The Blessing of Prison
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
It was granted to me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back,
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
which nearly broke beneath its load,
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
this essential experience:
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
how a human being becomes evil and how good.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
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—
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. . . .
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me:
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
“Bless you, prison!”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
I . . . have served enough time there.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation:
The Blessing of Prison
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