Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Novelist Russian 1918 – 2008

Russian novelist and dissident, author of The Gulag Archipelago.

383 quotes

"Fear is the tool of tyrants."
Fear
"Power corrupts those who do not understand truth."
Power
"Money cannot buy what truly matters."
Money
"Health is the wealth of the wise."
Health
"Adventure awaits those brave enough to seek it."
Adventure
"Imagination is the key to unlocking human potential."
Imagination
"Technology is a tool, not a master."
Technology
"History repeats itself to those who do not learn from it."
History
"Philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom through questioning."
Philosophy
"Literature preserves the human experience across time."
Literature
"Politics is the art of compromise between principles."
Politics
"War destroys what peace takes generations to build."
War
"We know them not only by reason but by love."
Love
"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."
Philosophy
"Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life."
Gratitude
"The task of the writer is to plumb the depths of human experience."
Literature
"We are creatures of our own making, shaped by the choices we refuse to make."
Life
"Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice."
Courage
"A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him."
Happiness
"The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature."
Art
"When you know that you are just going to be destroyed anyway, all you say or do is quite free."
Freedom
"The more you own, the more it owns you."
Money
"Words are a form of action, capable of influencing the condition in which people live."
Power
"Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid."
Courage
"Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century."
Time
"We are not our brother's judges; we are our brother's keepers."
Kindness
"The meaning of earthly existence is not in prosperity alone."
Philosophy
"To have a great writer is to change the history of the world."
Literature
"We have been given a brief respite, a chance to prepare ourselves."
Hope
"Truth must be defended even when it is attacked by the whole world."
Truth