Ivan Turgenev Quotes
-
Circumstances define us; they force us onto one road or another, and then they punish us for it.
-
A person who gets angry at his own illness is sure to overcome it.
-
Time, as is well known, sometimes flies like a bird and sometimes crawls like a worm, but human beings are generally particularly happy when they don't notice whether it's passing quickly or slowly.
-
Every man's happiness is built on the unhappi-ness of another.
-
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.
-
One may speak about anything on earth with fire, with enthusiasm, with ecstasy, but one only speaks about oneself with avidity.
-
Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.
-
Most people can't understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do.
-
If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
-
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.
-
The past was a dream wasn't it? And who ever remembers dreams?
-
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.
-
That's what children are for—that their parents may not be bored.
-
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.
-
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!
-
It was only the vulgarly mediocre that repelled her.
-
All human beings hang by a thread, an abyss may open under their feet at any moment, and yet they have to go and invent all sortsof difficulties for themselves and spoil their lives.
-
The temerity to believe in nothing.
-
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.
-
Belonging to oneself--the whole essence of life lies in that.
-
He was the soul of politeness to everyone -- to some with a hint of aversion, to others with a hint of respect.
-
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.
-
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.
-
I agree with no one's opinion. I have some of my own.