Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharovwas a Russian nuclear physicist, Soviet dissident, an activist for disarmament, peace and human rights...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth21 May 1921
CountryRussian Federation
government people
Do not trust governments more than governments trust their own people.
dark world sacred
We should not minimize our sacred endeavors in this world, where, like faint glimmers in the dark, we have emerged....
freedom intellectual guarantees
Intellectual freedom is the only guarantee of a scientific - democratic approach to politics, economic development, and culture.
savages foundation essentials
I regard the death penalty as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundations of society. I reject the notion that the death penalty has any essential deterrent effect on potential offenders. I am convinced that the contrary is true - that savagery begets only savagery.
war stress men
Nothing threatens freedom of the personality and the meaning of life like war, poverty, terror. But there are also indirect and only slightly more remote dangers. One of these is the stupefaction of man (the "gray mass," to use the cynical term of bourgeois prognosticators) by mass culture with its intentional or commercially motivated lowering of intellectual level and content, with its stress on entertainment or utilitarianism, and with its carefully protective censorship.
strength critical-spirit belief
Both now and for always, I intend to hold fast to my belief in the hidden strength of the human spirit.
country rights citizens
A country which does not respect the rights of its own citizens will not respect the rights of its neighbours
powerful people world
I've always thought that the most powerful weapon in the world was the bomb and that's why I gave it to my people, but I've come to the conclusion that the most powerful weapon in the world is not the bomb but it's the truth
hypocrite hands people
Intellectual freedom is essential -- freedom to obtain and distribute information, freedom for open-minded and unfearing debate and freedom from pressure by officialdom and prejudices. Such freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorship.
country rights opening-up
Our country, like every modern state, needs profound democratic reforms. It needs political and ideological pluralism, a mixed economy and protection of human rights and the opening up of society.