The foundation stones of a great building are destined to groan and be pressed upon; it is not for them to crown the edifice.

Human rights' are a fine thing, but how can we make ourselves sure that our rights do not expand at the expense of the rights of others. A society with unlimited rights is incapable of standing to adversity. If we do not wish to be ruled by a coercive authority, then each of us must rein himself in...A stable society is achieved not by balancing opposing forces but by conscious self-limitation: by the principle that we are always duty-bound to defer to the sense of moral justice.

In military science there is a principle more important than "Forward": it is that the task should be proportionate to the means.

My wish for you... is that your skeptic-eclectic brain be flooded with the light of truth.

The clock of communism has stopped striking. But its concrete building has not yet come crashing down. For that reason, instead of freeing ourselves, we must try to save ourselves from being crushed by its rubble.

A poet cannot be a Party member ... without paying the price.

When I was in the gulag I would sometimes even write on stone walls. I used to write on scraps of paper, then I memorised the contents and destroyed the scraps.