One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

There are two ends to a stick, and there’s more than one way of working. If it’s for human beings—make sure and do it properly. If it’s for the big man—just make it look good.

‘So you’re up there in heaven after all, Lord. You are slow to anger, but you hit hard.’”

They’d got butter and I don’t know what on the table, coats dancing away on hangers, suitcases in cloth covers. They didn’t know they were living—

Who is the convict’s worst enemy? Another convict. If zeks didn’t squabble among themselves, the bosses would have no power over them.

“Wolf’s sunshine” was what they jokingly called the moonlight where Shukhov came from.

prayers are like petitions—either they don’t get through at all, or else it’s ‘complaint rejected.’”

I’m quite ready to believe in God. But I just don’t believe in heaven and hell. Why do you think everybody deserves either heaven or hell? What sort of idiots do you take us for? That’s what I don’t like.”