Inspirational Quotes on Russia

“Lack of originality, everywhere, all over the world, from time immemorial, has always been considered the foremost quality and the recommendation of the active, efficient and practical man.”

“I must add... my gratitude to you for the attention with which you have listened to me, for, from my numerous observations, our Liberals are never capable of letting anyone else have a conviction of his own without at once meeting their opponent with abuse or even something worse.”

“Why did you come in to-night with your heads in the air? 'Make way, we are coming! Give us every right and don't you dare breathe a word before us. Pay us every sort of respect, such as no one's ever heard of, and we shall treat you worse than the lowest lackey!' They strive for justice, they stand on their rights, and yet they've slandered him like infidels in their article. We demand, we don't ask, and you will get no gratitude from us, because you are acting for the satisfaction of your own conscience! Queer sort of reasoning!... He has not borrowed money from you, he doesn't owe you anything, so what are you reckoning on, if not his gratitude? So how can you repudiate it? Lunatics! They regard society as savage and inhuman, because it cries shame on the seduced girl; but if you think society inhuman, you must think that the girl suffers from the censure of society, and if she does, how is it you expose her to society in the newspapers and expect her not to suffer? Lunatics! Vain creatures! They don't believe in God, they don't believe in Christ! Why, you are so eaten up with pride and vanity that you'll end by eating up one another, that's what I prophesy. Isn't that topsy-turvydom, isn't it infamy?”

“It is easier for a Russian to become an Atheist, than for any other nationality in the world. And not only does a Russian 'become an Atheist,' but he actually BELIEVES IN Atheism, just as though he had found a new faith, not perceiving that he has pinned his faith to a negation. Such is our anguish of thirst!”

“There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are guilty on behalf of all and for all. Whereas by shifting your own laziness and powerlessness onto others, you will end by sharing in Satan's pride and murmuring against God. The Brothers Karamazov Book VI - The Russian Monk, Chapter 3 - Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zosima.”

“Era una notte incantevole, una di quelle notti che succedono solo se si è giovani, gentile lettore.”

“Now life is given in exchange for pain and fear, and that's the basis of the whole deception. Now man is still not what he should be. There will e a new man, happy and proud. Whoever doesn't care whether he lives or doesn't live, he himself will be God. And that other God will no longer be.' 'So, that other God does exist, in your opinion?' 'He doesn't exist, but he does exist. In the stone there' no pain, but in the fear of the stone there is pain. God is the pain of the fear of death. Whoever conquers pain and fear will himself become God.”

“It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia.”

“In Russia, drunks are our kindest people. Our kindest people are also the most drunk.”

“Je voulais vous exposer mon livre aussi succinctement que possible; mais je vois qu'il me faudra y joindre encore quantité d'explications verbales. Mon exposé exigera donc au moins dix soirées d'après le nombre de chapitres de mon livre. (Il y eut quelques rires.) De plus, je dois vous prévenir que mon système n'est pas complètement achevé. (Nouveaux rires.) Je me suis embrouillé dans mes propres données et ma conclusion se trouve en contradiction directe avec l'idée fondamentale du système. Partant de la liberté illimitée, j'aboutis au despotisme illimité. J'ajoute à cela, cependant, qu'il ne peut y avoir d'autre solution du problème que la mienne.”

“Kostia: When I'm mowing, I don't ask myself why I'm here. Theodore: You're here to be Master, Konstantin Dmitrievich. As it's always been, by the grace of God”

“Я нигде так не скучал по деревне, русской деревне, с лаптями и мужиками, как прожив с матушкой зиму в Ницце. Ницца сама по себе скучна, вы знаете. Да и Неаполь, Сорренто хороши только на короткое время. И именно там особенно живо вспоминается Россия, и именно деревня.”

“[I]n every serious human idea that is conceived in someone’s head, there always remains something that cannot be conveyed to other people, even though whole volumes were written and your idea explained for thirty-five years; there will always remain something that is on no account willing to come out of your skull and will remain with you for ever; so that you will die without perhaps ever having conveyed to anyone the most important part of your idea.”

“Русские люди вообще широкие люди, Авдотья Романовна, широкие, как их земля, и черезвычайно склонны к фантастическому, к беспорядочному; но беда быть широким без особенной гениальности.”