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Quotes by Russian Authors
"There is no one on earth more disgusting and repulsive than he who gives alms. Even as there is no one so miserable as he who accepts them."
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
"A new era in the physiological investigation of linguistic sounds was opened up by X-ray photography."
"But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person."
"Chess is an infinitely complex game, which one can play in infinitely numerous and varied ways."
"In the maxim of the past you cannot go anywhere."
"But man has still another powerful resource: natural science with its strictly objective methods."
"Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot."
"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."
"There are no conditions to which a man cannot become accustomed."
"If we had more time for discussion we should probably have made a great many more mistakes."
"Yet, the Universe is real enough to the conscious beings in it, which are as unreal as it is itself."
"It is on the acceptance or rejection of the theory of the Unity of all in Nature, in its ultimate Essence, that mainly rests the belief or unbelief in the existence around us of other conscious beings besides the Spirits of the Dead."
"Therefore, if God existed, only in one way could he serve human liberty - by ceasing to exist."
"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."
"The USA experiences the crisis of ideological and moral values."
"Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath."
"Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed."
"No law of nature, however general, has been established all at once; its recognition has always been preceded by many presentiments."
"Many a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea."
"Nowadays it would be reasonable to have an annual world championship."
"There are two ways of attaining an important end, force and perseverance; the silent power of the latter grows irresistible with time."
"And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe."
"I have often heard that the novel is dead. But I see novels produced, I don't know how many a week, in France. I have the impression it's carrying along quite well."
"Liberalism regards life as an adventure in which we must take risks in new situation, in which there is no guarantee that the new will always be the good or the true, in which progress is a precarious achievement rather than inevitability."
"If you want to work on your acting, work on yourself."
"What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup."
"From the naturalistic point of view, all men are equal. There are only two exceptions to this rule of naturalistic equality: geniuses and idiots."
"It is clear to all that the animal organism is a highly complex system consisting of an almost infinite series of parts connected both with one another and, as a total complex, with the surrounding world, with which it is in a state of equilibrium."
"Men make love more intensely at 20, but make love better, however, at 30."
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