And suddenly, reaching the last frontiers, when man is already stricken with poverty and nakedness and deprived of everything that seemingly adorns his life--then he finds in himself enough firmness to support himself on the final step and give up his life, but not his principles.
If only it were all so simple: If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? [The Gulag Archipelago]
We have to condemn publicly the very idea that some people have the right to repress others. In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers... we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations. |
