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When Russia Started To Regain Some Of Its Strength As An Economy And As A State, The West's Reaction - Perhaps A Subconscious One, Based On Erstwhile Fears - Was Panic.
-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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When Russia Started To

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
When Russia Started To Regain Some Of Its Strength As An Economy And As A State, The West's Reaction - Perhaps A Subconscious One, Based On Erstwhile Fears - Was Panic.
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Topic
Russia
Panic
West
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[he] Understood The People In A New Way...the People Is Not Everyone Who Speaks Our Language, Nor Yet The Elect Marked By The Fiery Stamp Of Genius. Not By Birth, Not By The Work Of One's Hands, Not By The Wings Of Education Is One Elected Into The People. But By One's Inner Self. Everyone Forges His Inner Self Year After Year. One Must Try To Temper, To Cut, To Polish One's Soul So As To Become A Human Being. And Thereby Become A Tiny Particle Of One's Own People.
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When Russia Started To Regain Some Of Its Strength As An Economy And As A State, The West's Reaction - Perhaps A Subconscious One, Based On Erstwhile Fears - Was Panic.
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Art
Grief
Our World
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Law
Profound
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Christian
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Poetry
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Friends
Heart
No Friends
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Thinking
Feet
Mud
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May
Today
West
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Truth
Honesty
Lying
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Men
Dozen
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Forgotten
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Tree
Storm
Break
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Effort
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Father
Mean
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Mediocrity
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Age
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Communication
Information
Way
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Artist
Two
Generosity
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War
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Spiritual
Atmosphere
Woven
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Behavior
Humans
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Years
Have Faith
Dominion
But Nothing Is All Black In Nature.
Nature
Black
All Black
Bless You, Prison, For Having Been In My Life!
Prison
Bless
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War
Goal
World
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Lying
Integrity
Live Your Life
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Mean
Thinking
Giving
The Intellectual Is Not Defined By Professional Group And Type Of Occupation. Nor Are Good Upbringing And A Good Family Enough In Themselves To Produce An Intellectual. An Intellectual Is A Person Whose Interest In And Preoccupation With The Spiritual Side Of Life Are Insistent And Constant And Not Forced By External Circumstances, Even Flying In The Face Of Them. An Intellectual Is A Person Whose Thought Is Nonimitative.
Spiritual
Flying
Intellectual
Our Envy Of Others Devours Us Most Of All.
Inspirational
Gossip
Envy
History Is Too Slow For Our Life, For Our Hearts.
Heart
History
Art History
Evil People Always Support Each Other; That Is Their Chief Strength.
Evil People
Support
Chiefs
For A Country To Have A Great Writer Is Like Having A Second Government. That Is Why No Regime Has Ever Loved Great Writers, Only Minor Ones.
Love
Country
Government
A Decline In Courage May Be The Most Striking Feature That An Outside Observer Notices In The West Today. The Western World Has Lost Its Civic Courage . . . . Such A Decline In Courage Is Particularly Noticeable Among The Ruling And Intellectual Elite, Causing An Impression Of A Loss Of Courage By The Entire Society.
Loss
Intellectual
World
... Once You Get Up Steam, You Are Carried Helplessly Along.
Get Up
Steam
Inertia
... Any Country That Is Not Careful Can Be Seized.
Country
Careful
Let All Of Us Who Shared The Prison Soup Meet Again In Better Times!
Soup
Prison
It's Not The Sea That Drowns You-it's The Puddle.
Sea
Water
Puddles
Friends! Let Us Try To Help If We Are Worth Anything At All!
Trying
Helpful
My Friends
But What Can You Say In A Letter?
Letters
One Cannot Declare That Only His Faith Is Correct And All Other Faiths Are Not. God Is Endlessly Multi-dimensional So Every Religion That Exists On Earth Represents Some Face, Some Side Of God. One Must Not Have Any Negative Attitude To Any Religion But Nonetheless The Depth Of Understanding God And The Depth Of Applying God's Commandments Is Different In Different Religions.
