Ivan Turgenev Quotes

59 Sourced Quotes

Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death. Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.

Ivan Turgenev
I don't see why it's impossible to express everything that's on one's mind.

Ivan Turgenev
Go forward while you can, but if your strength fails you, sit down near the road and gaze without anger or envy at those who pass by. They don't have far to go, either.

Ivan Turgenev
So many memories and so little worth remembering, and in front of me — a long, long road without a goal...

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

Ivan Turgenev
Just try and set death aside. It sets you aside, and that's the end of it!

Ivan Turgenev
'There was a time,' Nikolai Artemyevitch resumed, 'when daughters did not allow themselves to look down on their parents—when the parental authority forced the disobedient to tremble. That time has passed, unhappily: so at least many persons imagine; but let me tell you, there are still laws which do not permit—do not permit—in fact there are still laws. I beg you to mark that: there are still laws——'

Ivan Turgenev
Time, as is well known, sometimes flies like a bird and sometimes crawls like a worm, but human beings are generally particularly happy when they don't notice whether it's passing quickly or slowly.

Ivan Turgenev
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.

Ivan Turgenev
Oh, gentle feelings, soft sounds, the goodness and the gradual stilling of a soul that has been moved; the melting happiness of the first tender, touching joys of love- where are you?

Ivan Turgenev
There is a sweetness in being the sole source, the autocratic
and irresponsible cause of the greatest joy and profoundest pain to another.

Ivan Turgenev
Art, if one employs this term in the broad sense that includes poetry within its realm, is an art of creation laden with ideals, located at the very core of the life of a people, defining the spiritual and moral shape of that life.

Ivan Turgenev
There are some moments in life, some feelings; one can only point to them and pass by.

Ivan Turgenev
What did I hope for, what did I expect, what rich future did I foresee, when the phantom of my first love, rising up for an instant, barely called forth one sigh, one mournful sentiment?

Ivan Turgenev
I've become convinced that every person should treat himself strictly and even rudely and distrustfully; it's difficult to tame the beast in oneself.

Ivan Turgenev
To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.

Ivan Turgenev
Don't force me into saying what I don't want to say, and what I won't say.

Ivan Turgenev
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.

Ivan Turgenev
"A good chemist is twenty times more useful as any poet," broke in Bazarov.

Ivan Turgenev
Go and try to disprove death. Death will disprove you, and that's all!

Ivan Turgenev
Nature is no temple, but a workshop, and man is the worker therein.

Ivan Turgenev
Oh youth, youth! You don't worry about anything; you seem to possess all the treasures of the universe--even sorrow gives you pleasure, even grief suits you.... And perhaps the whole secret of your charm lies not in your ability to do everything, but in your ability to think that you will do everything.

Ivan Turgenev
As for work, without it, without painstaking work, any writer or artist definitely remains a dilettante; there's no point in waiting for so-called blissful moments, for inspiration; if it comes, so much the better--but you keep working anyway.

Ivan Turgenev
A son is like a lopped off branch. As a falcon he comes when he wills and goes where he lists.

Ivan Turgenev
There's only one way for an individual to remain upright, not to fall to pieces, not to sink into the mire of self-oblivionorself-contempt. That's calmly to turn away from everything, to say, "Enough!" and, folding one's useless arms across one's empty breast, to retain the ultimate, the sole attainable virtue, the virtue of recognizing one's own insignificance.

Ivan Turgenev
People without firmness of character love to make up a fate for themselves; that relieves them of the necessity of having their own will and of taking responsibility for themselves.

Ivan Turgenev
Sternly, remorselessly, fate guides each of us; only at the beginning, when we're absorbed in details, in all sorts of nonsense, in ourselves, are we unaware of its harsh hand.

Ivan Turgenev
We Russians have assigned ourselves no other task in life but the cultivation of our own personalities, and when we're barely past childhood, we set to work to cultivate them, those unfortunate personalities.

Ivan Turgenev
The past was a dream wasn't it? And who ever remembers dreams?

Ivan Turgenev
One may speak about anything on earth with fire, with enthusiasm, with ecstasy, but one only speaks about oneself with avidity.

Ivan Turgenev