No matter how often you knock at nature’s door, she won’t answer in words you can understand–for Nature is dumb. She’ll vibrate and moan like a violin, but you mustn’t expect a song.
IVAN TURGENEVEach individual is more or less dimly aware of his significance, is aware that he’s something innately superior, something eternal–and lives, is obligated to live, in the moment and for the moment.
More Ivan Turgenev Quotes
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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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Great God, grant that twice two be not four.
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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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I share no man’s opinions; I have my own.
IVAN TURGENEV -
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.
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Who among us has the strength to oppose petty egoism, those petty good feelings, pity and remorse?
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I agree with no one’s opinion. I have some of my own.
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Everyone needs help from everyone else.
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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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I look up to heaven only when I want to sneeze.
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The past was a dream wasn’t it? And who ever remembers dreams?
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There are some moments in life, some feelings; one can only point to them and pass by.
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I don’t see why it’s impossible to express everything that’s on one’s mind.
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Oh, gentle feelings, soft sounds, the goodness and the gradual stilling of a soul that has been moved; the melting happiness of the first tender, touching joys of love- where are you?
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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