14 Ivan Turgenev Quotes

Ivan Turgenev quotes

1. 'Naturally,' observed Nikolai Petrovich, 'you were born here, so everything is bound to strike you with a special -' 'Really, Daddy, it makes absolutely no difference where a person is born.' 'Still -' 'No, it makes no difference at all.'

2. 'What is Bazarov?' Arkady smiled. 'Would you like me to tell you, uncle, what he really is?' 'Please do, nephew.' 'He is a nihilist!' 'What?' asked Nikolai Petrovich, while Pavel Petrovich lifted his knife in the air with a small piece of butter on the tip and remained motionless. 'He is a nihilist,' repeated Arkady. 'A nihilist,' said Nikolai Petrovich. 'That comes from the Latin nihil, nothing, as far as I can judge; the word must mean a man who... who recognizes nothing?' 'Say - who respects nothing,' interposed Pavel Petrovich and lowered his knife with the butter on it. 'Who regards everything from the critical point of view,' said Arkady. 'Isn't that exactly the same thing?' asked Pavel Petrovich. 'No, it's not the same thing. A nihilist is a person who does not bow down to any authority, who does not accept any principle on faith, however much that principle may be revered.' 'Well, and is that good?' asked Pavel Petrovich. 'That depends, uncle dear. For some it is good, for others very bad.' 'Indeed. Well, I see that's not in our line. We old-fashioned people think that without principles, taken as you say on faith, one can't take a step or even breathe. Vous avez change tout cela; may God grant you health and a general's rank, and we shall be content to look on and admire your... what was the name?' 'Nihilists,' said Arkady, pronouncing very distinctly. 'Yes, there used to be Hegelists and now there are nihilists. We shall see how you will manage to exist in the empty airless void; and now ring, please, brother Nikolai, it's time for me to drink my cocoa.'

1. That's what children are for—that their parents may not be bored.

2. What a magnificent body, how I should like to see it on the dissecting table.

3. That is what poetry can do. It speaks to us of what does not exist, which is not only better than what exists, but even more like the truth.

4. So long as one's just dreaming about what to do, one can soar like an eagle and move mountains, it seems, but as soon as one starts doing it one gets worn out and tired.

5. Most people can't understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do.

6. The past was a dream wasn't it? And who ever remembers dreams?

7. 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.

8. There's something tragic in the fate of almost every person--it's just that the tragic is often concealed from a person by the banal surface of life… A woman will complain of indigestion and not even know that what she means is that her whole life has been shattered.

9. Great God, grant that twice two be not four.

10. What's terrible is that there's nothing terrible, that the very essence of life is petty, uninteresting, and degradingly trite.

11. I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like. But i do know what the heart of a good man is like. And it is terrible.

12. I was as happy as a fish in water, and I could have stayed in that room for ever, have never left that place.