The foundation stones of a great building are destined to groan and be pressed upon; it is not for them to crown the edifice.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynOnly those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a man with a career.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynLiterature cannot develop between the categories "permitted"—"not permitted"—"this you can and that you can't." Literature that is not the air of its contemporary society, that dares not warn in time against threatening moral and social dangers, such literature does not deserve the name of literature; it is only a facade. Such literature loses the confidence of its own people, and its published works are used as waste paper instead of being read. -Letter to the Fourth National Congress of Soviet Writers
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynViolence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn