“For a country to have a great writer … is like having another government. That’s why no régime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.”
Innokenty, in Ch. 57.
Variant translation: 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.
The First Circle (1968)
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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn120
Russian writer 1918–2008Related quotes
Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America
Book One, Chapter XIII.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book One
Antifederalist Papers http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?subcategory=73 John DeWitt IV http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1649 (1787) <br class="br">Attributed <br class="br">Context: It is asserted by the most respectable writers upon Government, that a well regulated militia, composed of the yeomanry of the country have ever been considered as the bulwark of a free people; and, says the celebrated Mr. Hume, "without it, it is folly to think any free government will have stability or security. When the sword is introduced, as in our constitution (speaking of the British) the person entrusted will always neglect to discipline the militia, in order to have a pretext for keeping up a standing army; and it is evident this is a mortal distemper in the British parliament, of which it must finally inevitably perish."
Renata Adler (1938) American author, journalist and film critic
Source: Speedboat
“I am, really, a great writer; my only difficulty is in finding great readers.”
Frank Harris (1856–1931) Irish journalist and rogue
Quoted in George Jean Nathan The World of George Jean Nathan (1952) p. 252.
“Good writers indulge their audience; great writers know better.”
Tom Heehler American author
The Well-Spoken Thesaurus (2011)
Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant
The Ecological Vision (1993)
1990s and later