Alexander Solzhenitsyn

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Peace and Violence, sct. 2, in Index, no. 4 (London, 1973.
It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes. It may even lie on the surface; but we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions? especially selfish ones.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Speech to the graduating class at Harvard (1978)
We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere 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?
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago
Pride grows in the human heart like lard on a pig.

Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.

Our envy of others devours us most of all.

- Alexander Solzhenitsyn