The temerity to believe in nothing.
IVAN TURGENEVThe temerity to believe in nothing.
More Ivan Turgenev Quotes
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Significance is sweet.
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The past was a dream wasn’t it? And who ever remembers dreams?
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Nature is not a temple, but a workshop, and man’s the workman in it.
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Each 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.
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Death is like a fisherman, who, having caught a fish in his net, leaves it in the water for a time; the fish continues to swim about, but all the while the net is round it, and the fisherman will snatch it out in his own good time.
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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 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 only know that I feel tired, antiquated; I feel as though I had been living a long, long time.
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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.
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I am a flirt: I have no heart: I have an actor’s nature.
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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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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.
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Illness isn’t the only thing that spoils the appetite.
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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.
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One may speak about anything on earth with fire, with enthusiasm, with ecstasy, but one only speaks about oneself with avidity.
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What’s important is that twice two is four and all the rest’s nonsense.
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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?
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Great God, grant that twice two be not four.
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I was as happy as a fish in water, and I could have stayed in that room for ever, have never left that place.
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I look up to heaven only when I want to sneeze.
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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.
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Everyone needs help from everyone else.
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I never started from ideas but always from character.
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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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Every man’s happiness is built on the unhappi-ness of another.
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I share no man’s opinions; I have my own.
IVAN TURGENEV