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I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects the struggle between the limitations of legal systems and the broader ethical values necessary for a just society.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn highlights the deficiencies of living under a purely legalistic society and the value of moral principles that go beyond the law. He suggests that while a society lacking objective legal standards is deeply flawed, solely adhering to legal frameworks without recognizing human dignity and ethics also results in a loss of worthiness for humanity.

Themes

SocietyLawEthicsHumanityJustice

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on political philosophy, this quote can be used to discuss the balance between legal systems and moral values.

More from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

At what point, then, should one resist? When one's belt is taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one crosses the threshold of one's home? An arrest consists of a series of incidental irrelevancies, of a multitude of things that do not matter, and there seems no point in arguing about one of them individually...and yet all these incidental irrelevancies taken together implacably constitute the arrest.
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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.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead
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.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead
To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.
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Like a bicycle, like a wheel that, once rolling, is stable only so long as it keeps moving but falls when its momentum stops, so the game between a man and woman, once begun, can exist only so long as it progresses. If the forward movement today is no more than it was yesterday, the game is over.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead
It's an universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead

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