what point, then, should one resist? When one's belt is taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one crosses the threshold of one's home? An arrest consists of a series of incidental irrelevancies, of a multitude of things that do not matter, and there seems no point in arguing about one of them individually...and yet all these incidental irrelevancies taken together implacably constitute the arrest. ” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Freedom! To fill people's mailboxes, eyes, ears and brains with commercial rubbish against their will, television programs that are impossible to watch with a sense of coherence. Freedom! To force information on people, taking no account of their right not to accept it or their right of peace of mind. Freedom! To spit in the eyes and souls of passersby with advertisements.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“So in our own poor hides and from our miserable comrades we learn the nature of satiety. Satiety depends not at all on how much we eat, but on how we eat. It's the same with happiness, the very same...happiness doesn't depend on how many external blessings we have snatched from life. It depends only on our attitude toward them. There's a saying about it in the Taoist ethic: 'Whoever is capable of contentment will always be satisfied.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Sometimes I feel quite distinctly that what is inside me is not all of me. There is something else, sublime, quite indestructible, some tiny fragment of the Universal spirit.Don't you feel that?” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. ” ― Alexander Solzhenitsyn
“Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“The sole substitute for an experience we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“To stand up for truth is nothing. For truth, you must sit in jail.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.” ― Alexander Solzhenitsyn
“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. "One word of truth outweighs the world.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Only those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a man with a career.” ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
“When you're cold, don't expect sympathy from someone who's warm.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“You only have power over people as 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.” ― Alexander Solzhenitsyn
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
“It's an universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.” ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
“Thus it is that no cruelty whatsoever passes by without impact. Thus it is that we always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow.” ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
How can you expect a man who's warm to understand one who's cold?” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Our envy of others devours us most of all.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.” ― 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
“Let your memory be your travel bag.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Quotes and Short Biography
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Adam

Owner of Tweaking Optimism. I write from a Christian perspective on current topics within philosophy and psychology.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. navasolanature November 25, 2019

    A very pertinent reminder of Solzhenitsyn writing. Thanks. The times we are living in need this and I think of those in Hong Kong at the moment and their determination. Some great insights into the press too and ahead of his time twitter feeds!

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