quote · Legacy record
Our present system is unique in world history, because over and above its physical and economic constraints, it demands of us total surrender of our souls, continuous and active participation in the general, conscious lie. To this putrefaction of the soul, this spiritual enslavement, human beings who wish to be human cannot consent. When Caesar, having exacted what is Caesar's, demands still more insistently that we render him what is God's — that is a sacrifice we dare not make!
Our present system is unique in world history, because over and above its physical and economic constraints, it demands of us total surrender of our souls, continuous and active participation in the general, conscious lie. To this putrefaction of the soul, this spiritual enslavement, human beings who wish to be human cannot consent. When Caesar, having exacted what is Caesar's, demands still more insistently that we render him what is God's — that is a sacrifice we dare not make!
Approximate author period: c. 1963 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1963 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1918 to 2008; Wikidata Q34474, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q34474 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 152288; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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