Attitude
Understanding God
Depth
The One Who Doesn't Pull His Weight Is Not Asked To Pull, While The One Who Does, Pulls For Two.
Work
Two
Doe
Of Course God Is Endlessly Multi-dimensional So Every Religion That Exists On Earth Represents Some Face, Some Side Of God.
Religion
Earth
Faces
To Do Evil A Human Being Must First Of All Believe That What He's Doing Is Good... Ideology - That Is What Gives Devildoing Its Long-sought Justification And Gives The Evildoer The Necessary Steadfastness And Determination. That Is The Social Theory Which Helps To Make His Acts Seem Good Instead Of Bad In His Own And Others' Eyes, So That He Won't Hear Reproaches And Curses But Will Receive Praise And Honors.
Determination
Believe
Eye
Woe To That Nation Whose Literature Is Disturbed By The Intervention Of Power. Because That Is Not Just A Violation Against "freedom Of Print," It Is The Closing Down Of The Heart Of The Nation, A Slashing To Pieces Of Its Memory.
Memories
Freedom
Heart
Today When We Say The West We Are Already Referring To The West And To Russia. We Could Use The Word 'modernity' If We Exclude Africa, And The Islamic World, And Partially China.
Islamic
Russia
Use
For Us In Russia, Communism Is A Dead Dog, While, For Many People In The West, It Is Still A Living Lion.
Dog
Russia
People
Own Only What You Can Always Carry With You: Know Languages, Know Countries, Know People. Let Your Memory Be Your Travel Bag.
Country
Travel
Memories
I Was Always Optimistic. And I Held To And Was Guided By My Views.
Optimistic
Views
It's True That Private Enterprise Is Extremely Flexible, But Its Only Good Within Very Narrow Limits. If Private Enterprise Isn't Held In An Iron Grip It Gives Birth To People Who Are No Better Than Beasts, Those Stock-exchange People With Greedy Appetites Beyond Restraint.
Iron
People
Giving
Cracks Make Caves Collapse.
Caves
Cracks
Trifles
The Simple Step Of A Courageous Individual Is Not To Take Part In The Lie. "one Word Of Truth Outweighs The World.
Truth
Honesty
Lying
This Deliberately Nurtured Hatred Then Spreads To All That Is Alive, To Life Itself, To The World With Its Colors, Sounds, And Shapes, To The Human Body. The Embittered Art Of The Twentieth Century Is Perishing As A Result Of This Ugly Hate, For Art Is Fruitless Without Love. In The East Art Has Collapsed Because It Has Been Knocked Down And Trampled Upon, But In The West The Fall Has Been Voluntary, A Decline Into A Contrived And Pretentious Quest Where The Artist, Instead Of Attempting To Reveal The Divine Plan, Tries To Put Himself In The Place Of God.
Art
Hate
Fall
One Can Build The Empire State Building, Discipline The Prussian Army, Make A State Hierarchy Mightier Than God, Yet Fail To Overcome The Unaccountable Superiority Of Certain Human Beings.
Army
Greatness
Discipline
If You Ever Get Twenty-five Years For Nothing, If You Find Yourself Wearing Four Number Patches On Your Clothes, Holding Your Hands Permanently Behind Your Back, Submitting To Searches Morning And Evening, Working Until You Are Utterly Exhausted, Dragged Into The Cooler Whenever Someone Denounces You, Trodden Deeper And Deeper Into The Ground-from The Hole You're In, The Fine Words Of The Great Humanists Will Sound Like The Chatter Of The Well-fed And Free.
Morning
Years
Clothes
To Do Evil A Human Being Must First Of All Believe That What He's Doing Is Good.
Integrity
Believe
Evil
There Are Defendants Whom The Judges Are Afraid Of.
Law
Judging
Shall I Describe The Happiness It Gave Me To Go Into The Classroom And Pick Up The Chalk? ... It Seemed To Me The Supreme, Heartbreaking Happiness To Enter A Classroom Carrying A Register As That Bell Rang, And Start A Lesson With The Mysterious Air Of One About To Unfold Wonders.
Teaching
Air
Heartbreaking
We Particularly Like People Who Value Us Highly.
People
Esteem
Values
I Dedicate This To All Those Who Did Not Live To Tell It. And May They Please Forgive Me For Not Having Seen It All Nor Remembered It All, For Not Having Divined All Of It - From The Gulag Archipelago
Forgive Me
Forgiving
May
Once The Fight Is On-strike Quickly And Often.
Fighting
Strikes
If We Live In A State Of Constant Fear, Can We Remain Human?
States
Constant
Humans
If You Want To Change The World, Who Do You Begin With, Yourself Or Others? I Believe If We Begin With Ourselves And Do The Things That We Need To Do And Become The Best Person We Can Be, We Have A Much Better Chance Of Changing The World For The Better.
Change
Believe
Needs
We Hear A Constant Clamor For Rights, Rights, Always Rights, But So Very Little About Responsibility. And We Have Forgotten God. The Need Now Is For Selflessness, For A Spirit Of Sacrifice, For A Willingness To Put Aside Personal Gains For The Salvation Of The Whole Western World.
Wisdom
Responsibility
Sacrifice
We Have Arrived At An Intellectual Chaos.
Intellectual
Chaos
Even If We Are Spared Destruction By War, Our Lives Will Have To Change If We Want To Save Life From Self-destruction.
