Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes

I'm just dealing with what's happening, with what is. Joy, happiness, good, bad, all those terms are meaningless to me.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

To remember non-attachment is to remember what freedom is all about. If we get attached, even to a beautiful state of being, we are caught, and ultimately we will suffer. We work to observe anything that comes our way, experience it while it is here, and be able to let go of it.

One must know the so-called 'lesson of a downpour.' A man, caught in a sudden rain en route, dashes along the road not to get wet or drenched. Once one takes it for granted that in rain he naturally gets wet, he can be in a tranquil frame of mind even when soaked to the skin. This lesson applies to everything.

If it is, it is, If it's not, it's not.

Let come what comes, let go what goes. See what remains.

I don't take success very well, because I know it's fleeting. And the next day, it can all fall apart. I know that, too. So I don't get too high, and I don't get too low. You get through the world a lot easier that way.

If I could learn to treat triumph and disaster the same, then I would find bliss.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

Things are never perfect, so I never get too high about things, or get too down about things anymore.

Once you accept, truly accept, that stuff will happen to you and there is nothing you can do about it, stress miraculously leaves your life.

Let come what comes, and accommodate yourself to that, whatever it is. If good mental images arise, that is fine. If bad mental images arise, that is fine, too. Look on all of it as equal, and make yourself comfortable with whatever happens.

Victory and defeat are a part of life, which are to be viewed with equanimity.

I think there comes a time when you start dropping expectations. Because the world doesn't owe you anything, and you don't owe the world anything in return. Things, feelings, are a very simple transaction. If you get it, be grateful. If you don't, be alright with it.

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.

If you were wise enough to know that this life would consist mostly of letting go of things you wanted, then why not get good at the letting go, rather than the trying to have?

Surrender becomes so much easier when you realize the fleeting nature of all experiences and that the world cannot give you anything of lasting value. You then continue to meet people, to be involved in experience and activities, but without the wants and fears of the egoic self. That is to say, you no longer demand that a situation, person, place, or event should satisfy you or make you happy. It's passing and imperfect nature is allowed to be.

In Buddhism, there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when you're tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.

Receive the gifts of fortune without pride, and part with them without reluctance.

Sometimes things go really well, and sometimes they don't, and it's not ultimately the most important thing.

To live in the midst of suffering, which we do, we do, amid distress, and to keep some equilibrium in the midst of that - that would be happiness enough.

I can't be smug, because I know that you can lose anything at any point. And I can't be angry, because I haven't lost it.

You've got to take the bitter with the sour.

It is wisest to be impartial. If you have health, but are attached to it, you will always be afraid of losing it. And if you fear that loss, but become ill, you will suffer. Why not remain forever joyful in the Self?

Persuade thyself that imperfection and inconvenience are the natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair.