Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes about Country

All Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes Age Art Attitude Birth Censorship Communism Country quotes Death Defeat Democracy Earth Economy Envy Ethics Evil Fate Feelings Fighting Giving Growth Hate Heart Honesty Human Nature Humility Inspirational Integrity Justice Language Life Literature Love Lying Memories Morality Opportunity Past Peace Politics Responsibility Sacrifice Socialism Soul Struggle Time Today Truth Understanding Violence War Water Wisdom Writing

I hope that no one present will suspect me of offering my personal criticism of the Western system to present socialism as an alternative. Having experienced applied socialism in a country where the alternative has been

I hope that no one present will suspect me of offering my personal criticism of the Western system to present socialism as an alternative. Having experienced applied socialism in a country where the alternative has been realized, I certainly will not speak for it. The well-known Soviet mathematician Shafarevich, a member of the Soviet Academy of Science, has written a brilliant book under the title Socialism; it is a profound analysis showing that socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, Book, Offering

A World Split Apart, delivered 8 June 1978, Harvard University

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

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, Lying, Pillars

1974 interview, printed in appendix to (The Oak and the Calf, 1975)

Vladimir Putin inherited a ransacked and bewildered country, with a poor and demoralized people. And he started to do what was possible - a slow and gradual restoration. These efforts were not noticed, nor appreciated, immediately. In any case, one is hard pressed to find examples in history when steps by one country to restore its strength were met favorably by other governments.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, People, Effort

Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, Travel, Memories

... any country that is not careful can be seized.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, Careful

Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. Use your memory! Use your memory! It is those bitter seeds alone which might sprout and grow someday. Look around you - there are people around you. Maybe you will remember one of them all your life and later eat your heart out because you didn't make use of the opportunity to ask him questions. And the less you talk, the more you'll hear.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, Memories, Heart

A great writer is, so to speak, a secret government in his country

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, Government, Secret

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

Love, Country, Government

"In the First Circle". Book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1968.

An opposition is necessary and desirable for the healthy development of any country. You can scarcely find anyone in opposition, except for the communists, just like in Yeltsin's times. It is regrettable that there is still no constructive, clear and large-scale opposition in Russia. The growth and development of an opposition, as well as the maturing of other democratic institutions, will take more time and experience.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, Healthy, Growth

"I Am Not Afraid of Death". Interview With Christian Neef, Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. July 23, 2007.

The term "national idea" is an unclear one. One might think of it as a widely shared understanding among a people as to the desired way of life in their country, an idea that holds sway over the population. A unifying concept like that can be useful, but should never be created artificially or imposed top-down by the powers-that-be.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, Thinking, Top Down

Source: www.spiegel.de

Gorbachev's administration was amazingly politically naïve, inexperienced and irresponsible towards the country. It was not governance but a thoughtless renunciation of power. The admiration of the West in return only strengthened his conviction that his approach was right. But let us be clear that it was Mikhail Gorbachev, and not Boris Yeltsin, as is now widely being claimed, who first gave freedom of speech and movement to the citizens of Russia.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, Freedom Of Speech, Admiration

"I Am Not Afraid of Death". Interview With Christian Neef, Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. July 23, 2007.

In our country they do not permit any information to be X-rayed through and through, nor any discussion to encompass all the facets of a subject. All this is invariably suppressed at the very beginning, so no ray of light should fall on the naked body of truth. And then all this is piled up in one formless heap covering many years, where it languishes for whole decades, until all interest and all means of sorting out the rusty blocks from all this trash are lost.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Country, Block, Fall