Portrait of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Gulag Archipelago

Modern influential 59 sayings

Sayings by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Unknown — Interview
Art & Creativity Unverifiable

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Unknown — Interview
Wisdom Unverifiable

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

Unknown — Interview
Biblical Unverifiable

I would rather be a rebel than a slave.

Unknown — Interview
Wisdom Unverifiable

The line between good and evil runs through every human heart.

1973 — The Gulag Archipelago
Art & Creativity Unverifiable

Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.

1970 — Nobel Lecture
Wisdom Unverifiable

You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.

1973 — The Gulag Archipelago
Wisdom Unverifiable

The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.

2007 — Interview with Der Spiegel
Inspirational Unverifiable

The West has lost its courage, both collectively and individually.

1978 — Harvard Commencement Speech
Inspirational Unverifiable

A society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed.

1974 — Letter to Soviet leaders
Wisdom Unverifiable

The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.

1973 — The Gulag Archipelago
Love & Relationships Unverifiable

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.

1973 — The Gulag Archipelago
Love & Relationships Unverifiable

The truth is seldom pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter.

1989 — Interview with Time Magazine
Wisdom Unverifiable

To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good.

1973 — The Gulag Archipelago
Inspirational Unverifiable

The West has lost its courage, and with it, its soul.

1978 — Harvard Commencement Speech
Religious Unverifiable

The Gulag Archipelago would not have existed without the cowardice of the Russian people.

1973 — From 'The Gulag Archipelago'
General Unverifiable

Democracy is not the answer to everything.

2007 — Interview with Der Spiegel
General Unverifiable

The decline of the West began when it embraced moral relativism.

1978 — From 'The Decline of Courage'
Social & Racial Unverifiable

Ukraine was never a real nation.

1990s — Controversial statement in interviews
General Unverifiable
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