Irina Ratushinskaya Quotes

11 Sourced Quotes

Russian literature saved my soul. When I was a young girl in school and I asked what is good and what is evil, no one in that corrupt system could show me.

Irina Ratushinskaya
In order to understand birds
You have to be a convict.
And if you share your bread –
It means your time is done.

Irina Ratushinskaya
Life, my friend, consists of more than just politics. And even politics aren't the main thing.

Irina Ratushinskaya
Love was like a rather terrifying game, or an illness for which there was no cure. It made men shoot themselves, and women take poison or throw themselves beneath trains. The more terribly it ended, the more beautiful love seemed.

Irina Ratushinskaya
I love life, I'm not some saintly hermit who's renounced all contact with the world.

Irina Ratushinskaya
What poor, funny creatures we are at the age of fourteen – so funny, and so afraid of seeming funny.

Irina Ratushinskaya
The frost fairly crackled, but the stars were unbelievably bright, and we felt so excited on this special night.

Irina Ratushinskaya
The sky was low and friendly: you could almost reach it with your ski stick! Light grey: clean but well washed. Like it or lump it, you won't get another. When the light began to fail, the sky became more daring, and started throwing out stripes of fantastic hue.

Irina Ratushinskaya
Put your trust in Nature – she knows best.

Irina Ratushinskaya
Of Soviet power:
Actually, our 'servants of the people' are more interested than anyone else in the privileges of rank and power: to hell with freedom and similar romantic considerations, they have had a taste of the perks of office, they want more, and will stop at nothing to get it.

Irina Ratushinskaya
Of Soviet Government:
But the exchange of thoughts and ideas is not silence, is it? The state considers that uncontrolled information must not be disseminated either at home or abroad. If you read uncensored work, then you have to be prepared to pay the price of imprisonment.

Irina Ratushinskaya