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The fact is that previously they were simply dunces and now they’ve suddenly become nihilists.

Ivan Turgenev

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.
IVAN TURGENEV

Childhood Cultivation Life Ourselves Past Personality Task
I am a flirt: I have no heart: I have an actor’s nature.
IVAN TURGENEV

Actor Flirt Heart Nature
A son is like a lopped off branch. As a falcon he comes when he wills and goes where he lists.
IVAN TURGENEV

Branch Himself Son Willing
Nature is not a temple, but a workshop, and man’s the workman in it.
IVAN TURGENEV

Man Nature Temple Workshop
Everyone needs help from everyone else.
IVAN TURGENEV

Company Help Need Support
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.
IVAN TURGENEV

Character Fate Necessary People Responsibility Willing
Take what you can yourself, and don’t let others get you into their hands; to belong to oneself, that is the whole thing in life.
IVAN TURGENEV

Hands Independent Life Yourself
I never started from ideas but always from character.
IVAN TURGENEV

Character Ideas Myself Start
He was the soul of politeness to everyone — to some with a hint of aversion, to others with a hint of respect.
IVAN TURGENEV

Himself Polite Respect Soul
Sternly, remorselessly, fate guides each of us; only at the beginning, when we’re absorbed in details, in all sorts of nonsense, in ourselves, are we unaware of its harsh hand.
IVAN TURGENEV

Beginning Detail Fate Guide Hands Harsh Ourselves
Nothing is worse and more hurtful than a happiness that comes too late.
IVAN TURGENEV

Happiness Hurt Late Worst
So long as one’s just dreaming about what to do, one can soar like an eagle and move mountains, it seems, but as soon as one starts doing it one gets worn out and tired.
IVAN TURGENEV

Dreams Oneself Soar Start Tired
Nature creates while destroying, and doesn’t care whether it creates or destroys as long as life isn’t extinguished, as long as death doesn’t lose its rights.
IVAN TURGENEV

Creation Destroy Nature Right
We sit in the mud and reach for the stars.
IVAN TURGENEV

Reach Stars
I believe love produces a certain flowering of the whole personality which nothing else can achieve.
IVAN TURGENEV

Achievement Flower Love Myself Production
I look up to heaven only when I want to sneeze.
IVAN TURGENEV

Heaven Myself

The fact is that previously they were simply dunces and now they’ve suddenly become nihilists.

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The fact is that previously they were simply dunces and now they’ve suddenly become nihilists.

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Popular Authors

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