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Quotes by Russian Authors
"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas."
"In order to forgive, one must have lived through what I have lived through, and may God spare her that."
"Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture, so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn."
"I bow before the authority of special men because it is imposed upon me by my own reason."
"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners."
"The best stories don't come from "good vs. bad" but "good vs. good."
"The University brings out all abilities, including incapability."
"That's metaphysics, my dear fellow. It's forbidden me by my doctor, my stomach won't take it."
"One may speak about anything on earth with fire, with enthusiasm, with ecstasy, but one only speaks about oneself with avidity."
"We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'."
"Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don't like, it's always by Villa-Lobos?"
"Remember that there is onlyone important time and is Now. The present moment isthe only time over which we have dominion. The mostimportant person is always the person with whom youare, who is right before you, for who knows if you willhave dealings with any other person in the future. Themost important pursuit is making that person, the onestanding at you side, happy, for that alone is the pursuitof life."
"If one wanted to crush and destroy a man entirely, to mete out to him the most terrible punishment ... all one would have to do would be to make him do work that was completely and utterly devoid of usefulness and meaning."
"There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it."
"You went up to be examined with the other Jewish children, your heart heavy about that matter of your nose."
"The Berlin Defence suited my strategy for the match. I had a defensive strategy - Actually, I had in my pocket some other sharper stuff to fall back on - but first I wanted to try the defensive strategy with Black and it worked so well."
"The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves."
"When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it can't be cured."
"There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth."
"I was wrong when I said that I did not regret the past. I do regret it; I weep for the past love which can never return. Who is to blame, I do not know. Love remains, but not the old love; its place remains, but it is all wasted away and has lost all strength and substance; recollections are still left, and gratitude; but..."
"To my utter despair I have discovered, and discover every day anew, that there is in the masses no revolutionary idea or hope or passion."
"Listen to what is being preached today. Look at everyone around us. You've wondered why they suffer, why they seek happiness and never find it. If any man stopped and asked himself whether he's ever held a truly personal desire, he'd find the answer. He'd see that all his wishes, his efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are motivated by other men. He's not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the second-hander's delusion - prestige. A stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no joy in the struggle and no joy when he has succeeded. He can't say about a single thing: 'This is what I wanted because I wanted it, not because it made my neighbors gape at me'. Then he wonders why he's unhappy."
"To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also."
"The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses."
"Mento mori-remember death! These are important words. If we kept in mind that we will soon inevitably die, our lives would be completely different. If a person knows that he will die in a half hour, he certainly will not bother doing trivial, stupid, or, especially, bad things during this half hour. Perhaps you have half a century before you die-what makes this any different from a half hour?"
"Circumstances define us; they force us onto one road or another, and then they punish us for it."
"We don't need a weakened government but a strong government that would take responsibility for the rights of the individual and care for the society as a whole."
"We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?"
"Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravity."
"It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed."
"Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking..."
"I worked very hard and I earned all the attention I'm getting."
"What 'jazz' means to me is the worst kind of working conditions, the worst in cultural prejudice. The term 'jazz' has come to mean the abuse and exploitation of black musicians."
"A revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, not every revolutionary situation leads to revolution."
"The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do."
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