Quotes by Ivan Turgenev

“Nature cares nothing for logic, our human logic: she has her own, which we do not recognize and do not acknowledge until we are crushed under its wheel.”

“Were young, were not monsters, no fools: well conquer happiness for ourselves.”

“Whereas I think: Im lying here in a haystack... The tiny space I occupy is so infinitesimal in comparison with the rest of space, which I dont occupy and which has no relation to me. And the period...”

“That's what children are forthat their parents may not be bored.”

“The word tomorrow was invented for indecisive people and for children.”

“Its strange how things happen in life: you live with someone for a long time, you are on the best of terms, yet you never once speak to them frankly and from the heart; with someone else, youve har...”

“I want everything or nothing. A life for a life, taking one and giving up another without hesitation and beyond recall. Or else better have nothing!”

“Traces of human life vanish very quickly: Glafira Petrovna's estate had not yet gone wild, but it seemed already to have sunk into that quiet repose which possesses everything on earth wherever the...”

“And was it his destined part / Only one moment in his life / To be close to your heart?”

“Can it be thattheir prayers and their tears are fruitless? Can it be that love,sacred devoted love, is not all powerful? Oh, no! Howeverpassionate, sinful or rebellious the heart hidden in the tomb...”

“that's all the stars do, look at lovers that's why they're so beautiful”

“You are an old pig!'one of them said to the other. 'And that is worse than being a young one.”

“It seemed to us that all people to a greater or lesser degree belong to one of these two types, that almost every one of us resembles either Don Quixote or Hamlet.”

“A man's capable of understanding anything - how the ether vibrates, and what's going on in the sun - but how any other man can blow his nose differently from him, that he's incapable of understanding.”

“O youth! youth! you go your way heedless, uncaring as if you owned all the treasures of the world; even grief elates you, even sorrow sits well upon your brow. You are self-confident and insolent ...”

“O youth! youth! you have no concerns, you possess, as it were, all the treasures of the universe, even grief is a comfort to you, even sadness suits your looks, you are self-assured and bold, you s...”

“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.”

“To be young and not to know how, is bearable; to be old and not have the strength, is too great a weight to carry. And what's is so painful you can't sense your powers leaving you. It's hard for an...”

“Nezhdanov's heart began to beat violently and he lowered his eyes involuntarily. This girl, who had fallen in love with a homeless wretch like him, who trusted him, who was ready to follow him, to ...”

“It's no good writing if God hasn't given you talent. People will just laugh.”