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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

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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
Even
Conscience
Feeble
Short
Lambs
Strength
Corpses
Evildoers
Imagination
Justification
Iago
Spiritual
Shakespeare
Justifications
Littles
Dozen
Macbeth
Little
Ideology
Devoured
Self
Stopped
Lamb

More quotes by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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The one who doesn't pull his weight is not asked to pull, while the one who does, pulls for two.
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When I was young, the early death of my father cast a shadow over me - and I was afraid to die before all my literary plans came true. But between 30 and 40 years of age my attitude to death became quite calm and balanced. I feel it is a natural, but no means the final, milestone of one's existence.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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Which of us can control his feelings?
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A great disaster had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God that's why all this has happened.
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The central government possesses no plan of finding the way out of this blind alley.
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Work is what horses die of
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Scientific research? Only when not at the cost of ethics-and first of all, those of the researchers themselves.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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I refuse to see literature as amusement, as a game. I think that you ought not to approach literature without a moral responsibility for every word you write.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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A fish does not campaign against fisheries-it only tries to slip through the mesh.
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You know the words from the Bible: 'Build not on sand, but on rock....' Tyrant leaders respect only firmness...and laugh at persons who give in to them.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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When you're young, you haven't the experience, when you're old you haven't the strength.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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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
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Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart...
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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If state, party and social policy will not be based on morality, then mankind has no future to speak of.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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... that maxim of Descartes: Question everything! Question everything!
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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When Russia started to regain some of its strength as an economy and as a state, the West's reaction - perhaps a subconscious one, based on erstwhile fears - was panic.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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Friends! Let us try to help if we are worth anything at all!
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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Patriotism means unqualified and unwavering love for the nation, which implies not uncritical eagerness to serve, not support for unjust claims, but frank assessment of its vices and sins, and penitence for them.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn