Quote

It is unthinkable in the twentieth century to fail to distinguish between what constitutes an abominable atrocity that must be prosecuted and what constitutes that past which ought not to be stirred up.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Age: 89 †
Born: 1918
Born: December 11
Died: 2008
Died: January 1
Historian
Militant
Military Personnel
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Playwright
Poet
Prosaist
Public Figure
School Teacher
Screenwriter
Writer
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Twentieth
Distinguish
Atrocity
Fail
Prosecuted
Failing
Abominable
Ought
Stirred
Century
Constitutes
Past
Atrocities
Must
Unthinkable

More quotes by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Image
To coexist with communism on the same planet is impossible. Either it will spread, cancer-like, to destroy mankind, or else mankind will have to rid itself of communism (and even then face lengthy treatment for secondary tumors).
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
In every life there is one particular event that is decisive for the entire person-for his fate, his convictions, his passions.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
If you wanted to put the world to rights, who should you begin with: yourself or others?
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
Nothing is more boring than a man with a career.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
Ideology - that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the neccessary steadfastness and determination... Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
We are so attached to the earth, and yet we are incapable of holding onto it.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
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
Image
The name of 'reform' simply covers what is latently a process of the theft of the national heritage.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
... but food eaten quickly isn't food.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
If there were no executioners, there would be no executions.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
How quickly a zek (a prisoner) gets cheeky-or, putting it in literary language, how quickly a man's requirements grow.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
Macbeth's self-justifications were feeble - and his conscience devoured him. Yes, even Iago was a little lamb too. The imagination and the spiritual strength of Shakespeare's evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses. Because they had no ideology.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage . . . . Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elite, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
The earlier, the more fun. Why put it off? It’s the atomic age!
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
Evil people always support each other that is their chief strength.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
And the over-all fact that you are a frail vessel full of errors.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Image
The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn