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Quotes by Russian Authors
"It would have been difficult to design a path out of communism worse than the one that has been followed."
"There is something at the bottom of every new human thought, every thought of genius, or even every earnest thought that springs up in any brain, which can never be communicated to others, even if one were to write volumes about it and were explaining one's idea for thirty-five years; there's something left which cannot be induced to emerge from your brain, and remains with you forever; and with it you will die, without communicating to anyone perhaps the most important of your ideas."
"Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement."
"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."
"Men are like rivers: the water is the same in each, and alike in all; but every river is narrow here, is more rapid there, here slower, there broader, now clear, now cold, now dull, now warm. It is the same with men. Every man carries in himself the germs of every human quality, and sometimes one manifests itself, sometimes another, and the man often becomes unlike himself, while still remaining the same man."
"No law of nature, however general, has been established all at once; its recognition has always been preceded by many presentiments."
"We don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Freedom is like that. It's like air. When you have it, you don't notice it."
"Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it."
"It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed."
"I refer to calls for humanitarian intervention in the affairs of another state - a new idea, this - even when they are made under the pretext of defending human rights and freedoms."
"Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press."
"I bow before the authority of special men because it is imposed upon me by my own reason."
"Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is."
"I'm not the next anyone, I'm the first Maria Sharapova."
"And I suggested to change very simple way to Olympic Games, in one competition, two different levels. Separate from, until sixteen, and after sixteen years old."
"Once you've been in space, you appreciate how small and fragile the Earth is."
"We are not abandoning our convictions, our philosophy or traditions, nor do we urge anyone to abandon theirs."
"Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us."
"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."
"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas."
"All great literature is one of two stories, a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town."
"Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other."
"If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don't bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man."
"Never, never marry, my friend. Here's my advice to you: don't marry until you can tell yourself that you've done all you could, and until you've stopped loving the woman you've chosen, until you see her clearly, otherwise you'll be cruelly and irremediably mistaken. Marry when you're old and good for nothing. Otherwise all that's good and lofty in you will be lost."
"Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience. The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."
"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..."
"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."
"The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do."
"Pleasures flit by - they are only for yourself; work leaves a mark of long-lasting joy, work is for others."
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