people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts." - Meaning and context.">
p. 172
“

Dissidents should be paid 13 months' salary for a year, otherwise our mindless unanimity will bring us to an even more hopeless state of stagnation. It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.

— Boris Yeltsin

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Dissidents should be paid 13 months' salary for a year, otherwise our mindless unanimity will bring us to an even more hopeless state of stagnation. It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts." in the context of "p. 172" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Boris Yeltsin" (Quotes, 1990s, Against the Grain (1990): Against the Grain : An Autobiography (1990)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Boris Yeltsin

About Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin Бори́с Никола́евич Е́льцин (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Russian and former Soviet politician who served as the first President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990, he later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism and Russian nationalism.