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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes

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Famous Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes

“Human nature is full of riddles; . . . one of those riddles is: how is it that people who have been crushed by the sheer weight of slavery and cast to the bottom of the pit can nevertheless find strength in themselves to rise up and free themselves first in spirit and then in body while those who soar unhampered over the peaks of freedom suddenly lose the taste of freedom, lose the will to defend it, and, hopelessly confused and lost, almost begin to crave slavery?'”

PeopleFirstsHumansHas BeensBodySpiritLostLosesHuman NatureTasteWeightSlaveryBottomCastsConfusedSheerNeverthelessSoarCravePitsCrushedRiddleFinding StrengthLost And Confused
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“Our Twentieth Century has proved to be more cruel than preceding centuries, and the first fifty years have not erased all its horrors. Our world is rent asunder by those same old cave-age emotions of greed, envy, lack of control, mutual hostility which have picked up in passing respectable pseudonyms like class struggle, radical conflict, struggle of the masses, trade-union disputes.”

WorldYearsFirstsAgePoliticsEmotionClassStruggleEconomyCenturyHorrorConflictMassTradeUnionsGreedEnvyPassingPassingsRadicalLiberalismFiftyMutualOur World20th CenturyCavesDisputesHostilityRespectableClass StruggleTrade UnionsPseudonymsLack Of Control
Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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“To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good... Ideology - that is what gives devildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.”

GivingFirstsBelieveHumansLongHelpingSeemsEyeEvilPoliticsSocialHuman BeingsTheoryHonorDeterminationPraiseIdeologyCurseJustificationReproachSteadfastnessSocial Theory
Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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“In the camp, this meant committing my verse-many thousands of lines-to memory. To help me with this I improvised decimal counting beads and, in transit prisons, broke up matchsticks and used the fragments as tallies. As I approached the end of my sentences I grew more confident of my powers of memory, and began writing down and memorizing prose-dialogue at first, but then, bit by bit, whole densely written passages. My memory found room for them! It worked. But more and more of my time-in the end as much as one week every month-went into the regular repetition of all I had memorized.”

WritingFirstsEndsWholeHelpingUsedFoundBitsLinesMemoriesRoomsWrittenWeekGrewMonthsDown AndPrisonSentencesDialogueBrokeMy TimeProseHelp MeCampsPassagesVersesRepetitionFragmentsCountingBeadsBroke UpMemorizingDecimalsMatchsticks
Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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“There also exists another alliance - at first glance a strange one, a surprising one - but if you think about it, in fact, one which is well grounded and easy to understand. This is the alliance between our Communist leaders and your capitalists. This alliance is not new. ... We observe continuous and steady support by the businessmen of the West of the Soviet Communist leaders.”

IfsThinkingFirstsWellsFactsEasyLeaderSupportStrangeHistoricalWestCommunistSteadySovietCapitalistSurprisingBusinessmanGlancesGroundedAlliancesCommunist Leaders
Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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“It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.”

YearsFirstsHumansHeartSometimesStatesPoliticalTurnsEvilSocialLinesPartyClassLaysPrisonGood And EvilBlessHuman HeartPolitical PartiesStirringStrawsImprisonmentAstonishmentSeparatingRottingSocial ClassGulags
Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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