Peace
War
Self
When We Feel That We Are Not Sufficiently Respected, We Should Ask Ourselves Whether We Are Living As We Should.
Respect
Should
Feels
Periods Of Rapid And Fundamental Change Were Never Favourable For Literature. Significant Works, Have Nearly Always And Everywhere Been Created In Periods Of Stability, Be It Good Or Bad.
Fundamentals
Literature
Significant
The Central Government Possesses No Plan Of Finding The Way Out Of This Blind Alley.
Government
Way
Blind
Even The Most Rational Approach To Ethics Is Defenseless If There Isn't The Will To Do What Is Right.
Ethics And Morals
Morality
Moral Ethics
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 Consciousness Of Modern Man.
Men
Order
People
Human Nature Is Full Of Riddles; . . . One Of Those Riddles Is: How Is It That People Who Have Been Crushed By The Sheer Weight Of Slavery And Cast To The Bottom Of The Pit Can Nevertheless Find Strength In Themselves To Rise Up And Free Themselves First In Spirit And Then In Body While Those Who Soar Unhampered Over The Peaks Of Freedom Suddenly Lose The Taste Of Freedom, Lose The Will To Defend It, And, Hopelessly Confused And Lost, Almost Begin To Crave Slavery?'
Confused
People
Pits
When You're Young, You Haven't The Experience, When You're Old You Haven't The Strength.
Aging
Young
Old You
Without Any Censorship, In The West Fashionable Trends Of Thought And Ideas Are Carefully Separated From Those Which Are Not Fashionable; Nothing Is Forbidden, But What Is Not Fashionable Will Hardly Ever Find Its Way Into Periodicals Or Books Or Be Heard In Colleges. Legally Your Researchers Are Free, But They Are Conditioned By The Fashion Of The Day.
Fashion
Book
College
You Get No Thanks From Your Belly-it Always Forgets What You've Just Done For It And Comes Begging Again The Next Day.
Next Day
Done
Thanks
Mourn If You Must, But Don't Stop Fighting.
Fighting
Mourning
Mourn
Nowhere On The Planet, Nowhere In History, Was There A Regime More Vicious, More Bloodthirsty, And At The Same Time More Cunning Than The Bolshevik, The Self-styled Soviet Regime.
War
Self
Cold
One Word Of Truth Outweighs The Whole World.
Honesty
World
Ethics
I Am A Convinced And Consistent Critic Of Party-parliamentarism. I Am For Non-partisan Elections Of True People's Representatives Who Are Accountable To Their Regions And Districts; And Who In Case Of Unsatisfactory Work Can Be Recalled. I Do Understand And Respect The Formation Of Groups On Economical, Cooperative, Territorial, Educational, Professional And Industrial Principles, But I See Nothing Organic In Political Parties. Politically Motivated Ties Can Be Unstable And Quite Often They Have Selfish Ulterior Motives.
Selfish
Educational
Party
To His And Everybody Else's Way Of Thinking, You Should Build A House With Your Own Hands Before You Start Talking About Being An Engineer.
Thinking
Engineering
Hands
Here Again We Witness The Single Outcome Of A Worldwide Process, With East And West Yielding The Same Results, And Once Again For The Same Reason: Men Have Forgotten God.
Men
Evil
East
Who Will Dare Say He Has Defined Art?
Art
Dare
Defined
If... If... We Didn't Love Freedom Enough. And Even More - We Had No Awareness Of The Real Situation. We Spent Ourselves In One Unrestrained Outburst In 1917, And Then We Hurried To Submit. We Submitted With Pleasure! ........... We Purely And Simply Deserved Everything That Happened Afterward.
Real
Gun
Awareness
Patriotism Means Unqualified And Unwavering Love For The Nation, Which Implies Not Uncritical Eagerness To Serve, Not Support For Unjust Claims, But Frank Assessment Of Its Vices And Sins, And Penitence For Them.
Peace
War
Mean
The Strength Or Weakness Of A Society Depends More On The Level Of Its Spiritual Life Than On Its Level Of Industrialization. Neither A Market Economy Nor Even General Abundance Constitutes The Crowning Achievement Of Human Life. If A Nation's Spiritual Energies Have Been Exhausted, It Will Not Be Saved From Collapse By The Most Perfect Government Structure Or By Any Industrial Development. A Tree With A Rotten Core Cannot Stand.
Spiritual
Government
Perfect
Anything Too Far Out Of Tune With Our Attitude Is Lost, Either In The Ears Themselves Or Somewhere Beyond, But It Is Lost.
Attitude
Tunes
Ears
Sometimes I Feel Quite Distinctly That What Is Inside Me Is Not All Of Me. There Is Something Else, Sublime, Quite Indestructible, Some Tiny Fragment Of The Universal Spirit.don't You Feel That?
Sublime
Tiny
Spirit
We Are All Human, And Our Senses Are Quicker To Prompt Us Than Our Reason. Every Man Gives Off A Scent, And That Scent Tells You How To Act Before Your Head Does.
Men
Giving
Doe
Let Us Drive Away Those Cruel, Greedy Oppressors, Governments, And The New Ones, Having Just Laid Aside Grenades And Rifles, Will Be Just And Understanding. Far From It.
Government
Understanding
Rifles
Why Should I Trust You? We Haven't Drunk From The Same Bowl Of Soup.
Trust
Drunk
Soup
To Stand Up For Truth Is Nothing. For Truth, You Must Sit In Jail.
