Boris Pasternak Short Quotes

25 Sourced Quotes

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You are eternity's hostage
A captive of time.

Boris Pasternak
Art is unthinkable without risk and spiritual self-sacrifice.

Boris Pasternak
Work seethes in the hands of spring,
That strapping dairymaid.

Boris Pasternak
"How wonderful to be alive," he thought. "But why does it always hurt?"

Boris Pasternak
Departure beyond the borders of my country is for me equivalent to death.

Boris Pasternak
It is not the object described that matters, but the light that falls on it.

Boris Pasternak
Art is interested in life at the moment when the ray of power is passing through it.

Boris Pasternak
In life it is more necessary to lose than to gain. A seed will only germinate if it dies.

Boris Pasternak
Most people experience love, without noticing that there is anything remarkable about it.

Boris Pasternak
With an awful, dreadful list Towards other galaxies unknown Ponderously turns the Milky Way.

Boris Pasternak
That's metaphysics, my dear fellow. It's forbidden me by my doctor, my stomach won't take it.

Boris Pasternak
Only the solitary seek the truth, and they break with all those who don't love it sufficiently

Boris Pasternak
My soul, you are a mourner
Of all where I survive.
You are a mausoleum
Of those tortured alive.

Boris Pasternak
The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.

Boris Pasternak
The snow was falling soft and slow
From land to land.
A candle flamed upon a table;
A candle flamed.

Boris Pasternak
All mothers are mothers of great people, and it is not their fault that life later disappoints them.

Boris Pasternak
During the last years of Mayakovski's life, when all poetry had ceased to exist... literature had stopped.

Boris Pasternak
I am alone; all drowns in the Pharisees' hypocrisy. To live your life is not as simple as to cross a field.

Boris Pasternak
Snow, snow over the whole land
across all boundaries.
The candle burned on the table,
the candle burned.

Boris Pasternak
They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.

Boris Pasternak
And there, with frightful listing Through emptiness, away Through unknown solar systems Revolves the Milky Way.

Boris Pasternak
But what are pity, conscience, or fear To the brazen pair, compared With the living sorcery Of their hot embraces?

Boris Pasternak
A corner draft fluttered the flame And the white fever of temptation Upswept its angel wings that cast A cruciform shadow.

Boris Pasternak
Mother Russia is on the move, she can't stand still, she's restless and can't find rest, she's talking and she can't stop.

Boris Pasternak
What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup.

Boris Pasternak
Am I a gangster or a murderer?
Of what crime do I stand
Condemned? I made the whole world weep
At the beauty of my land.

Boris Pasternak
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.

Boris Pasternak
Man is born to live, not to prepare for life. Life itself, the phenomenon of life, the gift of life, is so breathtakingly serious!

Boris Pasternak
Gregariousness is always the refuge of mediocrities, whether they swear by Solovyov or Kant or Marx. Only individuals seek the truth.

Boris Pasternak
The whole wide world is a cathedral; I stand inside, the air is calm, And from afar at times there reaches My ear the echo of a psalm.

Boris Pasternak