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Quotes by Russian Authors
"Degrees of ability vary, but the basic principle remains the same: the degree of a man's independence, initiative and personal love for his work determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a man. Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence."
"When I played Bobby Fischer, my opponent fought against organizations - the television producers and the match organizers. But he never fought against me personally. I lost to Bobby before the match because he was already stronger than I. He won normally."
"If you live among dogs, keep a stick. After all, this is what a hound has teeth for-to bite when he feels like it!"
"We may have forgotten how to feel. Nobody is teaching us how to live happily ever after, as we've heard in fairy tales."
"A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache."
"We are not abandoning our convictions, our philosophy or traditions, nor do we urge anyone to abandon theirs."
"For know, dear ones, that every one of us is undoubtedly responsible for all men- and everything on earth, not merely through the general sinfulness of creation, but each one personally for all mankind and every individual man. This knowledge is the crown of life for the monk and for every man. For monks are not a special sort of men, but only what all men ought to be. Only through that knowledge, our heart grows soft with infinite, universal, inexhaustible love. Then every one of you will have the power to win over the whole world by love and to wash away the sins of the world with your tears."
"I'm not the next anyone, I'm the first Maria Sharapova."
"Anyone who makes plans for after the revolution is a reactionary."
"Don't become a mere recorder of facts, but try to penetrate the mystery of their origin."
"Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press."
"A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron."
"Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source."
"The method of exposition which philosophers have adopted leads many to suppose that they are simply inquiries, that they have no interest in the conclusions at which they arrive, and that their primary concern is to follow their premises to their logical conclusions."
"I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between."
"They say: misfortunes, sufferings...well, if someone said to me right now, this minute: do you want to remain the way you were before captivity, or live through it all over again? For God's sake, captivity again and horsemeat! Once we're thrown off our habitual paths, we think all is lost; but it's only here that the new and the good begins. As long as there's life, there's happiness. There's much, much still to come."
"The passion for destruction is also a creative passion."
"Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come. That's why we want to be considerate of every man - Who knows what's in him, why he was born and what he can do?"
"Acoustic phonetics, which is developing and increasing in richness very rapidly, already enables us to solve many of the mysteries of sound, mysteries which motor phonetics could not even begin to solve."
"Bobby Fischer has an enormous knowledge of chess and his familiarity with the chess literature of the USSR is immense."
"They're thinking of turning the peasant into an educated man. Why, first of all they should make him a good and prosperous farmer and then he'll learn all that is necessary for him to know."
"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."
"Once you've been in space, you appreciate how small and fragile the Earth is."
"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."
"Nowadays there is more dynamism in chess, modern players like to take the initiative. Usually they are poor defenders though."
"Pleasures flit by - they are only for yourself; work leaves a mark of long-lasting joy, work is for others."
"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."
"Men make love more intensely at 20, but make love better, however, at 30."
"For God's sake, have some self-respect and do not run off at the mouth if your brain is out to lunch."
"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man."
"From the naturalistic point of view, all men are equal. There are only two exceptions to this rule of naturalistic equality: geniuses and idiots."
"Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other."
"You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings."
"From each according to his faculties; to each according to his needs."
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