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I must say, though, that a man who has staked his whole life on the card of a woman's love and who, when that card is trumped, falls to pieces and lets himself go to the dogs – a fellow like that is not a man, not a male. You say he's unhappy – you know best. But all the nonsense hasn't been taken out of him yet. I'm sure he really believes he's a smart fellow just because he reads that rag Galignani and saves a muzhik from a flogging once a month.
Ivan Turgenev -
Love isn't actually a feeling at all – it's an illness, a certain condition of body and soul.... Usually it takes possession of someone without his permission, all of a sudden, against his will – just like cholera or a fever.
Ivan Turgenev
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The past was a dream wasn't it? And who ever remembers dreams?
Ivan Turgenev -
To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.
Ivan Turgenev -
Significance is sweet.
Ivan Turgenev -
It was only the vulgarly mediocre that repelled her.
Ivan Turgenev -
Everyone needs help from everyone else.
Ivan Turgenev -
Go forward while you can, but if your strength fails you, sit down near the road and gaze without anger or envy at those who pass by. They don't have far to go, either.
Ivan Turgenev
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As for work, without it, without painstaking work, any writer or artist definitely remains a dilettante; there's no point in waiting for so-called blissful moments, for inspiration; if it comes, so much the better--but you keep working anyway.
Ivan Turgenev -
Only one thing bothered me: at this very moment, as they say, of inexplicable bliss there would be a sinking feeling at the pit of my stomach and my abdomen would be assailed by a melancholy, cold shivering. In the end I couldn't abide such happiness and ran away.
Ivan Turgenev -
Most people can't understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do.
Ivan Turgenev -
Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.
Ivan Turgenev -
In days of doubt, in days of dreary musings on my country's fate, you alone are my comfort and support, oh great, powerful, righteous, and free Russian language!
Ivan Turgenev -
That's what children are for—that their parents may not be bored.
Ivan Turgenev
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Belonging to oneself--the whole essence of life lies in that.
Ivan Turgenev -
That is what poetry can do. It speaks to us of what does not exist, which is not only better than what exists, but even more like the truth.
Ivan Turgenev -
What's terrible is that there's nothing terrible, that the very essence of life is petty, uninteresting, and degradingly trite.
Ivan Turgenev -
If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
Ivan Turgenev -
He was the soul of politeness to everyone -- to some with a hint of aversion, to others with a hint of respect.
Ivan Turgenev -
The temerity to believe in nothing.
Ivan Turgenev
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I've become convinced that every person should treat himself strictly and even rudely and distrustfully; it's difficult to tame the beast in oneself.
Ivan Turgenev -
You may live a long while with some people and be on friendly terms with them and never speak openly with them from your soul.
Ivan Turgenev -
A person who gets angry at his own illness is sure to overcome it.
Ivan Turgenev -
I agree with no one's opinion. I have some of my own.
Ivan Turgenev