Nikolai Gogol - Dead Souls (1842)

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You can't imagine how stupid the whole world has grown nowadays. The things these scribblers write!

Nikolai Gogol
I saw that I'd get nowhere on the straight path, and that to go crookedly was straighter.

Nikolai Gogol
There are people who exist in this world not like entities but like the speckles or spots on something.

Nikolai Gogol
Apparently that does sometimes happen. Apparently even men like Chichikov are transformed into poets for a few moments in their lives: though the word "poet" would be an exaggeration here.

Nikolai Gogol
[Is it not that] you too, Russia, are speeding along like a spirited troika that nothing can overtake? … Everything on earth is flying past, and looking askance, other nations and states draw aside and make way.

Nikolai Gogol
This was not the old Chichikov. This was some wreckage of the old Chichikov. The inner state of his soul might be compared to a demolished building, which has been demolished so that from it a new one could be built; but the new one has not been started yet, because the infinitive plan has not yet come from the architect and the workers are left in perplexity.

Nikolai Gogol
Russia! Russia! I see you now, from my wondrous, beautiful past I behold you! How wretched, dispersed, and uncomfortable everything is about you...

Nikolai Gogol
They insist that an author should write in the strictest, purest and noblest language: in short, they expect the Russian language to drop from the clouds, already refined, and that it should come naturally to the lips, so that all they have to do is to open their mouth and stick out their tongue. It goes without saying, of course, that the feminine half of the human species is very wise; but it must be confessed that our respected readers are even wiser.

Nikolai Gogol
In the course of the reading he [Pushkin] became more and more melancholy and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading was over he uttered in a voice full of sorrow: "Goodness, how sad is our Russia!"

Nikolai Gogol
And for a long time yet, led by some wondrous power, I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes and to survey the surging immensity of life, to survey it through the laughter that all can see and through the tears unseen and unknown by anyone.

Nikolai Gogol
But wise is the man who disdains no character, but with searching glance explores him to the root and cause of all.

Nikolai Gogol
Two turtle doves will show thee Where my cold ashes lie And sadly murmuring tell thee How in tears I did die

Nikolai Gogol
As you pass from the tender years of youth into harsh and embittered manhood, make sure you take with you on your journey all the human emotions! Don't leave them on the road, for you will not pick them up afterwards!

Nikolai Gogol
There exists a kind of laughter which is worthy to be ranked with the higher lyric emotions and is infinitely different from the twitchings of a mean merrymaker.

Nikolai Gogol
Rus! Rus! I see you, from my lovely enchanted remoteness I see you: a country of dinginess, and bleakness and dispersal; no arrogant wonders of nature crowned by the arrogant wonders of art appear within you to delight or terrify the eyes... So what is the incomprehensible secret force driving me towards you? Why do I constantly hear the echo of your mournful song as it is carried from the sea through your entire expanse?... And since you are without end yourself, is it not within you that a boundless thought will be born?

Nikolai Gogol
However, nothing turned out as Tchitchikoff had intended.

Nikolai Gogol
Everything resembles the truth, everything can happen to a man.

Nikolai Gogol
The reason why Proshka wore such large boots can be explained at once: Plyushkin kept only one pair of boots for all of his servants, however numerous they were, and they always stood in the hall.

Nikolai Gogol
However stupid a fool's words may be, they are sometimes enough to confound an intelligent man.

Nikolai Gogol
Among a number of intelligent suggestions there was finally this one too, strange as it may seem, that Chichikov might be Napoleon in disguise...

Nikolai Gogol
A word aptly uttered or written cannot be cut away by an axe.

Nikolai Gogol
Russia, are you not speeding along like a fiery and matchless troika?

Nikolai Gogol
Why are you being so stingy?", Sobakevich demanded. "It's cheap at the price. A rogue would cheat you, sell you some worthless rubbish instead of souls, but mine are as juicy as ripe nuts, all picked—they are all either craftsmen or sturdy peasants.

Nikolai Gogol
And sank into the profound slumber which comes only to such fortunate folk as are troubled neither with mosquitoes nor fleas nor excessive activity of brain.

Nikolai Gogol
It is well-known that there are many faces in the world over the finishing of which nature did not take much trouble, did not employ any fine tools such as files, gimlets, and so on, but simply hacked them out with round strokes: one chop-a nose appears; another chop-lips appear; eyes are scooped out with a big drill; and she lets it go into the world rough-hewn, saing: "ALIVE!

Nikolai Gogol