He was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union’s Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. The Sakharov Prize, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament for people and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedoms, is named in his honor.
An Andrei Sakharov prize is also to be awarded by the American Physical Society every second year from 2006, “to recognize outstanding leadership and/or achievements of scientists in upholding human rights”. (1921 – 1989)
– Andrei Sakharov Quotes –
Millions of people throughout the world are striving to put an end to poverty. They despise oppression, dogmatism, and demagogy (and their more extreme manifestations — racism, fascism, Stalinism, and Maoism). They believe in progress based on the use, under conditions of social justice and intellectual freedom, of all the positive experience accumulated by mankind.
~ Andrei Sakharov
All peoples have the right to decide their own fate with a free expression of will.
~ Andrei Sakharov
Both now and for always, I intend to hold fast to my belief in the hidden strength of the human spirit.
~ Andrei Sakharov
We regard as “scientific” a method based on deep analysis of facts, theories, and views, presupposing unprejudiced, unfearing open discussion and conclusions.
~ Andrei Sakharov
Intellectual freedom is essential to human society — freedom to obtain and distribute information, freedom for open-minded and unfearing debate, and freedom from pressure by officialdom and prejudices.
~ Andrei Sakharov
The threat of hunger cannot be eliminated without the assistance of the developed countries, and this requires significant changes in their foreign and domestic policies.
~ Andrei Sakharov
My present work concerns the problems connected with the theory of elementary particles, the theory of gravitation and cosmology and I shall be glad if I can manage to make some contribution to these important branches of science.
~ Andrei Sakharov
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.
~ Andrei Sakharov
For me, the moral difficulties lie in the continual pressure brought to bear on my friends and immediate family, pressure which is not directed against me personally but which at the same time is all around me.
~ Andrei Sakharov
In and after 1964 when I began to concern myself with the biological issues, and particularly from 1967 onwards, the extent of the problems over which I felt uneasy increased to such a point that in 1968 I felt a compelling urge to make my views public.
~ Andrei Sakharov
We live in a swiftly changing world. Industrial and water-engineering projects, cutting of forests, plowing up of virgin lands, the use of poisonous chemicals — all such activity is changing the face of the earth, our “habitat.”
~ Andrei Sakharov
The problem of geohygiene (earth hygiene) is highly complex and closely tied to economic and social problems. This problem can therefore not be solved on a national and especially not on a local basis.
~ Andrei Sakharov
The salvation of our environment requires that we overcome our divisions and the pressure of temporary, local interests.
~ Andrei Sakharov
Fascism lasted twelve years in Germany. Stalinism lasted twice as long in the Soviet Union. There are many common features but also certain differences. Stalinism exhibited a much more subtle kind of hypocrisy and demagogy, with reliance not on an openly cannibalistic program like Hitler’s but on a progressive, scientific, and popular socialist ideology.
~ Andrei Sakharov
The idiocy of the cult of personality has assumed in China monstrous, grotesquely tragicomic forms, carrying to the point of absurdity many of the traits of Stalinism and Hitlerism. But this absurdity has proved effective in making fools of tens of millions of people and in destroying and humiliating millions of intelligent citizens.
~ Andrei Sakharov
The strategy of peaceful coexistence and collaboration must be deepened in every way.
~ Andrei Sakharov
Intellectual freedom of society will facilitate and smooth the way for this trend toward patience, flexibility, and a security from dogmatism, fear, and adventurism. All mankind, including its best-organized and most active forces, the working class and the intelligentsia, is interested in freedom and security.
~ Andrei Sakharov
Before the advent of socialism, national egotism gave rise to colonial oppression, nationalism, and racism. By now it has become clear that victory is on the side of the humanistic, international approach.
~ Andrei Sakharov
I worked under conditions of the highest security and under great pressure, first in Moscow and subsequently in a special secret research centre. At the time we were all convinced that this work was of vital significance for the balance of power in the world and we were fascinated by the grandeur of the task.
~ Andrei Sakharov
