Quote collection
433 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"It doesn't matter that your painting is small. Kopecks are also small, but when a lot are put together they make a ruble. Each painting displayed in a gallery and each good book that makes it into a library, no matter how small they may be, serve a great cause: accretion of the national wealth."
"When performing an autopsy, even the most inveterate spiritualist would have to question where the soul is."
"I am writing a play which I probably will not finish until the end of November. I am writing it with considerable pleasure, though I sin frightfully against the conventions of the stage. It is a comedy with three female parts, six male, four acts, a landscape (view of the lake), lots of talk on literature, little action and tons of love."
"It is as acceptable now to love the wives of others as it is to smoke their cigars and read their books."
"By nature servile, people attempt at first glance to find signs of good breeding in the appearance of those who occupy more exalted stations."
"It is uncomfortable to ask condemned people about their sentences just as it is awkward to ask wealthy people why they need so much money, why they use their wealth so poorly, and why they don't just get rid of it when they recognize that it is the cause of their unhappiness."
"What's the use of talking? You can see for yourself that this is a barbarous country; the people have no morals; and the boredom!"
"An artist's flair is sometimes worth a scientist's brains."
"One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it."
"Anna Petrovna (to Shabelsky): You can't make a simple joke without an injection of venom. You are a poisonous man. Joking apart, Count, you're very poisonous. It's hideously boring to live with you. You're always grumpy, complaining, you find everyone bad, good for nothing. Tell me frankly, Count, did you ever speak well of anyone?"
"In my head there is a whole army of people asking to be let out and waiting for the word of command."
"Posterity will say as usual: "In the past things were better, the present is worse than the past."
"A man wants nothing so badly as a gooseberry farm."
"The more elevated a culture, the richer its language. The number of words and their combinations depends directly on a sum of conceptions and ideas; without the latter there can be no understandings, no definitions, and, as a result, no reason to enrich a language."
"When a person hasn't in him that which is higher and stronger than all external influences, it is enough for him to catch a good cold in order to lose his equilibrium and begin to see an owl in every bird, to hear a dog's bark in every sound."
"I abide by a rule concerning reviews: I will never ask, neither in writing nor in person, that a word be put in about my book.... One feels cleaner this way. When someone asks that his book be reviewed he risks running up against a vulgarity offensive to authorial sensibilities."
"When an actor has money he doesn't send letters, he sends telegrams."
"Dear, sweet, unforgettable childhood! Why does this irrevocable time, forever departed, seem brighter, more festive and richer than it actually was?"
"Who keeps the tavern and serves up the drinks? The peasant. Who squanders and drinks up money belonging to the peasant commune, the school, the church? The peasant. Who would steal from his neighbor, commit arson, and falsely denounce another for a bottle of vodka? The peasant."
"All the great sages are as despotic as generals, and as ignorant and as indelicate as generals, because they feel secure of impunity."