"It was granted to me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.... That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: 'Bless you, prison!' I...have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: 'Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!'"
-- Alexander Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, Vol. 2, 615-617)
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2 comments:
WOW...I have been meaning to read that book for years and that passage has rekindled my interest.
It is so easy for us to get caught up in our own little worlds that sometimes it takes a tragic experience like the Gulag to awaken us to our own fragility and selfishness.
Thank you for sharing that...I wish more people in this world would have as much compassion as you do...
Thanks! I've been meaning to post a quote from him since he passed away, but just now got around to it.
And for the record, I wish I were a more compassionate person, but I've found that particular trait in myself to be...selective, I guess. More things to work on....
But thanks for the compliment. :)
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