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A great writer is, so to speak, a second government in his country. And for that reason no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.
Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century.
The sole substitute for an experience we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature.
Education doesn't make you smarter.
It is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions.
The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
The meaning of earthly existence lies not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering but in the development of the soul.
Cancer Ward
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.
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.
Only those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a man with a career.
The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
When you're cold, don't expect sympathy from someone who's warm.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays