(no subject)

[randomness]

“The yes-man is your enemy, but your friend will argue with you.” -- Russian proverb, quoted by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in Warning to the West, 1975.

(I can't find it in Russian, though. If you can, please comment?)

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I needed this quotation today.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten any farther yet. I did find the google books result that said that too!

Oh and by the way, for the search string 'russian proverb the yes-man is your enemy' on Google you are already the first hit. This amount of circularity displeases me.

[latvianchick.livejournal.com]

The "official text" is, in fact, in English. It appears that way on Solzhenitsyn's (Russian) website and on Russian electronic library websites. So, while the Russian text must have existed (the English text is the author-approved translation), it doesn't seem to be public.

[latvianchick.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, and the Russian proverb is Недруг поддакивает, а друг спорит.

From a digitization of Vladimir Dal's dictionary:
http://www.slova.ru/book_page/1/388.html

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thanks!

[dpolicar]

Yeah, that's true... um, wait -- I mean no! That's not true at all! Only your enemies argue with -- um? No, that's not it either... I mean... aaaa!

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the content of your thesis, but this does not exclude your being a complete loon, nonetheless.