"Mankind has become one, but not steadfastly one as communities or even nations used to be; not united through years of mutual experience, neither through possession of a single eye, affectionately called crooked, nor yet through a common native language, but, surpassing all barriers, through international broadcasting and print. An avalanche of events descends upon us — in one minute half the world hears of their splash. But the yardstick by which to measure those events and to evaluate them in accordance with the laws of unfamiliar parts of the world — this is not and cannot be conveyed via soundwaves and in newspaper columns. For these yardsticks were matured and assimilated over too many years of too specific conditions in individual countries and societies; they cannot be exchanged in mid-air. In the various parts of the world men apply their own hard-earned values to events, and they judge stubbornly, confidently, only according to their own scales of values and never according to any others."

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Literature See all quotes by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn →

React to this quote

More by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“Can a man who's warm understand one who's freezing?”

“A work of art bears within itself its own verification: conceptions which are devised or stretched do not stand being portrayed in images, they all come crashing down, appear sickly and pale, convince no one. But those works of art which have scooped up the truth and presented it to us as a living force — they take hold of us, compel us, and nobody ever, not even in ages to come, will appear to refute them.”

“Autobiographical sketch at the official Nobel site”

“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.”

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

“It is almost always impossible to evaluate at the time events which you have already experienced, and to understand their meaning with the guidance of their effects. All the more unpredictable and surprising to us will be the course of future events.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Many psychiatrists think, like Huxley, that these substances are neither more nor less dangerous than alcohol. It is not necessary to entirely accept this opinion — although to me it seems to be not f…"

— Octavio Paz

Literature1914–1998

#truth

"These penetrant oboes, which lead the melody instead of the tinkling gongs of Java and Bali, are definitely Indian. But still more Indian is the unparalleled drum chime of, normally, twenty-four caref…"

— Curt Sachs

Music1881–1959

#life

"Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to ma…"

— Pope John Paul II

Religion1920–2005

#life

"We are finite creatures. Our lives are small and can only scientifically consider a small part of reality. What's common for us is just a sliver of what's available. We can only see so much of the ele…"

— Michael Stevens (educator)

Philosophy1986

#truth