Jail
Truth Is
It Would Have Been Difficult To Design A Path Out Of Communism Worse Than The One That Has Been Followed.
Design
Path
Communism
The Thoughts Of A Prisoner - They're Not Free Either. They Keep Returning To The Same Things.
Prison
Prisoner
Only The First Swath Cut By The Scythe Is Difficult.
Cutting
Scythes
Firsts
If There Were No Executioners, There Would Be No Executions.
Death
Would Be
Execution
Nothing Is More Boring Than A Man With A Career.
Men
Careers
Boring
In All Probability An Outburst Of Desperation In The Midst Of General Submissiveness Will Always Help.
Helping
Desperation
Midst
During My Time In The Camps, I Had Got To Know The Enemies Of The Human Race Quite Well: They Respect The Big Fist And Nothing Else; The Harder You Slug Them, The Safer You Will Be.
Race
Enemy
Slugs
... But Food Eaten Quickly Isn't Food.
Food
As The Fathers Live, So The Children Play.
Children
Father
Play
We Have Ourselves To Save.
Survival
You Only Have Power Over People So Long As You Don't Take Everything Away From Them. But When You've Robbed A Man Of Everything, He's No Longer In Your Power - He's Free Again.
Life
Courage
Power
Only A Magician Can Fix A Head On A Body, But Any Fool Can Lop It Off.
War
Fool
Body
If A Person Can Build A Fence Around Himself, He Is Bound To Do It.
Fence
Persons
Ifs
I Hope That No One Present Will Suspect Me Of Offering My Personal Criticism Of The Western System To Present Socialism As An Alternative. Having Experienced Applied Socialism In A Country Where The Alternative Has Been Realized, I Certainly Will Not Speak For It. The Well-known Soviet Mathematician Shafarevich, A Member Of The Soviet Academy Of Science, Has Written A Brilliant Book Under The Title Socialism; It Is A Profound Analysis Showing That Socialism Of Any Type And Shade Leads To A Total Destruction Of The Human Spirit And To A Leveling Of Mankind Into Death.
Country
Book
Offering
A Genius Doesn't Adjust His Treatment Of A Theme To A Tyrant's Taste
Tyrants
Genius
Taste
... Some Kind Of Clean, Pure Feeling Does Live Within Us, Existing Apart From All Our Convictions.
Feelings
Doe
Spirit
Oh, How Hard It Is To Part With Power! This One Has To Understand.
Hard
... That Maxim Of Descartes: "question Everything!" Question Everything!
Doubt
Maxims
Freedom Or Prison--what's The Difference? A Man Must Develop Unwavering Will Power Subject Only To His Reason.
Men
Differences
Prison
To Do Evil A Human Being Must First Of All Believe That What He's Doing Is Good, Or Else That It's A Well-considered Act In Conformity With Natural Law. Fortunately, It Is In The Nature Of The Human Being To Seek A Justification For His Actions.
Believe
Law
Evil
A Meek Fellow ... Is A Real Godsend In Any Gang.
Real
Gang
Meek
In Our Country They Do Not Permit Any Information To Be X-rayed Through And Through, Nor Any Discussion To Encompass All The Facets Of A Subject. All This Is Invariably Suppressed At The Very Beginning, So No Ray Of Light Should Fall On The Naked Body Of Truth. And Then All This Is Piled Up In One Formless Heap Covering Many Years, Where It Languishes For Whole Decades, Until All Interest And All Means Of Sorting Out The Rusty Blocks From All This Trash Are Lost.
Country
Block
Fall
Education Doesn't Make You Smarter.
Smarter
If I Were Called Upon To Identify Briefly The Principal Trait Of The Entire 20th Century... I Would Be Unable To Find Anything More Precise And Pithy Than To Repeat Once Again: Men Have Forgotten God.
Christian
Religious
Men
Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.


2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.


2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.


2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.


3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.


3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.


3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.



4. Proper Usage of Quotes


4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.


4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.


4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).


5. Common Mistakes to Avoid


5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.


5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.


5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.



6. Quotes in Different Contexts


6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.


6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.


6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.



7. Punctuation and Formatting


Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:


Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.


Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.


Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.



8. Ethical Considerations


Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes


Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.



Conclusion


Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.


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