Belonging to oneself–the whole essence of life lies in that.
IVAN TURGENEVThat 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.
More Ivan Turgenev Quotes
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I walked in the meadows of green grieving for my life.
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Go and try to disprove death. Death will disprove you, and that’s all!
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Bazarov drew himself up haughtily. “I don’t adopt any one’s ideas; I have my own.
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Significance is sweet.
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Nature cares nothing for logic, our human logic: she has her own, which we do not recognize and do not acknowledge until we are crushed under its wheel.
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We Russians have assigned ourselves no other task in life but the cultivation of our own personalities, and when we’re barely past childhood, we set to work to cultivate them, those unfortunate personalities.
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Whatever man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself.
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I was afraid of looking into my heart…afraid of thinking seriously about anything…I did not want to know whether I was loved, and I did not want to admit to myself that I was not loved.
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Behind me there are already so many memories Lots of memories, but no point in remembering them, and ahead of me a long, long road with nothing to aim for I just don’t want to go along it.
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Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death. Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.
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Youth eats all the sugared fancy cakes and regards them as its daily bread. But there’ll come a time when you’ll start asking just for a crust.
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In my case there was no first love. I began with the second.
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What’s important is that twice two is four and all the rest’s nonsense.
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People without firmness of character love to make up a fate for themselves; that relieves them of the necessity of having their own will and of taking responsibility for themselves.
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There is a sweetness in being the sole source, the autocratic and irresponsible cause of the greatest joy and profoundest pain to another.
IVAN TURGENEV






