black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

Ivan Turgenev

I look up to heaven only when I want to sneeze.
IVAN TURGENEV

Heaven Myself
Every man’s happiness is built on the unhappi-ness of another.
IVAN TURGENEV

Built Happiness Man
Most people can’t understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do.
IVAN TURGENEV

Blow Different People Understand
Ah, but in time the heat of noontide passes, and to it there succeed nightfall and dusk, with a return to the quiet fold where for the weary an the heavy-laden there waits sleep, sweet sleep.
IVAN TURGENEV

Heat heavy Pass Return Sleep Time Wait
You may live a long while with some people and be on friendly terms with them and never speak openly with them from your soul.
IVAN TURGENEV

Friendly Live People Soul Yourself
Belonging to oneself–the whole essence of life lies in that.
IVAN TURGENEV

Essence Life Lying Oneself
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
What did I hope for, what did I expect, what rich future did I foresee, when the phantom of my first love, rising up for an instant, barely called forth one sigh, one mournful sentiment?
IVAN TURGENEV

Expectation Future Hope Instant Mourn Oneself Rise
Time, as is well known, sometimes flies like a bird and sometimes crawls like a worm, but human beings are generally particularly happy when they don’t notice whether it’s passing quickly or slowly.
IVAN TURGENEV

Human Known Notice Pass Quick Time
Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death. Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.
IVAN TURGENEV

Death Fear Love Myself Thinking Togetherness
Circumstances define us; they force us onto one road or another, and then they punish us for it.
IVAN TURGENEV

Circumstance Force Punishment Road
What’s important is that twice two is four and all the rest’s nonsense.
IVAN TURGENEV

Important Stupidity
That 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.
IVAN TURGENEV

Better Existence Poetry Talk Truth
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
So many memories and so little worth remembering, and in front of me – a long, long road without a goal.
IVAN TURGENEV

Goal Memories Myself Worth
I’m incapable of describing the feeling with which I left. I wouldn’t want it ever to be repeated, but I would have considered myself unfortunate if I’d never experienced it.
IVAN TURGENEV

Description Experience Feeling Myself Repeat
If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
IVAN TURGENEV

Beginning Moments Patience Wait
To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.
IVAN TURGENEV

Desire Expectation Genuine Holy Sympathy
We sit in the mud and reach for the stars.
IVAN TURGENEV

Reach Stars
Whatever man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself.
IVAN TURGENEV

Man Miracle Prayer Reduce
The temerity to believe in nothing.
IVAN TURGENEV

Believe One Liner
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
Love isn’t actually a feeling at all–it’s an illness, a certain condition of body and soul…. Usually it takes possession of someone without his permission, all of a sudden, against his will–just like cholera or a fever.
IVAN TURGENEV

Body Condition Feeling Himself Love Permission Possession Sick Soul Willing
I’m through with Tolstoy. He has ceased to exist for me…. If I eat a bowl of soup and like it, I know by that fact alone and with absolute certainty that Tolstoy will find it bad, and vice versa.
IVAN TURGENEV

Alone Bad Existence Fact Myself
What’s terrible is that there’s nothing terrible, that the very essence of life is petty, uninteresting, and degradingly trite.
IVAN TURGENEV

Degrade Essence Life Terrible
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
I believe love produces a certain flowering of the whole personality which nothing else can achieve.
IVAN TURGENEV

Achievement Flower Love Myself Production

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ivan Turgenev Quotes