Boris Pasternak

Boris Pasternak

Poet, Novelist

Boris Pasternak was a Russian poet and novelist, best known for his novel Doctor Zhivago, which explores themes of love and freedom against a backdrop of revolution.

Men Life People Art Writing Death
Born
February 10, 1890
Died
May 30, 1960
Quotes
106
Rank
#407

Quote collection

Boris Pasternak quotes (page 3 of 6)

106 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Boris Pasternak Poet, Novelist
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"You and I are like the first two people on earth who at the beginning of the world had nothing to cover themselves with - at the end of it, you and I are just as stripped and homeless. And you and I are the last remembrance of all that immeasurable greatness which has been created in all the thousands of years between their time and ours, and it is in memory of all that vanished splendour that we live and love and weep and cling to one another."

Memories Greatness Years
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Boris Pasternak Poet, Novelist
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"Love is not weakness. It is strong. Only the sacrament of marriage can contain it."

Love Anniversary Strong
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"It snowed and snowed, the whole world over, Snow swept the world from end to end. A candle burned on the table; A candle burned."

Snow World Tables
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"No single man makes history. History cannot be seen, just as one cannot see grass growing. Wars and revolutions, kings and Robespierres, are history's organic agents, its yeast. But revolutions are made by fanatical men of action with one-track mind, geniuses in their ability to confine themselves to a limited field. They overturn the old order in a few hours or days, the whole upheaval takes a few weeks or at most years, but the fanatical spirit that inspired the upheavals is worshiped for decades thereafter, for centuries."

Kings War Men
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"As before the collapse, the setting sun brushed the tiles, brought out the warm brown glow on the wallpaper, and hung the shadow of the birch on the wall as if it were a woman's scarf."

Wall Shadow Scarves
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"Farewell, my great one, my own, farewell, my pride, farewell, my swift, deep, dear river, how I loved your daylong splashing, how I loved to plunge into your cold waves."

Farewell Pride Saying Goodbye
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"Failure to love is almost like murder."

Love Is Murder
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"In every generation there has to be some fool who will speak the truth as he sees it."

Truth Generations Fool
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"He was a natural, and in the Russian way, tragically above these banalities."

Way Natural Banality
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"And now listen carefully. You in others-this is your soul. This is what you are. This is what your consciousness has breathed and lived on and enjoyed throughout your life-your soul, your immortality, your life in others. And what now? You have always been in others and you will remain in others. And what does it matter to you if later on that is called your memory? This will be you-the you that enters the future and becomes a part of it."

Memories Soul Matter
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"What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth."

Men Beast Century
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"I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats of any kind, whether of jail or retribution, then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer, not the prophet who sacrificed himself.... What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth."

Sleep Men Thinking
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"How many things in the world deserve our loyalty? Very few indeed. I think one should be loyal to immortality, which is another word for life, a stronger word for it."

Loyalty Thinking Stronger
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"I come here to speak poetry. It will always be in the grass. It will also be necessary to bend down to hear it. It will always be too simple to be discussed in assemblies."

Simple Speak Assembly
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"Art is interested in life at the moment when the ray of power is passing through it."

Art Rays Moments
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"Work is the order of the day, just as it was at one time, with our first starts and our best efforts. Do you remember? Therein lies its delight. It brings back the forgotten; one's stores of energy, seemingly exhausted, come back to life."

Lying Order Best Effort
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