Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“It is not the level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the kinship of heart to heart and the way we look at the world. Both attitudes are within our power, so that a man is happy so...”

“If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?”

“No one can bar the road to truth, and to advance its cause I'm ready to accept even death.”

“It makes me happier, more secure, to think that I do not have to plan and manage everything for myself, that I am only a sword made sharp to smite the unclean forces, an enchanted sword to c...”

“So in our own poor hides and from our miserable comrades we learn the nature of satiety. Satiety depends not at all on how much we eat, but on how we eat. It's the same with happiness, the v...”

“Nu nivelul de trai îi face pe oameni fericiți, ci relația inimilor și felul în care ne privim viața. Și una și alta se află, întotdeauna, în puterea noastră și asta înseamnă că omul e întotd...”

“Oare când îl va înţelege sătulul pe cel flămând?”

“Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing.”

“I can say without affectation that I belong to the Russian convict world no less than I do to Russian literature. I got my education there, and it will last forever.”

“Religion always remains higher than everyday life. In order to make the elevation towards religion easier for people, religion must be able to alter its forms in relation to the consciousnes...”

“Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press.”

“It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God's heaven.”

“We have arrived at an intellectual chaos.”

“When truth is discovered by someone else, it loses something of its attractiveness.”

“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”

“Our government declared that it is conducting some kind of great reforms. In reality, no real reforms were begun and no one at any point has declared a coherent programme.”

“The next war... may well bury Western civilization forever.”

“In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.”

“Human beings yield in many situations, even important and spiritual and central ones, as long as it prolongs one's well-being.”

“A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.”